Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Effects of clay in a sandy soil on saturated/unsaturated pore water flow and dissolved chloride transport from road salt applications

  • Research Article
  • Published:
Environmental Science and Pollution Research Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Saturated/unsaturated pore water flow induced by rainwater infiltration in a soil column composed of a mixture of Toyoura sand and a small amount of clay (kaolin minerals) and the rinsing rate (mass transfer) of dissolved NaCl accumulated in the pore system from previous road salt application were investigated by experiments and simulations. Experiments were conducted with variable kaolin minerals mass contents (mixing ratios) in the soil columns. Measured saturated hydraulic conductivity (Ks) diminished with increased clay contents, i.e., Ks=0.00771, 0.00560, 0.00536, 0.00519, and 0.00314 cm s−1, for clay contents = 0.2, 0.5, 1, 2, and 5%, respectively. Experimental NaCl concentrations in the effluent from the bottom of the soil columns were about constant for times t ≈ 800, 1200, 1300, 1400, and 3400 s from the beginning of a rinsing experiment for the clay contents = 0.2, 0.5, 1, 2, and 5%, respectively. These NaCl concentrations then decreased with time quickly, and finally, approached zero. The presented model can reproduce experimental time variations of NaCl concentration in the effluent from the soil column reliably. Simulated salt mass left in the soil column with time also matches the experimental results for the clay contents = 0.2 and 0.5%. An inconsistency between simulated and experimental salt mass left in the soil columns becomes more significant as the clay content increases. These results suggest that the soil–water retention curve for the pure Toyoura sand can be applied to the soil column composed of kaolin minerals/Toyoura sand mixture when the clay content is small, i.e., less than 1%. Prediction of rinsing process becomes more difficult with increased clay content. However, the time required to remove saline water from the soil column to less than 1% of its initial value simulated by the model agrees closely with experimental results of 1000, 1500, 1700, 2100, and 5400 s, respectively.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1
Fig. 2
Fig. 3
Fig. 4
Fig. 5
Fig. 6
Fig. 7
Fig. 8

Similar content being viewed by others

Data availability

Not applicable

Abbreviations

C :

Concentration of salt (g cm−3)

D yy :

Dispersion coefficient (cm2 s−1)

g :

Gravitational acceleration (9.8 ms−2)

K e :

Effective hydraulic conductivity (cm s−1)

K s :

Saturated hydraulic conductivity (cm s−1)

h :

Piezometric head (cm)

k :

Pore activity parameter

k ∞ :

The terminal value of k

l :

The constant (= 0.5)

L :

Soil depth (cm)

m :

The constant

n :

The constant

p :

Pressure (N m−2)

t :

Time (h)

v :

Velocity of pore water flow (cm s−1)

y :

Vertical coordinate (cm)

α :

The constant

θ :

Water content

θ r :

Residual water content

θ s :

Water content at saturation

ρ :

Fluid (water) density (g cm−3)

Ψ :

Pressure head (suction)

References

  • Andrews WJ, Stark JR, Fong AL, Fallon JD (2005) Water quality assessment of part of the Upper Mississippi River Basin, Minnesota and Wisconsin: Water quality along a flow system in the Twin Cities metropolitan area, Minnesota 1997 – 98. U.S. Geol. Survey, Scientific Investigations Report 2005–5120.

  • Baldocchi DD, Xu L, Kiang N (2004) How plant functional-type, weather, seasonal drought, and soil physical properties alter water and energy fluxes of an oak-grass savanna and an annual grassland. Agric. Forest. Meteorol. 123:13–39

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Boudreau BP, Joergensen BB (2001) The benthic boundary layer: transport processes and biogeochemistry. Oxford University Press, UK

    Google Scholar 

  • Brooks RH, Corey AT (1964) Hydraulic properties of porous media: Hydrology Papers, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, Colorado

  • Chapra SC, Canale RP (1988) Numerical methods for engineers. McGraw-Hill, New York, NY

    Google Scholar 

  • Coduto DP (2001) Foundation Design: Principles and Practices, 2nd Ed., Prentice Hall, Upper Saddle River

  • Cortis C, Montaldo N (2013) A new ecohydrological model based on Richard equation. Procedia Environmental Sciences 19:67–76

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Environment Canada Health Canada (1999) Canadian Environment Protection Act (CEPA) 1999, Priority substances list assessment report - road salt. Ottawa, Canada

    Google Scholar 

  • Fong A (2000) Water-quality assessment of part of the Upper Mississippi River Basin, Minnesota and Wisconsin: Ground-water quality in three different land-use areas 1996 – 1998. U.S. Geol. Survey, Water Resources Investigations Report 2000–4131

  • Gillis PL (2011) Assessing the toxicity of sodium chloride to the glochidia of freshwater mussels: implications for salinization of surface waters. Environmental Pollution 159:1702–1708

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Godwin KS, Hafner SD, Buff MF (2003) Long-term trends in sodium and chloride in the Mohawk River, New York: the effect of fifty years of road-salt application. Environmental Pollution 124:273–281. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0269-7491(02)00481-5

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Higashino M, Stefan HG (2019) Rinsing of saline water after frequent road salt application from an unsaturated sandy soil by rainwater infiltration: Significance of rainfall duration, Journal of Irrigation and drainage engineering, ASCE 145:5. https://doi.org/10.1061/(ASCE)IR.1943-4774.0001385

  • Higashino M, Erickson AJ, Toledo-Cossu FL, Beauvais, Stefan HG (2017) Rinsing of saline water from road salt is a sandy soil by infiltrating rainfall: experiments, simulations, and implications. Water, Air, and Soil Pollution 228:80. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11270-017-3256-1

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Higashino M, Stefan HG, Aso D (2019) Removal of saline water due to road salt applications from columns of two types of sand by rainwater infiltration: laboratory experiments and model simulations. Water, Air, and Soil Pollution 230:305. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11270-019-4337-0

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Japan Meteorological Agency (2016) Climate change monitoring report 703:2015

    Google Scholar 

  • Jones PH, Jeffrey BA (1992) Environmental impact of road salting. In: D’Itri FM (ed) Chemical deicers and the environment. Lewis, Boca Raton, Florida, pp 1–91

    Google Scholar 

  • Kamei T, Enomoto M (1996) Swelling characteristics of compacted kaolin due to wetting, Proceedings of Japan society of Civil Engineer 535, (34):57–64 (in Japanese). https://doi.org/10.2208/jscej.1996.535_57

  • Kaushal SS, Groffman PM, Likens GE, Belt KT, Stack WP, Kelly VR, Band LE, Fisher GT (2005) Increased salinization of fresh water in the northeastern United Stated. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 102(13):517–13,520. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.0506414102

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Kelly VR, Lovett GM, Weathers KC, Findlay SEG, Strayer DL, Burns DJ, Liken GE (2008) Long-term sodium chloride retention in a rural watershed: legacy effects of road salt on stream water concentration. Environ. Sci. Technol. 42:410–415. https://doi.org/10.1021/es071391l

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Lofgren S (2001) The chemical effects of deicing salt on soil and stream water of five catchments in southeast Sweden. Water Air and Soil Pollution 130:863–868. https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1013895215558.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lord BN (1989) Program to reduce deicing chemical use. In: Roesner LA, Urbonas B, Sonnen MB (eds) Design of urban runoff quality controls. Proceedings Engineering Foundation Conference. ASCE, New York, NY, pp 421–435

    Google Scholar 

  • Marsalek J (2003) Road salts in urban stormwater: an emerging issue in stormwater management in cold climates. Water Sci Technol 48:61–70

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Montaldo N, Rondena R, Albertson JD, Mancini M (2005) Modeling of vegetation dynamics for ecohydrologic studies of water-limited ecosystem. Water Resour Res 41(10):W10416. https://doi.org/10.1029/2005WR004094

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Mualem Y (1976) A new model for predicting the hydraulic conductivity of unsaturated porous media. Water Resources Research 12:513–522

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Novotny V, Smith DW, Kuemmel DA, Mastriano J, Bartosova A (1999) Urban and highway snowmelt: minimizing the impact on receiving water, Rep. Pr. 94-IRM-2, Water Environ. In: Research Found. VA, Alexandria

    Google Scholar 

  • Ramakrishna DM, Viraraghocan T (2005) Environmental impact of chemical deicers - a review. Water Air Soil Pollut 166:49–63

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Richards LA (1931) Capillary condition of liquids through porous mediums. Physics 1(5):318–333

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Sako K, Danjo T, Fukagawa R, Bui HH (2011a) Measurement of pore-water and pore-air pressure in unsaturated soil,Proc. of the 5th Asia-Pacific Conference on Unsaturated Soils, pp. 443–448.

  • Sako K, Danjo T, Bui HH, Fukagawa R (2011b) Behavior of pore-water and pore-air pressure in unsaturated soil using laboratory soil tank experiments, The 2nd Japan-Korea Joint Workshop on Unsaturated Soils and Ground, JW-Fukuoka, pp. 31–48

  • Šimůnek J, van Genuchten MT, Šejna M (2005) The Hydrus-1D software package for simulating the one-dimensional movement of water, heat, and multiple solutes in variably-saturated media. Version 3.0, Department of Environmental Sciences, University of California Riverside, Riverside, California, pp. 270

  • Šimůnek J, Šejna M, Saito H, Sakai M, van Genuchten MT (2013) The Hydrus-1D Software Package for Simulating the Movement of Water, Heat, and Multiple Solutes in Variably Saturated Media, Version 4.17, HYDRUS Software Series 3, Department of Environmental Sciences, University of California Riverside, Riverside, California, pp. 342

  • Thunquist EL (2004) Regional increase of mean annual chloride concentration in water due to the application of deicing salt. Sci Total Environment 325:29–37. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2003.11.020

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • van Genuchten MT (1980) A closed-form equation for predicting the hydraulic conductivity of unsaturated soils. Soil Sci Soc Am J 44:892–898

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • van Genuchten MT, Leij FJ, Yates SR (1991) The RETC code for quantifying the hydraulic functions of unsaturated soils, Report No. EPA/600/2-91/065, R.S. Kerr Environmental Research Laboratory. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Ada, OK

    Google Scholar 

  • Williams CA, Albertson JD (2004) Soil moisture controls on canopy-scale water and carbon fluxes in an African savanna. Water Resour Res 40(9):W09302

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Willmert HM, Osso Jr JD, Twiss MR, Langen TA (2018) Winter road management effects on roadside soil and vegetation along a mountain pass in the Adirondack Park, New York, USA. Journal of Environmental Management, 225, pp. 215–223

Download references

Funding

This work was supported by the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (No. 18K04376). The authors are grateful to this organization for the support.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Dept. of Civil and Environmental Engineering, National Institute of Technology, Oita College, 1666 Maki, Oita, 870-0152, Japan

    Makoto Higashino

  2. Department of Molecular and Material Sciences, Interdisciplinary Graduate School of Engineering Sciences, Kyushu University, 6-1 Kasuga-Park, Fukuoka, 816-8580, Japan

    Daiki Aso

  3. Dept. of Civil, Environmental and Geo-Engineering and St. Anthony Falls Laboratory, Univ. of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN, 55414, USA

    Heinz G. Stefan

Authors
  1. Makoto Higashino
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Daiki Aso
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Heinz G. Stefan
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Contributions

Basic idea was proposed by MH and HS. Experiments were conducted by DA and MH. The model was built by MH and HS. Simulations and comparisons were made by MH and DA. MH was a major contributor in writing the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Makoto Higashino.

Ethics declarations

Ethics approval and consent to participate

Not applicable

Consent for publication

Not applicable

Competing interests

The authors declare that they have no competing interests.

Additional information

Responsible editor: Kitae Baek

Publisher’s note

Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Higashino, M., Aso, D. & Stefan, H.G. Effects of clay in a sandy soil on saturated/unsaturated pore water flow and dissolved chloride transport from road salt applications. Environ Sci Pollut Res 28, 22693–22704 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-020-11730-y

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-020-11730-y

Keywords

Search

Navigation