Tooting!!! Not Kyla’s

L to R:

Vernetta Noble

Brenda Hines

Kyla Johnson

Background

• Environmental waste on the Navajo Reservation

• No infrastructure

• Health concerns

• Standard septic systems

Background

• Factors affecting soil permeability– Depth– Slope– Structure– Texture

• Sand

• Silt

• Clay

Soil Textural Classes

Copyright. Brady, Nyle C. The Nature and Properties of Soils. Prentice-Hall, Inc. 1999. Permission Granted.

Description

• Monitoring water and waste disposal– Indian Heath Service (IHS)– Navajo Nation Environmental Protection

Agency (NN EPA)

• Soil analysis study• Developed a code and flow chart that was

user-friendly

Math Modeling

• Determined soil texture of Reservation soils

• Looked for a ‘best fit’ equation

• Decided data lent itself to a code using symbolic logic of the conditional type

Math Modeling

Clay Content 3

y = 28.265e-0.1365x

R2 = 0.9414

0

5

10

15

20

25

0 10 20 30 40 50

% Clay Content

Pe

rme

ab

ilit

y (i

nch

es

pe

r h

ou

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Series1

Expon. (Series1)

Code

• Provide a program

• User friendly

• Determines soil content

• Practical solution for waste disposal

Code

Results

• Lack of infra-structure (legal and physical)

Conclusion

• Reservation soils are not conducive to traditional septic systems

• The Navajo Nation needs to work on its infra-structure

• Residents should explore alternative means of waste disposal

Recommendations

• Future teams extend investigation to ground water testing

• Do more cost analysis and environmental assessments of home sites

Acknowledgements

• Dr. Richard Allen• Stephen Austin• Dr. Bahe Billy• Pernell Charley• Consult• Steve Dykstra• Francis Johnson

• Leon Knowlton• Danny Murray• Vernon Nez• Dr. Mick O’Neill• santa@lanl.gov• Dr. Dave Zachmann

Bibliography• Brady, Nyle C. The Nature and Properties of Soils. Prentice-Hall, Inc. 1999.• Keetch, C. Wesley. Soil Survey of San Juan County. USDA. 1980.• Lucas, John F. Introduction to Abstract Mathematics. Wadsworth, Inc. 1986.• Parrill, Frank & Blacksheep Jr., Allan H. Navajo Nation Range Management

Handbook. The University of Arizona. 1981.• Saxon, K.E. http://www.bsyse.wsu.edu/saxton/soilwater/ [Online]. Available.• Woodson, R. Dodge. The McGraw-Hill Civil Engineering PE Exam Guide.

McGraw-Hill. 2001. • http://mn.water.usgs.gov/bemidji/results/panel2.pdf• http://spacelink.nasa.gov/• http://www.nrcs.usda.gov• http://www.terraserver.com• http://www.nima.mil/• http://www.bsyse.wsu.edu/saxton/soilwater/• http://spacelink.nasa.gov/NASA.Projects/Earth.Science/Land/Landsat/• http://earth.jsc.nasa.gov/query.cgi