The objective of this study was to monitor and assess environmental impacts of reclaimed
wastewater (RW), used for irrigation of vegetable crops, on soil, crop quality and irrigation
equipment. During 2013, effluents of a horizontal sub-surface flow constructed treatment
wetland (TW) system, used for tertiary treatment of sanitary wastewater from a small rural
municipality located in Eastern Sicily (Italy), were reused by micro-irrigation techniques to
irrigate vegetable crops. Monitoring programs, based on in situ and laboratory analyses were
performed for assessing possible adverse effects on water-soil-plant systems caused by reclaimed wastewater reuse. In particular, experimental results evidenced that Escherichia coli content
found in RW would not present a risk for rotavirus infection following WHO (2006) standards.
Irrigated soil was characterized by a certain persistence of microbial contamination and among
the studied vegetable crops, lettuce responds better, than zucchini and eggplants, to the irrigation
with low quality water, evidencing a bettering of nutraceutical properties and production
parameters. |
