Identificação do potencial de contaminação de aquíferos livres por vinhaça na bacia do Ribeirão do Pântano, Descalvado (SP), Brasil

Abstract

The work reported here involved the identification of the contamination potential of free aquifers in the region of the Ribeirão do Pântano Drainage Basin (RPDB) in the municipality of Descalvado, state of São Paulo, Brazil, resulting from the direct application of vinasse on soil through the fertirrigation technique used in sugarcane cultivation. Although it offers many positive attributes for the soil, vinasse is a highly polluting element, with a pollutant effect estimated to be 100-fold higher than that of domestic sewage. This paper, therefore, reports on the application of a methodological procedure for mapping the potential contamination of free aquifers by vinasse, based on the analysis of the components and attributes of the physical environment of the region under study, and organized in a geographic information system (GIS) environment. The results obtained in this study indicate that most of the areas that are under sugarcane cultivation, and where vinasse is presumably applied to the soil, are areas with high potential for contamination of free aquifers.