The Seven Soil Characteristics Used to Determine Soil's Attenuation Ability
Based on information from the Soil Survey of Portage County, Wisconsin17, Good and Madison used seven soil characteristics to classify each soil series according to its ability to attenuate contaminants. These characteristics and weighted values were:
- loam, silt loam, sandy clay loam, silt (9)
- clay, silty clay, clay loam, silty clay loam, sandy clay (8)
- loamy very fine sand, very fine sandy loam, loamy fine sand, fine sandy loam (4)
- sand, loamy sand , sandy loam, organic materials, and all textural classes with coarse fragment class modifiers (1)
- clay, silty clay, sandy clay, silt (10)
- sandy clay loam, loam, silt loam, clay loam, silty clay loam (7)
- loamy very fine sand, very fine sandy loam, loamy fine sand, fine sandy loam (4)
- sand, loamy sand, sandy loam,organic materials, and all textural classes with coarse fragment class modifiers (1)
- Mollisols (8)
- Alfisols (5)
- Entisols; Inceptisols; Spodosols (3)
- Histosols; Aquic suborder; and Lithic, Aquollic, and Aquic subgroups (1)
- > or = 6.6 (6)
- < 6.6 (4)
- > 40 inches (10)
- 30-40 inches (8)
- 20-30 inches (3)
- < 20 inches (1)
- very low (10)
- moderate (8)
- high (4)
- very high (1)
- well drained (10)
- well to moderately well drained (7)
- moderately well drained(4)
- somewhat poorly, poorly, and very poorly drained; and excessively well drained (1)
After totaling the sum of weighted values, the soil series were grouped into four categories of soil attenuation:
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