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Agricultural BMPs
An Educator’s Guide
What are Agricultural BMPs?
Best Management Practices
An approach to help farmers reduce or eliminate agricultural pollution without causing economic disruption to farms.
Why are BMPs important?
Help control and reduce non-point source pollutants
Reduce surface run-off Provide farmers with safe alternatives to the
use of fertilizers
Non-Point Source Pollutants that have no traceable origin of
entry into the water supply Costly to control
What are NPS pollutants?
What is Agricultural Run-off?
Surface water that drains from farm fields due to heavy rainfall and melting snow.
Contains organic waste from animals and fertilizers.
Pollutants of Agricultural Run-off
Nutrients
Pathogens
Sediments
Toxic waste
Nutrients
Substances that help plants and animals live and grow.
Located in the surface water run-off Contains ammonium, phosphate, and nitrate
compounds. Found in fertilizers and animal waste These nutrients in the water promote eutrophication.
The dissolved oxygen level decreases. The result is the death of the fish and other aquatic life.
Pathogens
Disease causing microorganisms present in human and animal waste
Most pathogens are bacteria and viruses
178 samples, 108 sample sites
30% of samples < 100 Enterococcus/100 ml
48% of Samples < 200 Enterococcus /100 ml
82% of Samples < 500 Enterococcus /100 ml
18% of Samples > 500 Enterococcus /100 ml
Coldwater Creek
Sediments
Soil particles from fallow fields carried to lakes, rivers, bays, and ponds
Toxic Wastes
Are chemicals such as pesticides which cause human and wildlife health problems
Runoff collection
Some solutions to agricultural run-off
Filter strips: rows of plantings that are designed specifically to remove pollutants from runoff from sheet flow of adjacent land through filtering and infiltration
Biosolids: a natural fertilizer that is processed at a wastewater plant. Provides slow release of nutrients.
Biosolids application
UWF/USDA PROJECT
To educate teachers and students about the importance of agricultural run-off A grant is provided through the USDA Introduce the techniques and the applications of research to the discovery of pollutants on
land and water www.uwf.edu/usda
Science teachers in training, Escambia and Santa Rosa Counties, FL
Project Overview
Research Projects
Comparison of biosolids to inorganic fertilizer application on Bahia Grass pasture- runoff water quality, soil chemistry, soil microbiology, and grass yield.
Watershed analysis of nutrient and fecal sourcesEscambia RiverColdwater CreekPond Creek
Aquaculture pond overflow grass strip BMP analysis nutrients, organics, oxygen demand, microbiology
Row Crop BMPs and runoff quality
Education Summer Camp 2004
Vocabulary Words
Aquaculture: the growing of aquatic plants and animals for food or other purposes
Biosolids: solid or semisolid material obtained from treatment wastewater, often used as fertilizers.
Dissolved oxygen: concentration of oxygen dissolved in water Eutrophication: when high level of nutrients are located in lakes or ponds, this
reduces the dissolved oxygen content and causes death to fish and other inhabitants
Field capacity: moisture content of a soil after the gravitational water has drained away
Grant: money that has been applied for by organizations to help in development and/or research
Organic: any food grown without the use of chemical fertilizers or pesticides