Major
Environmental Science
Anticipated Graduation Year
2023
Access Type
Open Access
Abstract
Road salt pollution in the Great Lakes region has been steadily increasing in aquatic systems due to urban sprawl and road safety concerns. Excessive road salt (measured as Cl- mg/L) impacts water quality adjacent to roadside ecosystems by increasing electro- conductivity and altering soil solution osmotic gradients, thus rendering habitats inhospitable for native plants and animals. To date, few mitigation strategies exist to manage salinity in freshwater streams, lakes, and wetlands. Biochar, the by-product of heating organic waste in low oxygen environments, has gained attention as a soil amendment that improves terrestrial systems with degraded agricultural and saline soils. Biochar research indicates highly porous surfaces with high cation exchange capacity that can effectively buffer pH and improve nutrient retention. In aquatic systems with highly saline water infiltration, biochar’s role as a salt adsorption filter has not been assessed. The ISGS General Water Quality Standard for surface waters is 500mg Cl- /L. During spring run-off, roadside ditches in IL have measure peak chloride values at 6,000mg Cl- /liter. In this exploratory study, I investigated biochar’s capacity to filter Na+ & Cl- ions from a saline solution at peak run-off collected over 12L.
Community Partners
Society of Wetland Scientists
Faculty Mentors & Instructors
Brian Ohsowski, Shane Lishawa, Sam Schurkamp
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 License.
Assessing Biochar’s Potential to Curb Salt Pollution in Freshwater Systems
Road salt pollution in the Great Lakes region has been steadily increasing in aquatic systems due to urban sprawl and road safety concerns. Excessive road salt (measured as Cl- mg/L) impacts water quality adjacent to roadside ecosystems by increasing electro- conductivity and altering soil solution osmotic gradients, thus rendering habitats inhospitable for native plants and animals. To date, few mitigation strategies exist to manage salinity in freshwater streams, lakes, and wetlands. Biochar, the by-product of heating organic waste in low oxygen environments, has gained attention as a soil amendment that improves terrestrial systems with degraded agricultural and saline soils. Biochar research indicates highly porous surfaces with high cation exchange capacity that can effectively buffer pH and improve nutrient retention. In aquatic systems with highly saline water infiltration, biochar’s role as a salt adsorption filter has not been assessed. The ISGS General Water Quality Standard for surface waters is 500mg Cl- /L. During spring run-off, roadside ditches in IL have measure peak chloride values at 6,000mg Cl- /liter. In this exploratory study, I investigated biochar’s capacity to filter Na+ & Cl- ions from a saline solution at peak run-off collected over 12L.