Environmental impact of biosolids land application

Chapter 6
THE ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT
OF BIOSOLIDS' LAND APPLICATION
Silvana Irene Torri1,*
and Marisol Natalia Cabrera2
1
Facultad de Agronomía, Universidad de Buenos Aires,
Ciudad Autónoma de Buenos Aires, Argentina
2
Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales, Universidad de Buenos Aires,
Ciudad Autónoma de Buenos Aires, Argentina
ABSTRACT
Increasing urbanization and industrialization have resulted in a dramatic increase in
the volume of wastes generated worldwide. The treatment of wastewater results in large
amounts of municipal treated sewage sludge, or biosolids. Sludge has traditionally been
disposed through ocean-dumping, landfilling, or incineration. But due to increasingly
stringent environmental regulations, these disposal methods are being phased out. With
increasing populations worldwide, biosolids production is likely to continue to increase in
a near future. The safe disposal of biosolids is a major environmental challenge. Land
application of biosolids is largely considered the best option of disposal because it offers
the possibility of recycling plant nutrients, provides organic material, improves soil’s
chemical and physical properties and enhances crop yields. The use of biosolids is
increasingly being considered as a feasible and technical solution to reverse degraded and
less productive lands, and to promote the reestablishment of a vegetative cover. However,
benefits have to be carefully weighed against potential deleterious effects related to non-
point source pollution. Environmental risks include increased potentially trace elements
(PTE) input, leaching of nitrogen (N) in subsurface drainage and groundwater,
contamination of surface water with soluble and particulate phosphorus (P), vector
attraction, and reduced air quality by emission of volatile organic compounds, among
others. Most countries regulate concentrations of PTE and pathogens in biosolids and
mandate maximum permissible loading rates into soil to manage contaminants.
Nevertheless, concerns associated with adverse environmental effects due to land
application of biosolids continue. This chapter investigates the environmental impact of
biosolids land application related to soil properties.
*
torri@agro.uba.ar.

Silvana Irene Torri and Marisol Natalia Cabrera2
INTRODUCTION
Increasing urbanization and industrialization have resulted in a dramatic increase in the
volume of wastes generated worldwide. Sewage sludge results from the accumulation of
solids from chemical coagulation, flocculation and sedimentation during wastewater
treatment. The term sludge is nowadays used to refer to untreated primary and secondary
organic solids. In the last decades, the production of sewage sludge has worldwide increased.
Past disposal practices commonly included land filling or ocean dumping, but due to
increasingly stringent environmental regulations, these disposal methods are being phased
out. On the other hand, people are concerned about environmental protection more than ever
and relative legislation and regulation are becoming more critical. Incineration is a feasible
means of reducing sewage sludge’s volume and converting this waste in a practically inert,
odorless and sterile ash. Technologies have been developed to make use of the resulting ash,
by replacing part of the raw material in brick manufacturing (Hara, Mino 2008; Liew et al.,
2004), cement production (Tomita et al., 2006) and glazed tiles (Lin et al., 2005), among
others. However, sludge contains organic carbon together with macro and micronutrients, and
the use of sludge in the manufacture of construction materials limits the potential recycling of
these elements.
The term biosolids was officially recognized in 1991 by the Water Environment
Federation (WEF), and refers to the organic solids that have received a biological stabilization
treatment at a municipal wastewater treatment plant, to make a distinction from other types of
sludges. To be considered biosolids, sewage sludge has to be treated and stabilized to reduce
odor, pathogen content and vector attraction. Biosolids treatment may include one or a
combination of i) biological processes (anaerobic/aerobic digestion, composting), ii) chemical
processes (lime treatment), and/or iii) physical processes (pasteurization, thermal hydrolysis,
thermal drying, air/solar drying). Depending on the extent of pathogen removal achieved,
biosolids are usually classified as biosolids ‘Class A’ or biosolids ‘Class B’.
In the last years, attention has shifted to the beneficial use of biosolids. Land application
of biosolids is an economically attractive management strategy, for it contains a high
concentration of organic matter, which can ameliorate soil quality. This option also ensures
that major biosolids-borne plant nutrients (i.e., nitrogen. phosphorus, potassium, sulphur,
copper, zinc) are recycled (EC, 2008). Benefits also extend to reduction in soil erosion, land
restoration and enrichment of forestry land. However, a variety of undesired compounds may
also be found in biosolids, which could have adverse effects on the environment such as
potentially toxic trace elements (PTE) accumulation, transfer of these contaminants through
the food chain or potential for surface water/groundwater contamination, among others
(Sidhu, Toze 2009; Stietiya, Wang 2011). Therefore, the benefits from biosolids land
application have to be carefully weighed against its potential deleterious effects. The purpose
of this chapter is to review the available information of biosolids land application on soil
fertility and its possible effects on the environment.

The Environmental Impact of Biosolids' Land Application 3
EFFECTS OF BIOSOLIDS APPLICATION ON SOIL PROPERTIES
Organic Matter
Soil organic matter (SOM) is generally considered the single most important property
affecting soil quality and functioning (Gregorich et al., 1994). Numerous studies have
indicated that the use of biosolids as a source of organic matter to agricultural or degraded
lands improves the chemical and physical properties of soils, decreasing bulk density,
increasing pore size, soil aeration and root penetrability, water holding capacity and
biological properties, resulting in an increase in crop yields (Tejada, Gonzalez 2007;
Antonious et al., 2010; Gilbert et al., 2011).
Biosolids is typically made up of 40 - 70% organic matter. This organic fraction has been
identified as a mixture of fatty acids, steroids, proteins, carbohydrates, lignin, amino acids,
sugars, celluloses and humic material (Torri, Alberti 2009). Organic carbon added through
biosolids consists of two fractions of different degree of biodegradability: a labile fraction
(53-71%) that mineralizes quickly and a resistant fraction (28.5-45.4%), apparently not
available to soil microorganisms, that remains in the soil after biosolids application (Torri et
al., 2003; Antoniadis et al., 2008). Although carbon mineralization from organic amendments
has been shown to be more rapid in soils with low compared with high clay content (Merckx
et al., 1985), results suggest that recently introduced biosolids-borne organic carbon (OC)
may be located in large pores and less entangled in aggregates than native soil organic matter
(Torri et al., 2003). On the other hand, Thomsen et al. (1999) reported that the turnover of
organic matter in differently textured soils was better explained by soil moisture parameters
than by soil texture.
When biosolids are land applied repeatedly and/or at high rates, a substantial increase in
soil organic matter content is observed (Moffet et al., 2005; Sloan et al., 2016). This effect is
particularly pronounced on degraded soils (Garcia-Orenes et al., 2005). Long and short term
observations have demonstrated that biosolids amended soils accumulate a significantly
higher amount of OC compared to mineral fertilized soils (Tian et al., 2009). Repeated land
application of biosolids provide long-term benefits by increasing soil organic matter which, in
turn, improves soil chemical and biological fertility, accomplished by the production of more
biomass (Cogger et al., 2013; Wiseman et al., 2012). In this way, there is a net transfer of
atmospheric dioxide (CO2) into the soil carbon pool through the humification of crop
residues, resulting in net soil carbon sequestration (Torri, Lavado 2011; Torri et al., 2014),
reducing greenhouse gases emission (Haynes et al., 2009).
Significant concern over the occurrence of trace organic contaminants in biosolids has
risen in recent years (Citulski, Farahbakhsh 2010; Clarke, Smith 2011; Mohapatra et al.,
2016). The range of persistent organic pollutants (POPs) reported to be present in biosolids is
extensive and diverse, and may include pharmaceutical, personal care products, endocrine-
disrupting compounds, pesticides, industrial chemicals, hormones, and other organic
pollutants that are ubiquitous in sewage and other environmental samples (Sabourin et al.,
2012; Luo et al., 2014). Contrary to most organic compounds present in other organic
amendments, POPs exhibit a high environmental persistence, mainly due to their chemical
stability, relatively low volatility and high dielectric constant. When POPs enter the soil
environment, there is an initial fast adsorption onto the hydrophobic SOM surfaces probably

by covalent linkages (Harrison et al., 2006). As the time of contact with soil increases, there is
a decrease in chemical and biological availability of contaminants, a process known as
‘ageing’ (Hatzinger, Alexander 1995). It is believed that during aging, sorbed organic
molecules slowly move into sites within the soil matrix (mineral or organic matter fractions)
and become entrapped within nano- and micropores that are not accessible by even the
smallest microorganisms (Semple et al., 2003). Many laboratory studies confirm the lesser
availability of POPs to soil microorganisms of aged than unaged conditions in highly
dissimilar soils (Alexander 2000).
The fate of POPs in the environment and their effects on biotic matrices has been object
of intensive research in the last years, and there is still an open debate on the impact of the
presence of these compounds in soils and water. Nonetheless, most studies reveal that the risk
of adverse effects of biosolids-borne organic contaminants in the different trophic levels or in
human health is low or very low, due to their small concentration (enhanced by dilution
effects) and its low-toxic profile (Hernando et al., 2006; Dubroca et al., 2009; Clarke,
Cummins 2015).
Macronutrient Content and Release
The addition of biosolids to agricultural land was reported to increase the growth and
production of crop plants and pastures, usually exceeding that of well-managed fertilized
controls (Torri, Lavado 2009 a; Athamenh et al., 2015; Pawlett et al., 2015; Corrêa, da Silva
2016). This rise in productivity is attributed to the increase in water holding capacity and
nutrient availability to plants. Biosolids are a source of plant nutrients, including nitrogen (N),
phosphorus (P), sulphur (S), magnesium (Mg), calcium (Ca) and micronutrients such as
copper (Cu), zinc (Zn) and boron (B). Nutrient content in biosolids depends on the untreated
water source, chemicals used in the wastewater treatment plants (WWTP) in pre- or post-
treatment, or types of unit operations used, and was reported to be in the range of 1-210 g N
kg–1
, 1-150 g P kg–1
, 1-65 g K kg–1
, 5-170 g Ca kg–1
, 2-94.5 g Mg kg–1
(Solis-Mejia et al.,
2012).
Nitrogen
For regulatory and practical reasons, biosolids loading rates have been typically
determined by estimating the amount of plant available N released by biosolids. Low levels of
biosolids-borne N may lead to economic loss through yield reduction, whereas a high N level
may increases the risk of nitrate leaching into groundwater.
Nitrogen supplied by biosolids is mainly present as organic forms, often quoted between
50 - 80% (Sommers, 1977). However, these organic forms are not immediately available to
plants. The conversion of organic nitrogen into plant available forms (ammonium NH4
+
or
nitrate ions NO3
−
) is mediated by heterotrophic soil microorganisms (Pierzynski et al., 2005).
Nitrogen mineralization is the process by which organic N is first released as NH4
+
ions,
which may be directly absorbed by plant roots or oxidised by aerobic, nitrifying bacteria to
nitrite ions (NO2
−
). Nitrite ultimately oxidises to nitrate ions (NO3
−
), which are easily
absorbed by plant roots (Pierzynski et al., 2005). The proportion of organic N in biosolids that
becomes plant available is referred to as the ‘mineralizable’ fraction. For agronomic and
environmental purposes, it is often assumed that, after a single application, 20% of biosolids

organic-N is mineralized in the first year, 10% in the second, and 5% in the third year
(USEPA, 1995). However, the available fraction of organic N in biosolids may be influenced
by soil properties, and environmental conditions. On the other hand, many authors reported
that total N content and the release of mineralized N in biosolids amended soil may be
significantly influenced by the type of sewage sludge treatment process, dewatering and/or
storage (Hseu, Huang 2005; Rouch et al., 2011; Al-Dhumri et al., 2013; Rigby et al., 2016).
Nitrogen may be lost from biosolids-amended soil by leaching, runoff or gaseous
emissions. Leaching of N mainly occurs as NO3
−
, because most soils have a low capacity to
retain anions. On the contrary, NH4
+
is less mobile because it is adsorbed onto negatively
charged soil components. Leaching of NO3
−
to groundwater is a major cause of groundwater
contamination (Addiscott, 2005). This process is a function of the combination of many soil
and environmental factors, including N application rates and timing, soil properties and
mineralogy, rainfall, irrigation, depth of the aquifer and plants. In general, coarse-textured
soils have lower water holding capacities than fine-textured soils, so the vertical movement of
nitrates is more likely in sandy soils (Corrêa et al., 2006). The presence of plants with a deep
root system reduces N leaching due to N uptake and evapotranspiration (Rigby et al., 2016).
On the other hand, soluble and particulate forms of N may be lost by wind or water erosion or
run-off. These looses may occur when the rate of precipitation exceeds soil infiltration
capacity (Pierzynski et al., 2005). This is also dependent upon factors such as topography, soil
physical and chemical properties and crop cover (Ojeda et al., 2006). Hence, local
investigation of N dynamics in biosolids-amended soils is a key factor to determine
appropriate application rates and best management practices for each region.
Phosphorus
Biosolids-borne P may be found in both soluble and insoluble organic and inorganic P
compounds (Tian et al., 2012). Inorganic P is the predominant form of P in biosolids,
representing 70 to 90% of total P (O'Connor et al., 2004; He et al., 2010). As said above, in
most legislation, annual application rates of biosolids are determined by crop N requirements
in order to prevent N leaching to groundwater (Al-Dhumri et al., 2013; Corrêa et al., 2012).
However, the relatively low N/P ratio of biosolids has led to a significant over-application of
P at the N-based rate. As the amounts of P applied often exceed crop removal, more than 95%
of biosolids-borne P remains in soils (Corrêa, 2004).
Phosphorus availability in biosolids is strongly influenced by the wastewater treatment
process used (White et al., 2010; Torri et al., 2016). Biosolids treatment with high Al and/or
Fe doses results in biosolids having low available P concentrations, with Fe and Al
phosphates as dominant P forms (Shober, Sims 2007). Taking into account that the solubility
kinetics of these phosphate minerals is extremely slow, it is unlikely that, once formed, these
minerals would readily release P into the soil solution (Strawn et al., 2015). In fact, P in
biosolids treated with Al and Fe was found to be less soluble than P in untreated biosolids or
commercial fertilizers (Kyle, McClintock 1995). Addition of lime was reported to increase
biosolids pH and decrease the solubility of P by the formation of recalcitrant Ca-phosphate
minerals (Islas-Espinoza et al., 2014). Heat-dried biosolids were reported to have the lowest P
availability of all WWT processes, whereas biosolids obtained by biological P removal
exhibit both elevated total P and water-extractable P (Penn, Sims, 2002; Brandt et al., 2004).
The avalability of biosolids-borne P exerts a major influence on the potential for off-site
P migration at land application sites. Past research has shown that soils that are more

saturated with P have less capacity to retain added P and may thus increase the more labile
forms of soil P, with the risk of P loss in runoff or by leaching (Hooda et al., 2000; Pautler,
Sims 2000). The problem arises when runoff waters or subsurface flows contain
environmentally unacceptable contents of dissolved P forms, or when highly P-enriched soil
particles are eroded into water bodies (Chowdhury et al., 2017). Diffuse P pollution is directly
associated with the development of water body eutrophication in agricultural ecosystems
(Withers, Jarvie 2008; Quinton et al., 2010). Soluble P as low as 0.02 mg L-1
is sufficient to
induce water body eutrophication (Sharpley, Rekolainen 1997). In sensitive scenarios, Fe or
Al-treated biosolids reduce the risk of P transport. On the other hand, if runoff P is not a
major concern and biosolids are primarily applied to provide available P to crops, the
standard biological P removal process or a process that involves the addition of lime instead
of Fe and Al oxides may be adequate. The fate of biosolids borne P in biosolids amended
soils was reviewed by Torri et al. (2016).
Potentially Toxic Elements
The presence of biosolids-borne potentially toxic elements (PTE) such as arsenic (As),
cadmium (Cd), copper (Cu), chromium (Cr), lead (Pb), mercury (Hg), nickel (Ni), and zinc
(Zn) is the most critical long-term hazard when biosolids is land applied. Some of these
elements have been reported to be essential to all plant species (micronutrients), and some
others are known to have stimulating effects on plant growth, although their functions have
not been recognized yet (Asher 1991; Barker, Pilbeam 2007; Torri et al., 2011). Elevated
levels of PTEs in agricultural soils may adversely affect soil’s quality, depress plant yields or
degrade the quality of food or other goods produced. They may also represent an ecological
and human health risk if they enter the food chain or leach into ground waters (Alloway
1995).
Biosolids contain varying concentrations of PTE as a result of drainage waters, business
effluents (such as car washes, dental uses, among others), atmospheric deposition, traffic
related emissions (asphalt wear, brake linings, vehicle exhausts, tires, petrol/oil leakage) and
household effluents (Torri, Lavado 2008 a,b). These elements may be transported into the
sewage system to end in the wastewater treatment plant and into biosolids (Bergback et al.,
2001). Taking into account the great variability in PTE inputs, range and media
concentrations of PTE encountered in biosolids samples are shown in Table 1.
Unlike the majority of organic compounds, PTE do not undergo microbial or chemical
degradation (Adriano 2003). These elements persist in the environment for a long time after
their introduction and accumulate in soils, which are usually their final sink (Raymond,
Okieimen 2011). When PTEs are introduced into the soil, they may be subjected to a series of
chemical and biochemical processes, such as adsorption/desorption, precipitation/ dissolution,
complexation/dissociation, and oxidation/reduction (Violante et al., 2010). Not all the
processes are equally important for each element. Soil physical-chemical properties such as
pH, cation exchange capacity (CEC), organic matter content, mineralogy and the nature and
amount of the trace element are also likely to assume great importance in determining PTE
behavior in biosolids amended soils, especially at low biosolids application rates (Shaheen et
al., 2014; Urasa, Mwebi 2011). It has been postulated that, at very high application rates,
biosolids properties dominate PTE chemistry and bioavailability in the short to medium term
(Zufiaurre et al., 1998). With time, it is thought that biosolids properties will have

progressively less influence over PTE behavior and that soil characteristics will ultimately
control speciation (Parkpain et al., 1998; Smith, 1996).
Table 1. Element content in dry biosolids (mg kg-1
)
Element Range in dry biosolids (mg kg-1
) Media (mg kg-1
)
arsenic 1.1 – 23 10
cadmium 1 – 3410 10
chromium 1 - 99000 500
cobalt 11.3 - 2490 30
copper 84 - 17000 800
iron 1000 - 154000 17000
lead 13 - 26000 500
manganese 32 - 9870 260
mercury 0.6 - 56 6
molybdenum 0.1 – 2.14 4
nickel 2 - 5300 80
selenium 1.7 – 17.25 5
tin 2.6 - 329 14
zinc 101 - 49000 1700
Biosolids guidelines and regulations have been developed to regulate total doses for land
applications. These are generally based on the maximum allowable PTE concentration limits
(mg kg-1
dry weight) and cumulative loading rates (MAFF, 1993; NSW EPA, 1997; USEPA,
1997, Epstein 2003 and EU, 2000). But total concentrations of PTE in soils are not
necessarily a good indicator of potential PTE toxicity. Recently, some countries have begun
to introduce the concept of bioavailability in their regulations regarding environmental
protection. Quite a lot of work has been done to find a method that can reliably estimate
PTE´s chemical forms in soils, bioavailability, biological uptake, and eco-toxicological
effects on the soil biota in biosolids amended soils. The most important methods include:
single batch extraction of soil samples with salt solutions (Adriano, Weber 2001); sequential
extraction with increasingly strong extractants designed to dissolve metals bound to different
solid phases (Pierzynski 1998, McGrath, Cegarra 1992); and column leaching experiments
(Paramasivam et al., 2006).
Sequential extraction methods have been widely used in an attempt to quantitatively
estimate PTE´s chemical forms in soils. In this technique, the soil is subjected to a series of
chemical reagents or extractants of increasing reactivity, with phytoavailability and mobility
of PTE decreasing in the order of the sequential extraction step. The amount of PTE extracted
from the more bioavailable fractions gives an idea of the size of the pool that might be
depleted by a plant during the growing period. In most protocols, PTE are divided into the
following physicochemical forms: (1) simple or complexed ions in solution and exchangeable
ions; (2) bound to organic matter; (3) bound to carbonates; (4) bound to iron and manganese
oxides and hydroxides; and (5) in the mineral lattice of silicates or residual fraction
(McLaren, Crawford 1973; Tessier et al., 1979; Emmerich et al., 1982; Sims, Kline 1991;
Morabito 1995). The terms of the fractions are more likely to be operationally, rather than

chemically defined. A wide range of reagents have been proposed to establish empirical
relations between plant uptake and PTE concentration in soils (McLaughlin et al., 2000b).
At present, there is no analytical method that can universally and quantitatively assess
plant PTE uptake. The reasons for this includes the presence of different components in each
particular soil, diverse chemical forms comprising the available pool of PTE, intrinsic
limitations of the extracting reagent, differences between plant species, variations in the
ability of the plant to absorb PTEs at different growth stages, the ability of plants to transfer
PTEs from roots to different aereal tissues as well as the synergism or antagonism between
some PTE (McLaughlin et al., 2000).
At very high rates of biosolids application, phytotoxicity due to biosolids-borne PTE are
likely to occur (Juste, Mench 1992; Berti, Jacobs 1996). On the contrary, at agronomically
biosolids application rates (between 2–8 Mg ha-1
), PTE do not normally represent a limitation
to plant growth. There are a number of reasons for this, including PTE sorption on soil oxides
and organic matter (from soil or biosolids), the formation of insoluble inorganic salts, and
antagonistic effects of between biosolids-borne PTE (Torri, Lavado 2009 b). For instance, P
tends to increase Cd concentration and Cd:Zn ratio and decrease Zn concentration in plant
tissue and seed; and Zn is competitive with Ca, Cu and Ni (Chaney et al., 2000; Grant et al.,
2010). Many studies reported that biosolids-derived PTE are generally less available for plant
uptake than the more mobile PTE salt impurities found in commercial fertilisers (Kidd et al.,
2007).
Single or repeated applications of biosolids may lead to an increase in PTE concentration
in different soil fractions over time due to the decomposition of less soluble forms of PTE
initially present in biosolids. Some authors reported that the increase in PTE availability did
not lead to metal accumulation in plants (Gaskin et al., 2003). Other authors reported that the
amount of PTE taken up by plants was related to the type of crop and the chemistry of each
metal. For example, an elevated concentration of Zn but not of Cu was reported in the leaves
of plants grown on biosolid amended soils (Granato et al., 2004; Codling 2014). Nonetheless,
although plant PTE concentrations generally increase with increasing biosolids rates,
concentrations in plant tissues often exhibit a plateau response at high loadings. These results
were reported for wheat, maize, and other plant species (Barbarick et al., 1995; Logan et al.,
1997, Sukkariyah et al., 2005). On the other hand, the low phytotoxic effect of biosolids
borne PTE has been explained by the soil–plant barrier concept (Basta et al., 2005). This
concept assumes that the mobility of PTE is influenced by soil or plant ‘barriers’ that may
limit transmission of these elements through the food chain either due to soil chemical
processes that limit solubility (soil barrier) or by plant senescence due to phytotoxicity (plant
barrier).
Potentially trace elements were always considered relatively immobile in soils. In fact,
most soil profile studies from short- and long-term sludge applications concluded that
biosolids-borne PTEs were largely retained in the topsoil or the zone of biosolids
incorporation (Sukkariyah et al., 2005). These results were consistent with later research,
which did not show significant increases in total PTEs concentrations below 30-cm depth in
soil profiles despite the differences in biosolids application methods or soil properties (Su et
al., 2008; Ukwatta, Mohajerani 2016). Other authors reported a virtual immobilization of PTE
by the soil matrix through ﬁltration, complexation, and chemisorption processes (Haering et
al., 2000; Brown et al., 2002; Basta et al., 2005). However, in recent years, there has been
concern that biosolids borne PTEs might be more mobile in soil than previously thought.

McBride et al. (1997) and Richards et al. (1998) indicated that downward mobility might
occur in the field without a substantial increase in PTEs concentrations in the subsoil. Later,
other authors suggested that high levels of PTE might be reaching groundwaters (Ashworth,
Alloway 2004; Saiers, Ryan 2006; Miller, Karathanasis 2014). In leaching tests, Marguí et al.
(2016) reported that the percentage of released PTEs in comparison with soil total content
was quite low, (<10%). This vertical movement was explained by complexation reactions of
PTEs with mobile biosolid colloid particles that migrate through soil macropores transporting
PTEs to greater soil depths (Karathanasis et al., 2007, Miller et al., 2011). The formation of
soluble organic matter–PTE complexes of high stability in soil solution has been found to
reduce PTE adsorption to solid soil phases (Wong et al., 2007). The downward movement of
PTE in biosolids amended soils was reviewed by Torri and Corrêa (2012).
CONCLUSION
Land application of biosolids is a beneficial way to recycle organic matter, improving the
chemical, physical and biological properties of soils, resulting in an increase in crop yields.
Biosolids loading rates have been typically determined by estimating the amount of plant
available N released by biosolids. Although the relatively low N/P ratio of biosolids has led to
a significant over-application of P at the N-based rate, P solubility and mobility is governed
by the wastewater treatment plants processes, and may not be of major environmental
concern. The presence of biosolids-borne potentially toxic elements is the most critical long-
term hazard when biosolids are land applied. Although the availability of PTEs has been
reported to decrease over time, many studies indicate that a small portion of PTEs is dissolved
in the soil solution and may move to subsoil horizons. However, research suggests that
environmental risks are minimal under current biosolids regulations.
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amended soils, Special issue: Biosolids Soil Application: Agronomic and Environmental
Implications, Applied and Environmental Soil Science (ISSN: 1687-7667), Volume 2012,
Article ID 145724, 7 pages, doi:10.1155/2012/145724.

Torri S.I., Corrêa R.S., Renella G. 2014. Soil carbon sequestration resulting from biosolids
application, Applied and Environmental Soil Science (ISSN: 1687-7667), Volume 2014
(2014), Article ID 821768, 9 pages. doi:10.1155/2014/821768.
Torri S.I., Corrêa R.S., Renella G. 2016. Biosolids application to agricultural land: a
contribution to global phosphorus recycle, Pedosphere, in press.
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kinds of sewage sludge. Waste Management, Volume 28, Issue 5, 2008, Pages 821-832.
Torri, S.I., Lavado, R.S. 2008 b. Zinc distribution in soils amended with different kinds of
sewage sludge. Journal of Environmental Management, Volume 88, Issue 4, September
2008, Pages 1571-1579.
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BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH
Name: Silvana Irene Torri
Affiliation: Department of Natural Resources and Environment, School of Agriculture,
University of Buenos Aires.
Education: Graduate in Chemistry (FCEyN, University of Buenos Aires), holding MSci
degree in the field of Soil Science. Actually finishing a PhD.
e mail address: torri@agro.uba.ar.

Research and Professional Experience: Her research program mainly focuses on
dynamics of potentially toxic elements in the soil-plant system, land application of organic
residues and bioremediation of contaminated soils. She is also involved in the supervision of
pre and post graduate students research. She acts as the Lead Editor in two scientific Journals,
and she acts as a reviewer in 18 academic Journals.
Publications from the Last 3 Years:
Book Chapters:
 Torri S, Cabrera M, Torres- Duggan. 2013. Plants response to high soil Zn
availability. Feasibility of biotechnological improvement. En: Biotechnologica
lTechniques of Stress in Plants, Editor: M. Miransari, Stadium Press LLC USA,
ISBN: 1-62699-031-X, 101-118.
 Torri S. 2014. Sustainable agriculture in the Pampas region, Argentina. En:
Sustainability behind Sustainability, editor: A Zorpas. Nova Science Publishers, Inc.,
Hauppauge, NY 11788, ISBN 978-1-63321-595-5 (ebook) 297-318. 408 p.
 Torri S, Urricariet A.S, Lavado R. 2015. Micronutrientes. En: Fertilidad de suelos y
fertilización de cultivos. García F y Echeverría H. Ediciones INTA, Balcarce, ISBN
978-987-521-565-8, 357-377. 908.
Peer reviewed Journals
 Torri S.I., Corrêa R.S., Renella G. 2014. Soil carbon sequestration resulting from
biosolids application, Applied and Environmental Soil Science (ISSN: 1687-7667),
Volume 2014 (2014), Article ID 821768, 9 pages. doi:10.1155/2014/821768.
 Torri S.I., Corrêa R.S. Renella G., Vadecantos A., Perelomov L. 2014. Biosolids Soil
Application: Agronomic and Environmental Implications 2013, Applied and
Environmental Soil Science, Article ID 314730, 3 pages. doi:10.1155/2014/314730.
ISSN: 1687-7667.
 Torri S.I., Corrêa R.S. Renella G., Vadecantos A., Perelomov L. 2015. Biosolids Soil
Application: Agronomic and Environmental Implications 2014, Applied and
Environmental Soil Science, Vo. 2015, Article ID 627819, 2 pages. ISSN: 1687-
7667.
 Torri S.I., Corrêa R.S., Renella G. 2016. Biosolids application to agricultural land: a
contribution to global phosphorus recycle, Pedosphere, accepted.
 Torri S.I., Cabrera M.N., Alberti, C. 2016. Actividad microbiana durante la
bioestimulación de un suelo contaminado con hidrocarburos aromáticos policíclicos.
Revista Internacional de Contaminación Ambiental, accepted.
KD

Environmental impact of biosolids land application

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