title: Long-term effects of municipal sewage on soils and pastures.
abstract: Land application of municipal wastewater is widely practised worldwide as a means of treating wastes and obtaining a benefit from the water and nutrients by growing pastures, trees, and sometimes edible crops such as vegetables, fruit and fibre, etc. Irrigation of pastures by treated and untreated sewage near Melbourne, Australia, for more than a century has increased heavy metals concentrations in the soil, but appears not to have increased their concentrations in the herbage and in animal tissues of animals grazed on these pastures. There seem to be sound reasons why this practice may be sustainable.
authors.affiliation: van de Graaff & Associates Pty Ltd, Victoria, Australia. vdgraaff@mira.net
authors.forename: Robert H M
authors.initials: RH
authors.lastname: van de Graaff
authors.forename: Helen C
authors.initials: HC
authors.lastname: Suter
authors.forename: Sophy J
authors.initials: SJ
authors.lastname: Lawes
mesh_terms: D000383:Agriculture; D000818:Animals; D000829:Animals, Domestic; D001682:Biological Availability; D003247:Conservation of Natural Resources; D005506:Food Contamination; D019216:Metals, Heavy / Q000493:pharmacokinetics*; D012722:Sewage; D014018:Tissue Distribution; D014675:Vegetables; D014865:Waste Disposal, Fluid
chemical_list: D019216:Metals, Heavy; D012722:Sewage