water quality

A nutrient trading program has saved the state of Virginia more than $1 million while constraining runoff of phosphorus, a fertilizer, into the Chesapeake Bay, said EPA.

Trustees of the Des Moines Water Works "affirmed the utility's intent to sue three northwestern Iowa counties over high nitrate levels in the Raccoon River," which supplies water to the state capital, says the Des Moines Register.

It would cost $2.7 billion a year to reduce by two-thirds the size of the "dead zone" in the Gulf of Mexico through reductions in nutrient runoff, says a study published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

The Des Moines Water Works trustees are expected to vote today to sue three farming counties in northwestern Iowa for high nitrate levels in the Raccoon River, one of two watersheds tapped for drinking water in Iowa's capital city.

An updated risk assessment for chlorpyrifos, a pesticide, shows "additional restrictions may be necessary to ensure that workers who use or work around areas treated with chlorpyrifos are protected and that drinking water sources are protected," says an EPA release.

The algae bloom that shut down Toledo's drinking-water supply for two days this summer has put the spotlight on agricultural runoff, although farmland is not the only source of the pollutants that cause the explosive growth of the cyanobacteria, says...

The Agriculture Department and a congressionally created foundation will put up to $100 million into restoration of wetlands, farmland and waterways damaged by the Deepwater Horizon oil disaster of 2010.

Worrisome pesticide levels in urban streams became far more prevalent in the past decade but declined slightly in agricultural streams, says a study by the U.S. Geological Survey of water samples from 1992-2011. Pesticide levels seldom exceeded human health benchmarks, said a USGS summary. Over 500 million pounds of pesticides are used annually in the United States and "some of these pesticides are occurring at concentrations that pose a concern for aquatic life," it said.

Normal agricultural activities are exempt from regulation under the Clean Water Act and the proposed "Waters of the United States" regulation won't change that, EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy said. The rule, proposed in March, is opposed vocally in farm country. The American Farm Bureau Federation, for example, began a "ditch the rule" campaign out of concern of federal regulation of farm ditches.

Groups representing soybean, corn and hog farmers in Iowa formed an alliance to encourage farmers in the Hawkeye state to voluntarily reduce nutrient runoff, said DTN.

Farmers in Ohio can get up to $2 million in cost-share money to reduce run-off into Lake Erie, said USDA, acting only weeks after algae blooms in the lake disrupted the water supply for Toledo.

States in the Chesapeake Bay region made progress in controlling water pollution from agriculture and communities but many jurisdictions are short of goals, says the Associated Press in summarizing...

The largest U.S. farm group strongly criticized a proposed clean water rule as "an unlawful expansion of federal regulation to cover routine farming and ranching practices as well as other common private land uses, such as building homes."

It's well-known that agricultural practices can affect soil fertility, water quality, wildlife populations and pest numbers for good or bad.