Studying the Effects of Industrial Waste Water on Chemical and Physical Properties of Sandy Soil

Abstract

The present work highlights on the impact of liquid industrial waste on the chemical and physical properties of sandy soil obtained from Al-Najaf governorate which is located to the south west of Iraq. The soil sample is classified as sandy soil according to unified soil classification system (USCS). The contaminant is liquid industrial waste obtained from Al-Musayyib thermal power plant which is disposed as side product. The soil samples are synthetically contaminated with four percentages 10, 20, 40 and 100 % by the weight of distilled water used in soaking process which is continued for 30 days. The results proved that the contaminant solution has considerably effects on some properties of soil and a slight effects on the others. Increasing the percentages of contaminant, led to a slight increase in both the liquid limit and particle size and significant increase in the optimum moisture content, while there was slight decrease in the specific gravity and maximum dry density. Also, there was considerable changes in the chemical composition of soil samples.