SmartFertiReuse: An Innovative Solution for Agricultural Irrigation with Treated Wastewater

SmartFertiReuse is a collaborative research project that aims at developing a new decision support tool in order to provide safe and optimal management of water and fertilisers for agricultural irrigation. This five year project was conducted from 2018 to 2022 on a test site located in the south of France. The objective was to monitor the water quality produced from a tertiary treatment pilot unit downstream a municipal wastewater treatment plant. Detailed analytical campaigns were performed on treated wastewater and on the groundwater that is currently used for irrigation in order to compare their physical, chemical and microbiological quality. Agronomic campaigns were also conducted on soil and maize in order to evaluate potential impacts of the irrigation with reclaimed water. The analytical results from this monitoring are presented in this paper. Specifically, 34 chemical tracers were selected and monitored in water in 2021 and 2022. The results show no contamination of the groundwater currently used for irrigation. Large agronomic compounds were analysed. The results show no negative impact of irrigation with treated wastewater on the soil and on the quality of maize plants.