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Past Cooperating Organizations:
Past Cooperating Organizations:
Presentations 2016
Detailed Report by Session Themes : Nitrate Policy
Cativiela, Jean-Pierre
Presentation Title
Changing California’s groundwater policies and implementation strategies could increase opportunities for protecting drinking water while improving dairy farm environmental performance.
Institution
Dairy Cares
Presentation
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Abstract
California’s water protection policies were not developed with agriculture in mind, and the resulting limitations are becoming increasingly problematic. Existing regulations and permits are based on concepts born from regulation of point sources, such as effluent limitations, Total Maximum Daily Loads and others that do not fit well in an agricultural context, particularly for groundwater protection. Meanwhile, regional Water Quality Control Plans call for protection of all identified Beneficial Uses in water bodies, including protection of drinking water quality. Since in many areas these protective policies extend to all groundwater (not just usable aquifers), this creates a fundamental conflict between contemporary agriculture, which applies nitrogen fertilizers to many crops, and drinking water protection regulations, which set standards for nitrate at very low levels (10 mg/L nitrate as N) even in non-aquifers. This especially challenges dairies, whose use of organic nitrogen-rich manure is difficult to manage precisely. For agriculture to maintain compatibility with good water quality, large steps forward in technology and management techniques may be needed, some of which may take decades to achieve. Regulators and farmers, including dairy farmers, have few options when agricultural discharges to groundwater cannot meet water quality objectives. Among these, regulators may disallow the discharges, or only allow discharges to continue under a schedule that requires actions by the discharger expected to result, within a defined time frame, attainment of objectives. Unfortunately, it is not always clear what actions will actually attain this goal, especially in very shallow groundwater directly beneath actively farmed croplands. While dairy farmers have improved nitrogen use efficiency, and have options for further improvement, it is far from clear when objectives can be met with today’s or even future management practices and technology. California should consider policy options that allow for continued farming while pursuing improvement over time, even if those efforts do not immediately or even in the near future meet water quality objectives. Our goal should be continued, responsible farming using economically and environmentally sound practices that move toward attainment of objectives. Meanwhile, policy makers must work with agriculture and other stakeholders to assure safe, affordable drinking water for all Californians. In this manner, agricultural communities can remain viable. Existing regulatory and permitting approaches for implementing the above policies also need improvement. For dairies, regulators require extensive accounting, record-keeping and reporting of nutrient applications, and ongoing groundwater monitoring. This approach is logistically impractical, as it tends to direct resources toward generating records instead of recommendations and actions for improvement. California should instead encourage ongoing professional training for farmers, including education related to using new technologies, funding toward purchases of improved irrigation infrastructure where needed, and research toward continued improvement, refinement and standardization of tools farmers can use to improve economic and environmental performance on farms. Measuring success of these programs should be focused on verifying farmer participation in training efforts, and on broad trends in water quality and nutrient use efficiency, rather than creating overly detailed accounting of outcomes on individual dairy farms.
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Graversgaard, Morten
Presentation Title
Development of sustainability strategies in the agri-food system-regional nitrogen management
Institution
Department of Agroecology, Aarhus University
Presentation
Profile Picture
Picture Not Available
Abstract
Nitrogen (N) is necessary and fundamental to the global food and biomass production, and at the same time, the intensification of agriculture has resulted in excess use- and losses of N, which impairs water quality in streams, lakes, coastal waters, and contributes to groundwater pollution. Denmark’s agricultural production is intense and farmland covers more than 60 % of the land, which have resulted in local N water pollution problems. These unintended consequences of agricultural production in Denmark have raised awareness among citizens, NGOs, politicians and research to deal with the problem. However, regional N management is contested by farm and agricultural interest, why solutions call for stakeholders to collaborate, that the agri-environmental policies are targeted, accepted and legitimized to and by stakeholders and that research highlight best practice examples of how sustainability can be achieved through interdisciplinary studies. Finding the right suit of measures to reduce N pollution in Denmark is difficult and needs a comprehensive view on the agri-food system. In this presentation, results from the Danish Nitrogen Mitigation Assessment: Research and Know-how for a sustainable, low-nitrogen food production (www.dnmark.org) are presented. Different strategies - consumer driven, integrated practice and policy solutions – are presented to achieve N source control and mitigation of the unintended consequences of excess N. Specifically, the indirect link between human (over) consumption of proteins and agri-environmental problems is investigated by looking at how building awareness about protein consumption and N-footprint can contribute to a changed consumption behavior towards a more sustainable pathway in the Danish agri-food system, beneficial toward sustainable groundwater in agriculture.
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Greenhalgh, Suzie
Presentation Title
Managing freshwater resources: insights from New Zealand’s policy experience with managing the impacts of agricultural non-point sources.
Institution
Landcare Research NZ
Presentation
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Abstract
Water quality and availability, both surface and groundwater, are key natural resource management concerns in New Zealand. There has been a growing recognition around the nation of the greater scarcity of water resources primarily related to agricultural non-point sources of contamination and the intensification of agricultural production and its subsequent demand for water. This, increasingly, was leading to highly conflicted and contentious policy and planning processes around how best to manage these resources. Most of this conflict is between different agricultural sectors, between community and agricultural aspirations for the health of these resources and to a lesser degree between urban vs rural users. In response, New Zealand has dramatically changed the operating paradigm for managing freshwater resources over the last 10 years including new policy and planning processes and tools, improved approaches to science and its delivery and the use of more collaborative processes to engage communities and affected stakeholders.The National Policy Statement for Freshwater Management (2011 and the 2014 amendments), which is driving much of this change, decrees there will be mandatory limits set for water quality and water takes for all water bodies, including groundwater, in the country. This is affecting rural land uses through their direct impacts on water quality and abstraction of water or through constraints on land use change and intensification. More recently legislative change has formalised the use of collaborative processes as the preferred approach to setting these mandatory limits. The transfer of the responsibility to identify and set freshwater limits to communities is not without its challenges, particularly around the processes to set policy, the difficulties with making trade-offs between different uses and aspirations/values for water, and interpretation and use of science to inform decisions.We will outline some of the experiences of operating within the new policy and collaborative planning paradigms being used in New Zealand to manage freshwater resources and some of the more controversial policy issues that are arising, such as the allocation of water resources. An accompanying presentation outlines the challenges of and approaches to the type of science and its delivery to support collaborative decision-making. |
McDowell, Richard
Presentation Title
Does variable rate irrigation decrease the loss of water quality contaminants from grazed dairy farming?
Institution
AgResearch
Presentation
Profile Picture
Abstract
The irrigation of grazed dairy farms in New Zealand has been cited as a cause of the contamination of shallow groundwater with nutrients (nitrogen – N and phosphorus - P) and the faecal indicator bacteria – E. coli. Drainage from uniform spray irrigation (URI) systems can be decreased if irrigation is matched to variations in soil type. Decreasing drainage with variable rate irrigation (VRI) may also decrease contaminant losses. However, no direct measurements or comparison of contaminant losses to shallow groundwater from VRI compared to URI systems exist under grazed dairying. Over a five year period, fortnightly baseflow and periodic stormflow samples were taken from artificial drainage channels that crossed a 150-ha dairy farm, but entered and exited the farm at single points upslope and downslope of the irrigated area. These channels sat just above the water table (on average 1.1-m below the soil surface, and therefore served as good proxies for contaminant concentration in shallow groundwater. Irrigation was delivered via a centre pivot irrigator at a uniform rate (18-mm per week) from October to May for three years. Irrigation then changed to rates that varied from 3-20 mm per week according to the mean daily soil moisture deficit in the top 20-cm (detected at three locations over the farm). Under URI, median concentrations of dissolved reactive P, total P, ammoniacal-N, E. coli were not significantly different upslope and downslope of the irrigated area, whereas both nitrate-N and total N showed increases downslope (53 and 28%, respectively). Following the installation of VRI, median concentrations of all analytes except E. coli at the downslope site decreased by at least 50%. Approximately 40% less water was used under VRI than under URI, while median flow rates at the downslope site decreased by 27%. Since the application rates of N and P did not change during the trial, the greater decrease in nutrient losses compared to drainage suggests that nutrient use efficiency had also improved. Pasture production and milk solids per hectare did not decrease following the installation of VRI, providing surplus water to expand production if desired. The data suggest VRI decreases the loss of contaminants to shallow groundwater under grazed dairy farming compared to those using URI.
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Porta, Lisa
Presentation Title
CA Central Valley Irrigated Lands Regulatory Program: The Sacramento Valley Rice Growers Approach to Groundwater Quality Management
Institution
CH2M
Presentation
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Abstract
The California Rice Commission (CRC) is a statutory organization representing approximately 2,500 rice farmers who farm approximately 550,000 acres of Sacramento Valley rice fields. The CRC is an approved Coalition Group under the Central Valley Regional Water Quality Control Board’s (RWQCB) Irrigated Lands Regulatory Program. This program aims at reducing impacts to surface water and groundwater from agricultural non-point source discharges, by requiring various planning and implementation actions by the Coalition Groups. Under this program, a rice-specific Waste Discharge Requirements Order (Order) was adopted in March 2014. The CRC has led pro-active measures to comply with this requirement, even before the final Order was approved. As such, a detailed rice-specific Groundwater Assessment Report (GAR) was developed ahead of the Order that describes the shallow groundwater quality conditions underlying rice fields and provided an analysis of potential impacts of rice agriculture to groundwater resources. The GAR was approved in July 2013 and included in the Order. Following this foundational assessment, several additional actions were taken to comply with the Order’s Monitoring and Reporting Program: development and implementation of a web-based Farm Evaluation Template to facilitate Growers’ farm practices input and reporting, establishment of a Groundwater Quality Trend Monitoring Workplan, and development of a Nitrogen Management Planning tool, also web-based.This pro-active approach taken by the CRC has allowed for a stream-lined rice-specific implementation of the ILRP requirements through negotiations with the RWQCB, and helped educate rice growers on upcoming regulatory requirements. Initial program investments and innovative approaches for compliance were developed that have both the grower in mind, and establish reporting and monitoring procedures in a simplified and collaborative fashion for the future. The purpose of this presentation is to provide a summary of the activities undertaken by the CRC over the last decade to help manage surface water and groundwater quality and reduce potential impacts from rice agriculture.
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Schroeter, Angela
Presentation Title
Nitrate in Groundwater – Implementing Groundwater Monitoring Requirements for Irrigated Agriculture and Ensuring Safe Drinking Water in the Central Coast Region of California
Institution
Central Coast Water Board
Presentation
Profile Picture
Picture Not Available
Abstract
Protecting groundwater that serves as a drinking water source is among the highest priorities for the Central Coast Regional Water Quality Control Board (Central Coast Water Board). In March 2012, the Central Coast Water Board adopted an updated Conditional Waiver of Waste Discharge Requirements for Dischargers from Irrigated Lands (Agricultural Order No. R3-2012-0011), including the requirement for growers to conduct groundwater monitoring and report data electronically to the Central Coast Water Board. The objectives of these initial groundwater monitoring requirements are to evaluate groundwater conditions in agricultural areas, identify areas at greatest risk for excessive nitrate discharge and loading and exceedance of drinking water standards, and identify priority areas for nutrient management. Growers enrolled in the Central Coast Water Board’s Irrigated Lands Regulatory Program (ILRP) must sample all domestic drinking water wells and also the primary irrigation well, or participate in an approved cooperative groundwater monitoring program. As of January 2016, the Central Coast Water Board received groundwater monitoring data for approximately 4000 groundwater wells in agricultural areas. Consistent with existing reports, the data confirms wide-spread nitrate impacts to groundwater in the Central Coast Region. In general, nitrate concentrations ranged from less than the detection limit to 870 mg/L Nitrate (as N) – a maximum that is 87 times the drinking water standard for nitrate (10 mg/L Nitrate as N). Overall, approximately 26% of the groundwater wells sampled region wide exceeded the nitrate drinking water standard, including both domestic drinking water wells and irrigation wells. In Monterey County, approximately 38% of the groundwater wells sampled exceeded the nitrate drinking water standard. Well construction information is limited; however the distribution of nitrate concentrations with depth demonstrates that in general, nitrate concentrations decrease with depth. In response to these data, the Central Coast Water Board is implementing the Agricultural Order to control excessive nitrate loading from agricultural operations. In addition, the Central Coast Water Board and the State Water Resources Control Board - Division of Drinking Water (DDW) are coordinating together with county health departments to ensure safe drinking water by notifying domestic well owners and providing technical and financial assistance to small community water systems to implement innovative nitrate treatment solutions. Consistent with California’s Human Right to Water Law, Central Coast Water Board staff is also coordinating with environmental justice organizations to support disadvantaged communities affected by nitrate contamination to help ensure they have safe, clean, affordable, and accessible water adequate for human consumption, cooking, and sanitary purposes. The Central Coast Water Board is responsible for protecting and restoring water quality in the approximately 300 mile long coastal region from southern San Mateo and Santa Clara counties to the northern part of Ventura County. DDW is a statewide agency that regulates public water systems; oversees water recycling projects; permits water treatment devices; and supports and promotes water system security. Groundwater data submitted to the Central Coast Water Board is available to the public on the Water Board’s GeoTracker data management system (https://geotracker.waterboards.ca.gov/gama/).
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Stern, Virginia
Presentation Title
Nitrates, Groundwater and Drinking Water - A Tale of Two Communities
Institution
Wa Dept of Health
Presentation
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Abstract
Washington has over 14000 public water supplies and over 600,000 private wells. Most of the state’s drinking water supplies are of high quality and are not polluted by anthropogenic contaminants. But it is not universally the case. The most common contaminant affecting groundwater and drinking water is nitrate. While most systems and most of the state’s population use drinking water supplies with barely detectable levels of nitrates. Almost 5% of the public supplies have sources with elevated nitrates. The impact on private supplies is not nearly as well documented, but in areas like ones in this paper the impact on private well may be as high as 15%.This paper describes how two areas in Washington, served by major aquifer systems, are addressing the challenge of nitrate pollution. The areas are Abbottsford Sumas Aquifer located in Northwestern Washington and the Lower Yakima River Basin in south central Washington. They are primarily agricultural communities, and the issue of nitrates in groundwater is not new. The contribution from legacy activities versus current agricultural practices is part of an ongoing debate in both communities. What isn’t dateable – is the public health impacts when drinking water supplies are not safe. These are active and growing communities trying to assess, manage and mitigate the threat to their water supplies. This paper compares how two very different communities have faced the challenge at the local level and compares their approaches, struggles, and success. Some of the challenges they face include, aquifers that transect international boundaries, state and tribal boundaries and equally diverse jurisdictional perspectives and authorities. How these communities and their state and provincial partners can provide insight to other communities and regulators looking for paths forward.
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Vægter, Bo
Presentation Title
Action plans to protect groundwater from pesticide pollution in Aarhus, Denmark
Institution
Aarhus Water INC
Presentation
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Abstract
Analysis of some 20 years of monitoring data in the municipality of Aarhus, has shown pesticides in about every third well, with the drinking water threshold being exceeded in about one in every six wells. This article illustrates the efforts undertaken in Aarhus to map the vulnerability of groundwater to pollution and in finding solutions to deal with the pesticide pollution.Groundwater in the Aarhus Municipality can only be protected against pesticide/nutrient contamination by a long-term, holistic effort involving water service providers, management agencies and stakeholders. This has necessitated development of: new geophysical methods to map clay thickness to assess the risk to aquifers from surface activities (both agricultural and urban); extensive monitoring of both groundwater level and quality; extensive stakeholder liaison and communication; and the development of multiple pieces of legislation including multiple amendments. This has taken decades at a considerable cost, but without this level of endeavour, optimal groundwater management would not be possible to protect Denmark and in particular, Aarhus’s groundwater resources. During the course of the 1990s it was acknowledged that approx. 1/3 of the general abstraction wells in Aarhus Municipality were contaminated with pesticides. Aarhus University, Aarhus County and Aarhus Water Inc. collaborated extensively in the period on technology development and mapping. In 1998 a new act was passed in Denmark on mapping of vulnerable areas, identification of groundwater protection zones and action plans for such zones. The experiences from the Aarhus area were employed in the preparation of the Act. The methods to map groundwater vulnerability initially focused on nitrate, which was a known pollution issue as early as the 1980s both in Denmark and in the EU.Throughout the process there has been an understanding that pesticide vulnerability is a more complex issue than nitrate vulnerability. However, as they both commonly occur together, the presence of nitrate in groundwater may be a good indicator of pesticide risk. The mapping activities have shown that in the Aarhus area pesticide vulnerability and nitrate vulnerability coincide extensively. It was decided to designate the nitrate vulnerable areas as groundwater protection zones with respect to nitrate as well as pesticides. At the political level there is an ambition that all vulnerable areas should be protected by imposing a ban on the use of pesticides in these areas. Such a ban may be implemented under the provisions of the 1998 Act. Initially, the water works are to offer voluntary agreements, but if stakeholders fail to enter into a voluntary agreement, the municipality can issue a pesticide ban. Bans can be issued in well protection zones as well as groundwater protection zones. Since 1998 Aarhus Water Inc. as well as other water service providers have been offering voluntary agreements and providing advice on conversion into pesticide free farming. The efforts have been prolonged and persistent, and many agreements have been made. But nevertheless, the voluntary agreements only cover a fraction of the vulnerable areas. The local authorities have decided to exploit the facilities of the legal framework to introduce binding requirements on pesticide free production and in 2013 passed the first ever action plan, which makes use of injunctions. Based on the experience in Aarhus water quality protection through voluntary agreement is unlikely to succeed. A significant percentage of land holders in this jurisdiction only changed behaviour as a result of enforced pesticide bans and injunctions. Costs for voluntary measures and injunctions will be equivalent to 0,07 Euro per m³ abstracted water over the next 20 years. Additionally, all publicly owned areas are kept pesticide-free, and the authorities have initiated measures targeting historical point sources. |
van den Brink, Cors
Presentation Title
Harmonizing agriculture and vulnerable drinking water abstractions in Overijssel, the Netherlands: a collaborative approach
Institution
Royal HaskoningDHV
Presentation
Profile Picture
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Abstract
Since the seventies, in the Netherlands, the agricultural emissions of nutrients and chemicals used for crop protection to water systems have strongly increased. Since the early nineties, these emissions have been reduced by policy measures. In spite of these efforts, water abstraction sites in the sandy areas of the province of Overijssel, the Netherlands, are still experiencing an increasing impact of agricultural emissions on the quality of abstracted groundwater. To meet the requirements of article 7.3 of the WFD, the province of Overijssel assessed the risks on water quality for drinking water abstraction sites in the province. Emissions from dairy farms were indentified as significant sources for which measures were necessary in groundwater protection areas (GWPA). In 2011, a project was formulated based on voluntariness and mutual gains aiming at reducing nitrate leaching and N surpluses and increasing the financial benefits of the farmers at the same time. Farmers were invited to join the project and were supported by agricultural consultants. Measures were selected that would contribute to maintenance of the production intensity without violating values for nitrate leaching to groundwater. These values were transposed into operational boundary conditions, i.e. maximum acceptable N surplus (kg ha-1) on farm and on soil scale. The effect of the measures was monitored by the indicators of the agricultural management and the nitrate concentration of the shallow groundwater. The economic impact was established for each farmer based on the measures agreed upon and the characteristics of the farm. As result of this management, N-surpluses of the soil balance decreased from 165 to 83 kg ha-1 in the period 2012 to 2014. The nitrate concentration in the shallow groundwater fluctuated in 2011, 2012 and 2013 between 93 and 104 but tended to decline to 84 and 75 mg NO3l-1 in 2014 and 2015 respectively. The potential increase in financial benefits of measures implemented in 2015 ranges from € 80 – 135 /ha and € 3,200 - 6,850 / farm for soil measures only and up to € 290 /ha and € 14,500 / farm including all measures. These results were considered as a proof of concept for the approach. To meet the WFD-objectives, it is required to extend this approach from farm level to a regional level, i.e. the entire GWPA. The initial group of farmers shared this dilemma, contributed to develop a strategy for extending the approach and participated in extension activities to commit and inform besides new farmers also contractors and consultants working with the farmers in the GWPA. Extending the proof of concept required a collaborative approach in which new ways of knowledge exchange were implemented.
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Wattel, Esther
Presentation Title
Agricultural emission reduction policy and its effect on groundwater quality in nature areas in The Netherlands over the past 25 years
Institution
National Institute for Public Health and the Environment RIVM
Presentation
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Abstract
Esther Wattel, Leo Boumans, Eric van der SwaluwNational Institute for Public Health and the Environment RIVMPO Box 13720 BA BilthovenThe NetherlandsAir pollution is a transboundary phenomenon. In the Convention on Long-Range Transboundary Air Pollution (CLRTAP) as well as in the European Union’s Directive on National Emission Ceilings (NEC), international agreements have been reached on the reduction of emissions. Excessive deposition of nitrogen and sulphur induces acidification and eutrophication of the soil and its groundwater. To reduce air pollution and its negative effect on ecosystems, several policy measures were taken in The Netherlands, such as the obligation to reduce N emissions when spreading manure and the installation of air scrubbers on animal houses.The Dutch National Acidification Trend Monitoring Network (TMV) was established in 1989.The purpose of the network is to study the impacts of national emission reduction policies on the quality of groundwater in the Netherlands. It specifically monitors the quality of the upper meter of the groundwater under nature areas (forest and heath) with sandy soils.The groundwater under these areas is not affected by any notable pollutants other than atmospheric deposition. In addition, sandy soils have a limited capacity to neutralize the impacts of acidification. For these reasons, the impacts of atmospheric deposition on groundwater quality are most clearly detected under nature areas with sandy soils. In other monitoring networks, the effects of atmospheric deposition are difficult or impossible to discern from other sources of pollution. In agricultural areas, for example, the impacts of fertilizer application on groundwater quality obscure those of other sources of pollution.In addition to TMV, we used data on rainwater quality from the Dutch national monitoring network on Air Quality (LML), to quantify the amount of wet deposition. We also used the National Groundwater Quality Monitoring Program for data on the quality of groundwater at 10m depth (LMG).Our analysis of the measurements shows that rainwater quality and groundwater quality in nature areas have improved significantly over the past 25 years. The impacts of decreased emission of nitrogen are found in rainwater, shallow groundwater and groundwater at 10 m below the surface. In 2014 the median N concentration in rainwater had decreased by 44% compared to 1988. The median concentration of N in the upper groundwater decreased by 61% between 1988 and 2014.A location-wise comparison of the observation data of TMV from 2014 and 1989, using a paired samples t-test, revealed that the pH was significantly higher in 2014 than in 1989, while the nitrate, sulphate and aluminium concentrations were significantly lower (a < 0.05). The analysis of the combined observations shows that the (inter)national measures taken to reduce emissions have resulted in less acidification and eutrophication in nature areas with sandy soil.
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