Remediation of salt-contaminated soil from an abandoned shrimp farm

Shrimp farming is a significant contributor to the problem of salt-contaminated soils, especially in the coastal regions of Thailand where the original soils contain inactive acid sulphate. This work is aimed at identifying the remediation technique that can be used to condition the salt-contaminated soils caused by shrimp farming. The conditioned soils are expected to have pH in the range of 6.5 to 7.5, salinity less than 0.1 percent, and electrical conductivity less than 2 dS/m. A series of experiments were conducted to examine the effectiveness of several conventional remediation techniques including leaching with water and application of gypsum and limestone. The soil samples used in this work were extracted from an abandoned shrimp farm located in Suratthani Province, Thailand. A number of important factors affecting the soil remediation were taken into account during the experiments and result analysis. These include soil structure, quality of irrigation water, temperature, precipitation, evaporation, wind velocity, groundwater level and natural waterways. (Abstract shortened by UMI.)...