Virus Sorption and Transport in Saturated Sediments as Influenced by Salinity and Soluble Organic Matter

In this research, the sorption and transport of MS-2 in saturated sediments under the impacts of salinity and soluble organic matter (SOM) are studied through one-dimensional column experiments. The experiments are conducted with the prepared fine sand (d₅₀=0.13mm) from industry and the mixture of the sand and field soil (d₅₀=0.16mm) obtained from Bayou Segnette State Park, Louisiana. The controlled conditions in all experiments include constant flow rates (0.2 mm/s), neutral condition (pH=7.0±0.5), and constant temperature (25±0.2°C). Bromide is adopted as the conservative tracer to evaluate the retardation factors of MS-2 in the column. In the sorption and transport experiment with MS-2 mixing with nanopure water, the MS-2 showed slight adsorption effect onto sediments. When SOM was added, no attenuating effect on MS-2 adsorption was observed because of MS-2's already weak adsorption in nanopure water. The MS-2 with salinity experiment showed dramatically enhanced adsorption effect in the sand column. It can be explained that the salinity compressed double layers, thereby increasing attachment rates. However, no effect was observed in the sand/soil mixture column, counteraction by organic matter from the soil is the main reason.