A platform for research: civil engineering, architecture and urbanism
A platform for research: civil engineering, architecture and urbanism
Compost as a Soil Amendment for Water Quality Treatment Facilities
As Low Impact Development (LID) becomes a mainstream design approach for water quality and quantity management, the use of natural solutions such as bioinfiltration, rain gardens, biofiltration, ecoroofs, etc. will continue to increase. Sometimes viewed as soft solutions vs "hard" engineered solutions, specifications for soils and soil amendments are often vague and can frequently lead to early failure of BMP or the addition of pollutants from leaching or degradation of these materials. The objective of this rather simple paper is to alert the design community to a potential issue associated with the generic specification of composts with particular reference to composts being used as a soil amendment to designs which are part of a stormwater quality management plan or facility. Compost is used as a soil amendment to promote soil tilth, moisture retention, gas exchange, and as a nutrient source. Applications of compost as an amendment for a growth medium in stormwater applications such as green roofs, swales or infiltration facilities adds new challenges. Properties such as nutrient content, soil moisture holding capacity, metals uptake capacity, shrink/swell, product maturity, pathogen and weed seed content require a high level of scrutiny to insure the appropriate amendments are being used. There are many feedstock sources of compost and methods of composting which yield very different end products. Feed stock such as mixed yard debris, manure, fallen deciduous leaves offer substantial differences in nutrient content, presence of residual chemicals such as pesticides and herbicides, woody material and relative percent differences in cellulose or lignistic materials. Methods of processing also have a significant impact on the quality of the compost such as maturity, content of foreign materials, and biological contaminants such as pathogens, weed seed viability. This paper provides an overview of what designers should be looking for and considering for both design and construction specifications.
Compost as a Soil Amendment for Water Quality Treatment Facilities
As Low Impact Development (LID) becomes a mainstream design approach for water quality and quantity management, the use of natural solutions such as bioinfiltration, rain gardens, biofiltration, ecoroofs, etc. will continue to increase. Sometimes viewed as soft solutions vs "hard" engineered solutions, specifications for soils and soil amendments are often vague and can frequently lead to early failure of BMP or the addition of pollutants from leaching or degradation of these materials. The objective of this rather simple paper is to alert the design community to a potential issue associated with the generic specification of composts with particular reference to composts being used as a soil amendment to designs which are part of a stormwater quality management plan or facility. Compost is used as a soil amendment to promote soil tilth, moisture retention, gas exchange, and as a nutrient source. Applications of compost as an amendment for a growth medium in stormwater applications such as green roofs, swales or infiltration facilities adds new challenges. Properties such as nutrient content, soil moisture holding capacity, metals uptake capacity, shrink/swell, product maturity, pathogen and weed seed content require a high level of scrutiny to insure the appropriate amendments are being used. There are many feedstock sources of compost and methods of composting which yield very different end products. Feed stock such as mixed yard debris, manure, fallen deciduous leaves offer substantial differences in nutrient content, presence of residual chemicals such as pesticides and herbicides, woody material and relative percent differences in cellulose or lignistic materials. Methods of processing also have a significant impact on the quality of the compost such as maturity, content of foreign materials, and biological contaminants such as pathogens, weed seed viability. This paper provides an overview of what designers should be looking for and considering for both design and construction specifications.
Compost as a Soil Amendment for Water Quality Treatment Facilities
Lenhart, James H. (author)
Second National Low Impact Development Conference ; 2007 ; Wilmington, North Carolina, United States
Low Impact Development ; 212-219
2008-11-07
Conference paper
Electronic Resource
English
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