Two testing sites were selected at St. Peters Church and Slack Funeral Home for biochar soil amendment testing. Each site had two test plots (4' x 4' x 2' deep), one with a biochar amendment mixed in at a rate of 4% biochar by mass, and the other a control plot. Each plot was monitored for saturated hydraulic conductivity and infiltration rates.
Where soils had been amended with biochar, saturated hydraulic conductivity increased by a factor of 2 to 10 compared to the control. At the St. Peters Church site, monitoring showed the control plot had a stormwater infiltration rate of 20%, whereas the biochar amended plot had an infiltration rate of 34%. At the Slack site, monitoring showed the control plot had an infiltration rate of 40%, whereas the biochar amended plot had an infiltration rate of >95%.
