These files contain the data used in the manuscript: "Soil self-cleaning capacity: Removal of organic compounds during sub-surface irrigation". We assessed the fate of 133 contaminants of emerging concern relevant for effluents such as herbicides, industrial chemicals, pharmaceuticals, personal care products, and their transformation products in a real-scale sub-surface irrigation system fed by sewage treatment plant (STP) effluent related to their physicochemical properties (half-life range of 0.4 to 1194 days and log Dow range of -2.77 to 5.67). In our study we were able to capture the extremely dry year of 2018 to elucidate the maximum influence of the STP effluent reuse on croplands. We show that sub-surface irrigation significantly removes most contaminants of emerging concern but care must be taken to monitor the contaminants of emerging concern that are (moderately) hydrophobic as these significantly accumulate around infiltration pipes and show no significant removal in the rhizosphere. This removal (either positive or negative) is highly dependent on the persistency-mobility class of a compound, the seasonal drought conditions, and the compartment (rhizosphere, shallow and deep groundwater) of the sub-surface irrigation system. Overall 89/133 emerging organic contaminants were detected in our study. The data consist of one excel file with the concentrations of these emerging organic contaminants (mean ± sd of three technical replicates) in time depth and space. The excel file also has information about the pH, EC and chloride-bromide ratio measured for each sampling location in time and depth.
- Municipal Wastewater Reuse
- Persistent Organic Contaminant
- Agricultural Irrigation