The purpose of this study was the characterization of a soil system, focused on proprieties that can clarify the dynamics and contribute to the definition of criteria that determine the ability of these soils as recipients of effluents. An experimental study area was used, adjacent to the Sewage Treatment Station of the municipality of Lins (SP), where the sewage is treated in a system of stabilization ponds. The soil samples, taken from five trenches in a toposequence of a slight slope, were characterized in morphological, grain, chemical, mineralogical and micromorphological analyses. The soils had developed from the sandy sediment Adamantina (Group Bauru) and represent a Latosol - Argisol system where the transition Bw - Bt occurs laterally from the top to the bottom of the slope. Three pedogenetic phases were identified in this soil system. The first, clay illuviation and particle compaction, responsible for the formation of textural horizons, was overlayered by processes of latosolization and hydromorphism, which are currently active in these soils. Micromorphological analyses showed that the porosity of these soils is intense, characterized by the grain arrangement of the widely prevalent quartz skeleton and arrangement of the granular microaggregates. The permeability is still favored by the intense action of mesofauna. The soils are dystrophic and composed of kaolinite and iron oxides in the clay fraction. For being a fragile system, any type of waste disposal to the soil requires constant monitoring, both for quality maintenance and recovery of the pedological cover.
soil characterization; latosolic B; textural B; micromorphology; soil quality
