Degradation and remediation of soils polluted with oil-field wastewater

Abstract

The changes in the properties of gray forest soils and leached chernozems under the impact of contamination with highly saline oil-field wastewater were studied in a model experiment. It was shown that the soil contamination results in the development of technogenic salinization and alkalization leading to worsening of the major soil properties. The salinization of the soils with oil-field wastewater transformed the soil exchange complex: the cation exchange capacity decreased, and the exchangeable sodium percentage increased to up to 25% of the CEC upon the wastewater infiltration and up to 60% of the CEC upon the continuous soil saturation with the wastewater independently of the soil type. The content of exchangeable magnesium also increased due to the phenomenon of super-equivalent exchange. Despite the saturation of the soil adsorption complex with sodium, no development of the soil alkalization took place in the presence of the high concentration of soluble salts. However, the soil alkalization was observed upon the soil washing from soluble salts. The gypsum application to the washed soils lowered the exchangeable sodium concentration to acceptable values and normalized the soil reaction. The gypsum application without the preliminary washing of the soils from soluble salts was of low efficiency; even after six months, the content of exchangeable sodium remained very high. The subsequent soil washing resulted in the removal of the soluble salts but did not affect the degree of the soil alkalization.