A study of the Effect of Al-Kufa Cement Factory dust on some Physical Traits of the soils of the Neighboring regions

Abstract

A field study was conducted to find out the effect of cement dust on some physical traits of the soil in Al-Najaf Al-Ashraf province - Kufa District for the soils surrounding Al-Kufa Cement Factory, which are of coarse texture with the aim of knowing and determining dust levels and its effects on some physical and chemical traits of the soil surrounding the plant and trying to mitigate its harmful effect on soil and plants, through some comparisons of some physical traits that have a direct effect. The study was conducted on six locations, including five locations affected by factory dust, located northwest-southeast of the factory, while the sixth location is towards the northwest of the factory, which is not affected by precipitated factory dust. Soil samples were taken at a depth of (20 cm), where the layer that interests us in the study, to analyze the physical and chemical traits. Some physical traits of the soil were measured, such as texture, bulk density, total porosity, void ratio, and soil resistance to penetration, with 7 replications for each of the studied comparative traits. Some chemical traits were also measured, which are the degree of soil interaction, electrical conductivity, cation exchange capacity, and CaCO3%.The results showed that dust had an effect on the studied traits; The bulk density, which decreased with the increase of the dust factor, ranged between (1.52-1.77) mg. m^-3, and this was reflected in turn on both the total porosity and the void percentage, as each of them increased with the increase of the dust factor, as the values of the total porosity ranged between (40.70-31.10)%,As for the void percentage, it ranged between (68.10-44.60)% for the same locations, and the soil resistance to penetration decreased with the increase of the dust factor, as its values ranged between (20.74-26.82) kg/cm².