Assesing the effect of an olive mill wastewater evaporation pond in Sousse, Tunisia |
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| Authors: | Rakia S’habou Moncef Zairi Amjed Kallel Abdelwaheb Aydi and Hamed Ben Dhia |
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| Institution: | (1) Laboratoire Eau, Energie et Environnement, Ecole Nationale d’Ingénieurs de Sfax, BP: 1173, 3038 Sfax, Tunisia |
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| Abstract: | Olive oil is a typical and valuable agro-industrial product in Mediterranean countries. In Tunisia, olive mill wastewaters
(OMW) reach an amount of about 1,000,000 t year−1 and constitute a serious organic pollution risk because of the high chemical oxygen demand values and the presence of phytotoxic
and antibacterial polyphenols. OMW have been generally stored in pond sites to be eliminated by natural evaporation or valorised
by spreading on cultivated soils or by composting. Many researches on the interactions of OMW with soils at laboratory scale
(columns) have been reported, but less attention have been paid to the effect of OMW on soils at field scale. The aim of this
work is to investigate an area used for >15 years as an uncontrolled OMW pond site. The transformations of soil properties
and groundwater occurring during OMW storage were characterised by the pH, phenolic contents, electrical conductivity (EC),
moisture content and organic contents. The soil samples were taken from two borings and compared to those of a control one
located near the pond site. Groundwater samples were taken on the accessible and nearest water wells to the evaporation ponds.
The permeable silty and sandy layers in the site support the infiltration of OMW near the evaporation ponds. This infiltration
has reached a depth of 6 m at a distance of almost 50 m laterally. The results show that the OMW infiltration in the subsoil
has affected the pH, EC, organic content, phenolic compounds and the moisture. |
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| Keywords: | Olive mill wastewater Evaporation pond Contamination Soil Groundwater |
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