Even Good Farming May Pollute Groundwater

Researchers from Kewaunee County Have Linked Water Contamination to Fertilizer, Livestock Manure and Human Waste

Two researchers who tracked 10 town of Lincoln wells each month for a year estimated that in the area near the wells, agriculture contributed 96 percent of the nitrates to groundwater, and septic systems contributed 4 percent.

The county's 42,000 cowsproduce as much wasteas 1 million people; Kewaunee County has a population of about 20,500.

The researchers concluded that agriculture is tainting private wells even when farmers are following generally accepted farming practices.

"I think a lot of us have been saying that for years. Nutrient management plans don't necessarily mean that your groundwater is going to meet drinking water standards," said Kevin Masarik, who co-authored the study.

"They weren't designed to be protective of drinking water quality."

Masarik, an outreach specialist with the University of Wisconsin-Extension, collaborated with Davina Bonness, a Kewaunee County water quality specialist.

The research was funded by the town of Lincoln and the Lakeshore Natural Resource Partnership, an environmental advocacy group for the region.

If people there want nitrate levels to go down in the long term, the farming practices set out innutrient management plans— such as when and how much manure or other waste is added to fields —will have to change, the researchers wrote.

ButDairy Business Associationlobbyist John Holevogt said, "I don't think that these studies show that nutrient management plans are inadequate, in large part because they don't clearly show what the source of the nitrogen is."

He also questioned whether the samples were taken correctly and the wells were "up to spec."

The DNR and the Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection regulate agricultural waste.

DATCP spokeswoman Donna Gilson said agency officials could not comment on the studies because they had not had a chance to fully review them.

But DATCP and DNR officials said nutrient management plans are designed to minimize, not completely eliminate, pollution.

"The idea of having absolutely no runoff, whether to surface or groundwater, is a very difficult standard to meet, and that's not how the technical guidance is set up," said Keith Foye, who runs DATCP's Land and Water Bureau.

Andrew Craig, DNR nutrient management specialist, agreed.

"Nutrient management plans are not an implicit guarantee that there won't be a discharge of nutrients to groundwater," Craig said.

He noted that weather often determines whether nutrients get absorbed by crops or run off into surface or groundwater. Asked whether the current standards for farming are adequate to protect the karst area's groundwater, Craig said, "We have to implement the rules the Legislature passes.

They're designed to be protective. They could be in some situations; they may not be in others."

Source: Wiskonsin Watch

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Taxonomy

• Agriculture
• Pollution
• Groundwater Recharge