May I ask if water containing phenols can be used to water plants?

What else is there besides phenol? Water used for watering plants is water intended for landscaping, and its phenol content should be less than 0.5 ppm; 10 ppm is a bit high.

In principle, phenol-containing wastewater is not suitable for use in landscaping due to its odor, which has an adverse effect on the landscape. Unless it is processed to a very low degree, it is odorless.

Our factory tested a small area of lawn, and found that the grass grew very well with no odor. But I don’t know how to measure the phenol content in grass and soil; will it seep into groundwater?

The information is from Baidu Baike. Water containing one ten-thousandth part of phenol cannot be drunk; the fish in such water emit a kerosene-like odor. Treating such wastewater takes a long time. Data shows that wastewater containing phenol is one of the most harmful and widely polluting industrial wastewaters in the world, and it represents an important source of water pollution in the environment. If these wastewater are discharged directly or used for irrigating farmland without treatment, they can pollute the air, water, soil, and food. Under normal circumstances, if the concentration of phenolic compounds in water exceeds 0.01%, the water cannot be consumed ； Phenols at high concentrations (greater than 5%) possess strong oxidizing properties; they can cause severe corrosion to the skin, gastrointestinal tract, and other tissues, and they may also damage the central nervous system, leading to convulsions, coma, and other effects. Currently, wastewater discharged from many industrial sectors such as coal gas, coking, oil refining, metallurgy, machinery manufacturing, glass, petrochemicals, wood fibers, chemical synthesis, plastics, pharmaceuticals, pesticides, and paints contains phenols. Researcher Gong Ruizhong from the Nanjing Institute of Environmental Sciences under the Ministry of Ecology and Environment said yesterday that if water is contaminated with phenols, these substances quickly accumulate in fish bodies, giving them a kerosene-like odor. Gong Ruizhong said that phenolic pollutants are persistent contaminants, and it generally takes 100 years to break down the benzene rings in them. In the face of emergencies like those in Yancheng, immediate corrective actions are needed: the water intake points must be sealed right away, and the polluted water area should be isolated, with chemical coagulants added to cause the phenolic substances to solidify and settle. However, this process also takes some time.

If further deep treatment is carried out, it can meet the reuse standards.