Assessment of change in soil water content properties irrigated with industrial sugar beet wastewater

In this research the effect of industrial sugar beet wastewater has been assessed on the soil water content properties in summer 2005. The evaluated parameters were the soil water content points such as Saturation Percent (SP), Field Capacity (FC), Permanent Wilting Point (PWP), gravitational water and Total Available Water (TAW). The pilot design was fully randomized with three replications and three treatments. The three treatments were: 1-normal water, 2-industrial sugar beet wastewater (50%) and normal water (50%) and 3-sugar beet wastewater (100%). The experiments have been carried out in the field, in 21 columns with the diameter 110 mm and the height of 400 mm. The soil was irrigated using surface irrigation method for 12 events with a constant volume and period. Based on the result, the SP, FC and PWP initial value were 46.5, 35 and 15%, respectively for all the treatments. At the end of the period, the values changed to 47, 36.6 and 17.5% for T2. They are also increased significantly to 48.5, 37 and 18.7% for T3 at the end of the period. The increasing of soil Organic Matter (OM) during the period is expected to be the main factor for this change. The result shows that although the FC and PWP parameters are increased during the period but TAW decreased significantly from the 20 to 18.5%. The other effects of wastewater on soil and leached water quality should be evaluated too.