I.

Introduction
Engineering has been an aspect of life since the beginnings of
human existence. The earliest practice of civil engineering may
have commenced between 4000 and 2000 BC in Ancient Egypt and
Mesopotamia (Ancient Iraq) when humans started to abandon a
nomadic existence, creating a need for the construction of shelter.
Civil engineering is the application of physical and scientific
principles for solving the problems of society, and its history is
intricately linked to advances in understanding of physics and
mathematics throughout history. Because civil engineering is a wide
ranging profession, including several separate specialized subdisciplines, its history is linked to knowledge of structures, materials
science, geography, geology, soils, hydrology, environment,
mechanics and other fields.
Urban drainage, as one of the branch of civil engineering field, have
an important role in the world of construction. Designing the canal,
is one of works that been dealt by the water engineer.
Understanding the material related to the work of water engineer is
a must thing to do in order to improve the quality of the engineer
itself. World demand and construction technology surely increase
over time, by this understanding hopefully as a civil engineer could
able to provide a good service to the community.

II.

Methodology
This paper done by observing the article in the internet about Cat
Clay and Peat. General information about Cat Clay and Peat, and its
impact to civil engineering field are noted and presented in this
paper.

III.

Result and Discussion

a. Peat
Peat known as an organic soil or deposit; in Britain, a soil with an O
horizon at least 40 cm thick. Peat formation occurs when
decomposition is slow owing to anaerobic conditions associated with
waterlogging. Decomposition of cellulose and hemicellulose is
particularly slow for Sphagnum plants, which are characteristic of
such sites, and hence are among the principal peat-forming plants.
Fen and bog peats differ considerably. In fen peats the presence of
calcium in the ground water neutralizes acidity, often leading to the
disappearance of plant structure, giving a black, structureless peat.
Bog peats, formed in much more acidic waters, vary according to

the main plants involved. Species identification of constituents

(including those of animals as well as of plants) remains possible
after long periods. Recent bog-moss (Sphagnum) peat is light in
colour, with the structure of the mosses perfectly preserved.
Peat (turf) is an accumulation of partially decayed vegetation or
organic matter that is unique to natural areas called peatlands or
mires. The peatland ecosystem is the most efficient carbon sink on
the planet because peatland plants capture the CO2 which is
naturally released from the peat maintaining an equilibrium. In
natural peatlands the "annual rate of biomass production is greater
than the rate of decomposition" but it takes "thousands of years for
peatlands to develop the deposits of 1.5 to 2.3 m, which is the
average depth of the boreal peatlands". One of the most common
components is Sphagnum moss, although many other plants can
contribute. Soils that contain mostly peat are known as a histosol.
Peat forms in wetland conditions, where flooding obstructs flows of
oxygen from the atmosphere, slowing rates of decomposition.
Peatlands, also known as mires, particularly bogs, are the most
important source of peat, but other less common wetland types also
deposit peat, including fens, pocosins, and peat swamp forests.
Other words for lands dominated by peat include moors, or
muskegs. Landscapes covered in peat also have specific kinds of
plants, particularly Sphagnum moss, Ericaceous shrubs, and sedges
(see bog for more information on this aspect of peat). Since organic
matter accumulates over thousands of years, peat deposits also
provide records of past vegetation and climates stored in plant
remains, particularly pollen. Hence they allow humans to
reconstruct past environments and changes in human land use.
Peat is harvested as an important source of fuel in certain parts of
the world. By volume, there are about 4 trillion m of peat in the
world covering a total of around 2% of global land area (about 3
million km), containing about 8 billion terajoules of energy. Over
time, the formation of peat is often the first step in the geological
formation of other fossil fuels such as coal, particularly low grade
coal such as lignite.
Depending on the agency, peat is not generally regarded as a
renewable source of energy, as its extraction rate in industrialized
countries far exceeds its slow regrowth rate of 1mm per year, and
as it is also reported that peat regrowth takes place only in 30-40%

of peatlands. Because of this, the UNFCCC, and another

organization affiliated with the United Nations classifies peat as a
fossil fuel. However, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate
Change has begun to classify peat as a "slow-renewable" fuel. This
is also the classification used by many in the peat industry.

Formation of Peat
Peat forms when plant material, usually in wet areas, is inhibited
from decaying fully by acidic and anaerobic conditions. It is
composed mainly of wetland vegetation: principally bog plants
including mosses, sedges and shrubs. As it accumulates, the peat
can hold water, thereby slowly creating wetter conditions, and
allowing the area of wetland to expand. Peatland features can
include ponds, ridges, and raised bogs. For more information on this
process, refer to wetland in general and bog in particular.
Most modern peat bogs formed in high latitudes after the retreat of
the glaciers at the end of the last ice age some 12,000 years ago.
Peat usually accumulates slowly, at the rate of about a millimeter
per year. It is currently believed that the peat in the world's
peatlands has been forming for 360 million years and contains 550
Gt of carbon. Under the appropriate circumstances, peat could be
considered an early component in the formation of coal.
Peat Characteristic
Peat is soft and easily compressed. Under pressure, water in the
peat is forced out. Upon drying, peat can be used as fuel. It has
industrial importance as a fuel in some countries, such as Ireland
and Finland, where it is harvested on an industrial scale. In many
countries, including Ireland and Scotland, where trees are often
scarce, peat is traditionally used for cooking and domestic heating.
Stacks of drying peat dug from the bogs can still be seen in some
rural areas. Peat's insulating properties make it of use to industry.
Peat Drainage
Large areas of organic wetland (peat) soils are currently drained for
agriculture, forestry, and peat extraction. This process is taking
place all over the world. This not only destroys the habitat of many
species, but also heavily fuels climate change. As a result of peat
drainage, the organic carbonwhich was built up over thousands of
years and is normally under wateris suddenly exposed to the air. It
decomposes and turns into carbon dioxide (CO2), which is released

into the atmosphere. The global CO2 emissions from drained

peatlands have increased from 1,058 Mton in 1990 to 1,298 Mton in
2008 (>20%). This increase has particularly taken place in
developing countries, of which Indonesia, China, Malaysia, and
Papua New Guinea, are the fastest growing top emitters. This
estimate excludes emissions from peat fires (conservative estimates
amount to at least 4,000 Mton/CO2-eq./yr for south-east Asia). With
174 Mton/CO2-eq./yr the EU is after Indonesia (500 Mton) and
before Russia (161 Mton) the World's 2nd largest emitter of
drainage related peatland CO2 (excl. extracted peat and fires). Total
CO2 emissions from the worldwide 500,000 km2 of degraded
peatland may exceed 2.0 Gtons (including emissions from peat
fires) which is almost 6% of all global carbon emissions.
b. Cat Clay
Cat Clay, also as acid sulfate soils, are naturally occurring soils,
sediments or organic substrates (e.g. peat) that are formed under
waterlogged conditions. These soils contain iron sulfide minerals
(predominantly as the mineral pyrite) or their oxidation products. In
an undisturbed state below the water table, acid sulfate soils are
benign. However if the soils are drained, excavated or exposed to air
by a lowering of the water table, the sulfides react with oxygen to
form sulfuric acid.
Release of this sulfuric acid from the soil can in turn release iron,
aluminium, and other heavy metals (particularly arsenic) within the
soil. Once mobilized in this way, the acid and metals can create a
variety of adverse impacts: killing vegetation, seeping into and
acidifying groundwater and water bodies, killing fish and other aquatic
organisms, and degrading concrete and steel structures to the point
of failure.

Picture of Cat Clay

Formulation of Cat Clay

The soils and sediments most prone to becoming acid sulfate soils
formed within the last 10,000 years, after the last major sea level rise.
When the sea level rose and inundated the land, sulfate in the
seawater mixed with land sediments containing iron oxides and
organic matter. Under these anaerobic conditions, lithotrophic
bacteria such as Desulfovibrio desulfuricans obtain oxygen for
respiration through the reduction of sulfate ions in sea or
groundwater, producing hydrogen sulfide. This in turn reacts with
dissolved ferrous iron, forming very fine grained and highly reactive
framboid crystals of iron sulfides such as (pyrite). Up to a point,
warmer temperatures are more favourable conditions for these
bacteria, creating a greater potential for formation of iron sulfides.
Tropical waterlogged environments, such as mangrove swamps or
estuaries, may contain higher levels of pyrite than those formed in
more temperate climates.
The pyrite is stable until exposed to air, at which point the pyrite
rapidly oxidises and produces sulfuric acid. The impacts of acid sulfate
soil leachate may persist over a long time, and/or peak seasonally
(after dry periods with the first rains). In some areas of Australia, acid
sulfate soils that drained 100 years ago are still releasing acid.
When drained, pyrite (FeS2) containing soils (also called cat-clays)
may become extremely acidic (pH < 4) due to the oxidation of pyrite
into sulfuric acid (H2SO4). In its simplest form, this chemical reaction
is as follows:
2 FeS2 + 9 O2 + 4 H2O 8 H+ + 4 SO42 + 2 Fe(OH)3 (solid)
The product Fe(OH)3, iron(III) hydroxide (orange), precipitates as a
solid, insoluble mineral by which the alkalinity component is
immobilized, while the acidity remains active in the sulfuric acid. The
process of acidification is accompanied by the formation of high
amounts of aluminium (Al3+) released from clay minerals under
influence of the acidity), which are harmful to vegetation. Other
products of the chemical reaction are:
1. Hydrogen sulfide (H2S), a smelly gas
2. Sulfur (S), a yellow solid
3. Iron(II) sulfide (FeS), a black/gray/blue solid
4. Hematite (Fe2O3), a red solid
5. Goethite (FeO.OH), a brown mineral
6. Schwertmannite a brown mineral

7. Iron sulfate compounds (e.g. jarosite)

H-Clay (hydrogen clay, with a large fraction of adsorbed H+ ions, a
stable mineral, but poor in nutrients)
The iron can be present in bivalent and trivalent forms (Fe2+, the
ferrous ion, and Fe3+, the ferric ion respectively). The ferrous form is
soluble, whereas the ferric form is not. The more oxidized the soil
becomes, the more the ferric forms dominate. Acid sulfate soils
exhibit an array of colors ranging from black, brown, blue-gray, red,
orange and yellow. The hydrogen clay can be improved by admitting
sea water: the magnesium (Mg) and sodium (Na) in the sea water
replaces the adsorbed hydrogen.
Impact of Acid Sulfate Soil
Disturbing potential acid sulfate soils can have a destructive effect on
plant and fish life, and on aquatic ecosystems. Flushing of acidic
leachate to groundwater and surface waters can cause a number of
impacts, including:

Ecological damage to aquatic and riparian ecosystems through

fish kills, increased fish disease outbreaks, dominance of acidtolerant species, precipitation of iron, etc.
Effects on estuarine fisheries and aquaculture projects
(increased disease, loss of spawning area, etc.).
Contamination of groundwater with arsenic, aluminium and
other heavy metals.
Reduction in agricultural productivity through metal
contamination of soils (predominantly by aluminium).
Damage to infrastructure through the corrosion of concrete and
steel pipes, bridges and other sub-surface assets.

When brickwork is persistently wet, as in foundations, retaining walls,

parapets and chimneys, sulfates in bricks and mortar may in time
crystallise and expand and cause mortar and renderings to
disintegrate. To minimise this effect specialised brickwork with low
sulfate levels should be used. Acid sulfates that are located within the
subsoil strata has the same effects on the foundations of a building.
Adequate protection can exist using a polythene sheeting to encase
the foundations or using a sulfate resistant Portland cement. To
identify the pH level of the ground a soil investigation must take
place.

IV.

Refference
http://www.encyclopedia.com/topic/peat.aspx
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peat
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acid_sulfate_soil