| With water becoming a scarce commodity in semi-arid and arid agricultural regions, supplementing existing supplies is of great benefit. Coalbed natural gas production has led to large amounts of variable quality water being made available. In order to assess how produced water from these wells will affect agricultural production, a two year study was conducted. Water from both CBNG wells and municipal sources was used to elucidate these effects on six different crop species. Soil for both the container study and field trial was analyzed for pH, EC, macro and micro nutrients, soluble ions, ESP, and SAR. Plant tissue for the field trial was analyzed for macro and micro nutrients. Essential oils and total aboveground biomass yield in both experiments were analyzed for compositional changes and yield. Results indicate that utilization of untreated produced water for irrigation may have deleterious effects on soils and plants. |
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