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Irrigation
Magic
Fertilizer
runoff along the Colorado River raises the salinity of the water,
which can kill fish and reduce crop yields downstream. Utah
State
Extension is cooperating with state and federal agencies to assist
local growers in switching from ditch to pressurized sprinkler
irrigation. Water quality has been improved for downstream users by
reducing the salt load of the Colorado River by 89,143 tons of salt
per year. In a related project, one producer saved $1,306 in
fertilizer costs. Another producer who used precise application of
fertilizer saved $105 per acre and prevented nitrate leaching into
water supplies.
A Wyoming project using low-volume sprinkler irrigation on
sugar beets, a major cash crop for the state, is reducing nitrate 
contamination in the soil. A Colorado State surge irrigation
program used less water and reduced runoff by 20 %; reduced tillage
and use of soil-stabilizing polymers decreased salty drainage by 37 %
to the Arkansas River and its groundwater basin. The overall cost
savings and productivity increase to producers amounted to $1.6
million over the last seven years.
High concentrations of
selenium endanger migrating west-coast waterfowl and shore birds. California has
developed a bacterial  treatment that removes 80 percent of the
selenium from agricultural drainage water flowing through a
5,000-gallon-a-day treatment facility in California’s Central
Valley. An unexpected result of the treatment showed a 90 percent
decrease in nitrates as well. Applying the technology more broadly
will improve the quality of millions of acre-feet of water in
California each year.
An
Arizona program to help urban Tucson reclaim wastewater used a
natural, low-cost method to filter out 90 % of the organic compounds
with no chemical additives or mechanical filtration systems. A
37-meter layer of soil serves as a sustainable wastewater purifier and
replaces the need for a conventional treatment plant. The project has
expanded to include the cities of Phoenix, Ariz., and Los Angeles and
Orange County, Calif., at their request.
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