Producción Limpia: Agresividad de Efluentes Agroindustriales Utilizados para el Riego. Cleaner Production: Aggressiveness of Agro-industrial Effluents Used for Irrigation.

Abstract

Groundwater for industrial use in the region of San Rafael, Mendoza, usually has high hardness and salinity values and is strongly fouling, even at ambient temperature. The fruit and vegetable and wine industries discard more than 90% of the water used in their processes as effluents, after incorporating highly variable amounts of dissolved or suspended organic matter, putrescible, as well as some inorganic substances such as sodium and/or chlorides from alkalis or salt. The Aggressivity Indexes and Sodium Absorption Ratio of effluents from these industries were determined to evaluate their quality for irrigation. In most cases the effluents were strongly aggressive and corrosive, requiring correction for their use. As for the saline quality for irrigation, although in many cases there is no significant variation with respect to the clean water used, in others it becomes water with high sodium and saline hazards for soils.