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Swine Lagoon Effluent Applied to ‘Coastal’ Bermudagrass: III. Irrigation and Rainfall Runoff¹

ABSTRACT

In moisture excess regions, irrigation of lagoon effluent to land is generally required to prevent water pollution from lagoon overflow. However, the land area receiving lagoon effluent then becomes a potential nonpoint source of pollution, especially if effluent is applied at high rates.

The quantity and quality of rainfall runoff were determined for 6 yr from plots of ‘Coastal’ bermudagrass [Cynodon dactylon (L.) Pers.] on typical Coastal Plains soils that received weekly irrigations of swine (Sus scrofa domesticus) lagoon effluent during the growing season. Three application rates supplied an average of 335, 670, and 1340 kg N ha^–1 yr^–1; 90, 180, and 360 kg P ha^–1 yr^–1; and 200, 400, and 800 kg Cl^– ha^–1 yr^–1.

The soil-crop characteristics promoted high infiltration of rainfall and the plots were not irrigated during the nongrowing season, when runoff is usually highest. Thus, both runoff volume and nutrient mass transport were low, but nutrient concentrations were relatively high compared with typical concentrations in cropland runoff. Average annual arithmetic mean concentrations ranged from 7 to 13 mg L^–1 for total N and from 3 to 6 mg L^–1 for total P for the three treatments. Treatment differences were usually significant for the high-rate treatment, but not significant between the low- and medium-rate treatments. For this soil-crop system, NO₃^–-N movement to groundwater and P accumulation in the soil for the high- and medium-rate treatments would likely be of more concern than the pollution of rainfall runoff.

Key Words: nonpoint-source pollution • nitrogen • phosphorus • land application • wastewater irrigation • water quality

¹ Paper no. 8993 of the Journal Series of the North Carolina Agric. Res. Service, Raleigh, NC. This study was partially funded by the USEPA, Robert S. Kerr Environ. Res. Lab., Ada, OK.

The use of trade names in this publication does not imply endorsement by the North Carolina Agricultural Research Service of the products named nor criticism of similar ones not mentioned.

² Associate professor, Dep. of Biological and Agric. Eng.; professor, Dep. of Chem. Eng.; extension specialist, Dep. of Biological and Agric. Eng.; associate professor, Soil Sci. Dep.; professor, Dep. of Crop Sci., USDA-ARS; and professor, Soil Sci. Dep., North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC 27695.

Received for publication October 31, 1983.

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