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ARS Home » Pacific West Area » Kimberly, Idaho » Northwest Irrigation and Soils Research » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #221525
Title: Polyacrylamide treatments for reducing seepage in soil-lined reservoirs: A field evaluation

Author
item Lentz, Rodrick
item KINCAID, D - USDA-ARS (RETIRED)

Submitted to: Transactions of the ASABE
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 2/19/2008
Publication Date: 4/29/2008
Citation: Lentz, R.D., Kincaid, D.C. 2008. Polyacrylamide treatments for reducing seepage in soil-lined reservoirs: A field evaluation. Transactions of the ASABE. 51(2):535-544.

Interpretive Summary: Seepage causes the loss of >100 million acre-feet of water annually from unlined irrigation canals worldwide. Development of inexpensive pond and canal sealing technologies is needed to conserve scarce water resources. Previous laboratory studies demonstrated that water soluble polymer and water-absorbing hydrogel treatments could reduce infiltration into soils, but it was not known whether these treatments would effectively reduce seepage losses when applied in the field to an unlined irrigation reservoir. This study demonstrated that applications of water soluble polyacrylamide or polyacrylamide hydrogel reduced irrigation reservoir seepage losses by nearly half. Furthermore, the addition of an inexpensive salt to the amendment blend decreased the amount of hydrogel required for treatment. This information is important because it confirms and establishes these polyacrylamide treatments as effective alternatives to more expensive and difficult-to-apply conventional approaches.

Technical Abstract: Irrigation water supplies are becoming limited and there is a need to extend the usefulness of current water resources. Previous laboratory studies demonstrated that certain water soluble polyacrylamide solution (WSPAM) and cross-linked PAM granule (XPAM) treatments effectively reduced infiltration into soils. We evaluated the efficacy of these treatments for reducing water seepage losses in an unlined irrigation reservoir. Five treatments were applied to plots on lower side slopes of a reservoir basin before it was filled in April, 2001: controls; 0.016 kg/m^2 WSPAM (1000 mg/L solution); 0.2 kg/m^2 XPAM+0.13 kg/m^2 NaCl; 0.4 kg/m^2 XPAM+0. kg/m^2 NaCl; and 0.8 kg/m^2 XPAM-only. Ring-cylinder seepage meters installed in each experimental plot were used to monitored seepage rates from May through October in 2001 and 2002, without further treatment applications. The WSPAM and XPAM treatments reduced mean seepage rates an average 50% relative to the 22.4 mm/h control value and prevented the loss of 19.7 m of water through the seepage rings over the two irrigation seasons. The 0.4 kg/m^2 XPAM+0.13 kg/m^2 NaCl and 0.8 kg/m^2 XPAM-only appeared to be the most durable treatments. Adding NaCl to XPAM treatments reduced required XPAM inputs without reducing treatment efficacy. The WSPAM and XPAM treatments provide several effective options for reducing seepage losses in earthen reservoirs.