Soil Structural and Chemical Conditions After Disposal of Fabric Dye on a Loamy Sand Soil in Southwestern Nigeria

The indiscriminate disposition of dye waste water from the age-long “Adire” industry of Abeokuta, southwest Nigeria is a major concern as the movement of such contaminants in the soil needs to be monitored. This study investigated the effect of fabric dye on soil physical and chemical properties. Treatments were local concentration, spent local-concentration, half local- concentration and twice local-concentration of the dye; and control (no contaminant). Sixteen litres of the dye concentrations were applied on field plots every two days to maintain the soil at 10% field capacity for 3 months. Soil samples were collected from 0-10 cm, 10-20 cm and 20-30 cm depths at the termination of application of dyes (3 months) and 12 months after the application of treatments. Results show that macroaggregates (>0.25 mm) were dominant in the control while microaggregates (