Authors: Bosak Zurowsky, V., A. VanderZaag, R. Gordon, C. Kinsley, A. Crolla
Identifier: CSBE15097
Download file: https://library.csbe-scgab.ca/docs/meetings/2015/CSBE15097.pdf
Published in: CSBE-SCGAB Technical Conferences » AGM Edmonton 2015

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Description: Vast quantities of water are used every year for irrigation, however, little information is available on other agricultural uses. There is a growing demand for farmers to process their own crops on-farm, creating large quantities of wastewater. Governmental discharge regulations and the lack of other guidance for dealing with disposing of this wastewater leave farmers with either expensive or poor management. This study looks at the water used by an on-farm potato storage facility for transporting/fluming and washing potatoes, and the treatment through its adjacent treatment system over two years. A comparison between two years found that simple conservation strategies decreased water consumption by 40%, including installing flow restrictors, increasing dry scrubbing, and storage workers' water conservation consciousness. The amount of water used for processing potatoes was found to be 16.6L/cwt potatoes and 1829m3 y-1 in year 1 and 8.68L cwt-1 and 2292m3 y-1 in year 2. The raw wash-water was found to have concentrations of 1121 and 558 mg L-1 BOD5, 5234 and 3600 mg L-1 TSS, 222 and 136 mg L-1 TN, 23.4 and 42.6 mg L-1 TP in Y1 and Y2, respectively. The treatment system had mass removals of 95 and 99 % of BOD5, 98 and 99 % TSS, 77 and 99 % TN, 77 and 99 % TP in Y1 and Y2, respectively. These removals, however, were not enough to create effluent to pass governmental guidelines. Further research is necessary to characterize wash-water from other Ontario potato farms and explore wash-water treatment to aid the government in creating simple management protocols and inexpensive, standardized treatment designs for on-farm wash-water management.

Keywords: Potato wash-water, wastewater treatment, water usage, conservation, discharge guidelines
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Citation: Bosak Zurowsky, V., A. VanderZaag, R. Gordon, C. Kinsley, A. Crolla. 2015. On-farm management of potato wash-water and performance of land-based treatment system. CSBE/SCGAB 2015 Annual Conference, Edmonton, AB, 5-8 July 2015.
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Date: 2015-07-05
Technical field: Soil and Water Systems Engineering
Conference name: CSBE/SCGAB 2015 Annual Conference, Edmonton, AB, 5-8 July 2015.
Session name: Water Management I - Agricultural Applications

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Type: Text.Article
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Publication type: Technical conference
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Coverage: Canada
Language 1: en
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Rights: Canadian Society for Bioengineering
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