Comparison of Pollutant Load Discharge Characteristics with Chemical Fertilizer and Organic Compost Applications

화학비료와 유기비료 시비후 오염배출 농도 특성 비교

Organic compost has been widely applied to the cropland because it has been thought as Environmentally Sound Agriculture (ESA) in Korea. However, many field researches have been done to investigate water quality impacts of organic compost uses, compared to those from chemical fertilizer applications. It was found that pollutant loads from organic compost applied croplands were higher than those from chemical fertilizer applied areas. However, there might be other unknown factors affecting the results since the experiments were performed at the outside fields. In this study, indoor rainfall experiments using the Norton rainfall simulator systems were done to minimize and exclude errors from unknown sources by controlling soil characteristics, rainfall amount, rainfall intensity, and fertilizer treatments. The amounts of surface runoff and groundwater percolated from 10% and 20% slope plots were measured and water quality samples were collected and analyzed for BOD, COD, and T-P. Flow weighted mean concentration (FWMC) values were computed to assess effects of different fertilizer treatments. It was found that average concentration values of BOD were 5.57 mg/L from chemical fertilizer treated plot and 8.08 mg/L from organic compost treated plots. For 10% slope, FWMC BOD values from organic compost treated plots were higher by 29.9% than those from chemical fertilizer treated plots. For 20% slope, FWMC BOD values from organic plots were higher by 38.8% than those from chemical fertilizer plots. FWMC BOD values for 20% slope plots were higher than those from those for 10% slope plots. The similar trends were found for COD and T-P. In Korea, excessive use of organic compost has caused extremely high levels of organic matter contents at the cropland. Organic compost are usually applied to the cropland to improve soil quality, while chemical fertilizer is applied to help crop growth. Since organic compost is very slow in releasing its nutrients to the soil, farmers usually apply excessive organic compost for immediate effects and maximum crop yields, which has been causing soil and water quality degradations. Therefore, thorough investigations for better nutrient management plans are needed to develop the ESA strategy in Korea.