Environmental Impacts of the Sewage Water Site on the Neighboring Area in Buraydah City

A dumping site for Buraydah city sewage water, locatedeast of the city, was chosen for this study. The site soil texture issandy, that is high permeable for water and solute. For evaluation ofthis site contamination effects on the neighbor areas, 169 water sampleswere collected from swamps, shallow wells and deep wells.Chemical (pH, total soluble solutes (T.S.S.), chloride (Cl) and nitrateconcentrations) and microbiological (Escherichia coli and En-terobacteria aeruginosa) characteristics of the water samples wereevaluated. Also, soil samples were collected for analysis. The concentrationsof Cl and T.S.S. in the swamps were first increased as thedistance from the site increased then decreased with further distanceincreases. The effective distance of moving the sewage water from thesite was approximately 3.3 km. Cl and T.S.S. decreased as the distancefrom site increased in the shallow wells. T.S.S. and Cl distributionsindicated that the wastewater site causes pollution for theneighbor area. The concentration of Cl and T.S.S. in the deep wells indicatedno drastic changes. Escherichia coli were found in someswamps and the shallow wells. The Escherichia coli may indicate acontamination from septic tanks.The texture of the collected soil samples was sandy but its percentageof particle sizes was different. The T.S.S. and Cl concentrationsin site sewage water were 21952.0 and 16140 ppm, respectively.This water was applied at the top of a soil column using a 0.015 mconstant pressure head. The effluent of each column was collected periodically,and the concentration of T.S.S. in the effluent was measured.The concentration distribution of T.S.S. in the effluent was described.It is assumed that the predominant anion was Cl. Thedispersion coefficient for the chloride (D) and the mean pore water velocity (v) were calculated using the CXTFIT program. Also, the saturatedhydraulic conductivity was calculated from the effluent data.The D ranged between 0.072 to 0.209 m2/day for the soil (92.4%sand) and soil (97.1% sand), respectively. The respective variations inv were 1.113 and 10.025 m/day. It is recommended to select a dumpingsite containing low percentage of sand particles, hence, reducingthe migration of sewage water constitutents toward the water resourcesand land resources.