345 Land Application of Olive Oil Mill Waste Water in a Poplar Plantation: Initial Site Characterization L. Sebastiani, D. Di Baccio, A. Minnocci R. Tognetti and E. Segal EcoGeoFor Lab, Univ. Studi del Molise BioLabs, Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna Pesche Pisa Italy Italy G. Celano Dep. Scienze dei Sistemi Colturali Forestali e dell'Ambiente Univ. Basilicata, Potenza Italy Keywords: conductivity, geo-statistical maps, polyphenols, soil properties Abstract Olive (Olea europaea L.) cultivation covers roughly 4% of the agricultural area in the EU. It is widespread throughout the Mediterranean region, especially Spain (48%) and Italy (22.5%), where this crop is important for the rural economy, local heritage and the environment. Oil extraction procedures produce an aqueous effluent (“vegetation water”) and a solid residue, mainly containing the olive skin and stone (“olive husk”). Vegetation waters, known as olive mill waste waters (OMWW), are becoming a major environmental problem because of the large amount produced and the toxicity of the phenolic compounds present. About 2.5 litres of OMWW are released per litre of oil produced, yielding an annual amount of 1.36 Mm 3 just in Italy (based on 2007/2008 data). In addition to polyphenols, the effluent contains high levels of plant nutrients, organic compounds, and inorganic salts. Excess amounts of these constituents can adversely impact soil and water quality. On the other hand, OMWW can be a valuable water source, fertilizer and soil amendment to improve soil conditions for plant growth. Yet, since biological purification of OMWW is particularly difficult due to its chemical and biological composition, managing its disposal back to the environment is extremely important. Land application of OMWW on soils cultivated with high evaporative demand and tolerant plants such as poplar could enhance the biological and chemical degradation of the effluent and solve the disposal problem. Therefore, we initiated a project in an olive farm near Pisa, Tuscany, for studying the fate of the OMWW constituents in a poplar short rotation forestry plantation. In this work we present the experimental design and preliminary results, discussing the initial characterization of the site’s soil. INTRODUCTION Olive is the most extensively cultivated fruit crop in the world (FAO, 2004). The annual global production of olive mill waste waters (OMWW) is estimated to be around 30 Mm 3 . Almost all of this production is in the Mediterranean countries, and more than 75% in EU countries. About 560,000 tons of olive oil is produced in Italy (Lombardo, 2003). The OMWW specific production is estimated around 60 L per 100 kg of olives (Borsani and Ferrando, 1996), and 2.5 L of waste are released per litre of oil produced (Borja et al., 1992), yielding an annual amount of 1.36 Mm 3 in Italy alone. Besides the European Community, which is the main olive oil producer in the world (IOC, www.internationaloliveoil.org), and the traditional producers of the Mediterranean Basin (North Africa and Middle-Eastern countries), other countries such as Argentina, Australia, and South Africa, are establishing new olive plantations managed following intensive horticultural models. This increasing production of olive oil worldwide is likely to see a parallel rise in OMWW, thus making the need to find a suitable solution for its disposal Proc. IS on Olive Irrigation and Oil Quality Eds.: U. Yermiyahu et al. Acta Hort. 888, ISHS 2011