Groundwater Quality Monitoring – Long Term Effects of Intensive Farming and Sprinkler Irrigation on Groundwater Quality

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Project Number:

DNR-015

Other Project Number:

WR85R011

Funding Year:

1985

Contract Period:

-

Funding Source:

DNR

Investigator(s):
PIs:
  • Phil Kammerer, USGS
Abstract:

To quantify water quality changes from intensive irrigated crop farming in Portage and Adams counties in Wisconsin and relate the changes to specific farming practices. Previous research identified water quality changes since irrigated agriculture began in the Central Sands plain, though data is not sufficient to define trends. Four sites consisting of 160-acre fields irrigated by a central sprinkler system were monitored for water-quality changes from 1979 to 1984. Piezometer nests measured the vertical and horizontal groundwater gradients. Water level measurements were made at the same time as groundwater samples taken, at the beginning and end of each irrigation season.

No final report was submitted for this project per the Wisconsin Dept. of Natural Resources communcation 2010.

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