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Title: FLAT-PLATE FREEZE SAMPLER FOR SLUDGE CHARACTERIZATION IN A FEEDLOT RUNOFF STORAGE POND

Author
item PARKER, D - WEST TEXAS A&M
item SCHULTE, D - UNIV NEBRASKA-LINCOLN
item Nienaber, John

Submitted to: Transactions of the ASAE
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 4/12/1999
Publication Date: N/A
Citation: N/A

Interpretive Summary: Undisturbed samples of soft, unstructured material that settles on the bottom of ponds are needed to study the history of the accumulation. A device was developed to obtain samples of solids that accumulated in a pond used to collect runoff from a beef cattle feedlot. The accumulated material was frozen to the face of the sampler which was filled with dry ice. The sampler provided a method to view and collect material as it has been deposited in the pond, in layers. The samples were valuable for chemical analyses of the layers as well as color analysis. This tool should be valuable for other sediment or wetland research.

Technical Abstract: Collecting undisturbed sludge and sediment samples is difficult in saturated or near-saturated, wetland or pond environments. A sampling device was developed for sampling sludge in a beef cattle feedlot runoff storage pond. The device enabled stratified samples to be frozen to one side of its exterior surface. Dry ice and isopropyl alcohol were used as the freezing media in the sampler. The utility of the sampler was demonstrated with photographs and data delineating sediment layers by color and chemical concentrations. The sampler proved to be effective for obtaining an undisturbed, visual representation of soft sediments and sludges, and should have many uses in sediment and wetland research.