The utilization of treated municipal wastewater for crop production in Buckeye, Arizona

Abstract

Production of selected crops irrigated with treated municipal wastewater and pump water mixtures and with pump water alone was investigated. Wheat and barley irrigated with wastewater-pump water mixtures produced higher grain yields than did wheat and barley irrigated only with pump water. Alfalfa hay yields were higher for fields irrigated with wastewater-pump water mixtures than for fields irrigated with pump water alone. No differences were noted between irrigation treatments for safflower seed yields or for lint cotton yields. The pump water alone irrigated fields were fertilized by grower applications and by nutrients in the irrigation water with more nitrogen but less phosphorus than the wastewater-pump water mixture irrigated fields, Soils irrigated with wastewater-pump water mixtures had higher levels of extractable phosphorus than did soils irrigated with pump water alone. Pump water had higher concentrations of soluble salts and nitrate-nitrogen than did the wastewater-pump water mixtures; however, the wastewater-pump water mixtures contained higher levels of phosphorus than did pump water. Treated municipal wastewater can be utilized effectively as a source of plant nutrients and irrigation water in the commercial production of field crops in the southwestern United States.