Skip to main content
Environmental Health Perspectives logoLink to Environmental Health Perspectives
. 1989 Nov;83:25–29. doi: 10.1289/ehp.898325

Groundwater pollution by nitrates from livestock wastes.

V M Goldberg 1
PMCID: PMC1474580  PMID: 2620669

Abstract

Utilization of wastes from livestock complexes for irrigation involves the danger of groundwater pollution by nitrates. In order to prevent and minimize pollution, it is necessary to apply geological-hydrogeological evidence and concepts to the situation of wastewater irrigation for the purposes of studying natural groundwater protectiveness and predicting changes in groundwater quality as a result of infiltrating wastes. The procedure of protectiveness evaluation and quality prediction is described. With groundwater pollution by nitrate nitrogen, the concentration of ammonium nitrogen noticeably increases. One of the reasons for this change is the process of denitrification due to changes in the hydrogeochemical conditions in a layer. At representative field sites, it is necessary to collect systematic stationary observations of the concentrations of nitrogenous compounds in groundwater and changes in redox conditions and temperature.

Full text

PDF
25

Articles from Environmental Health Perspectives are provided here courtesy of National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences

RESOURCES