Hydraulic properties of Toowoomba soils for laundry water reuse

Abstract

The main purpose of this project was to evaluate the potential effects of laundry water irrigation of residential lawns and gardens on the soil hydraulic properties. The project aimed to experimentally determine the soil properties such as pH, EC, soil water retention and saturated hydraulic conductivity using a typical soil in the Toowoomba city. A set of three treatments were used for various experiments. Undisturbed soil cores (referred to as field cores) were used as a treatment to simulate the application of laundry water on well established gardens of suburban backyards. Furthermore, disturbed soil cores referred to as loose and compacted treatments were used to simulate the application of laundry water on recently prepared garden beds and somewhat older garden beds (with some settlement), respectively. Experiments involved two leaching scenarios in which laundry water was applied to initially moist (unsaturated) soils and to wet (saturated) soils.