nutrient management and water quality: striving for practical...
TRANSCRIPT
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Nutrient Management and Water Quality:Striving for Practical Solutions
Barry OlsonWater Quality Branch
Irrigation and Farm Water DivisionAlberta Agriculture and Forestry
Getting the Most from Nutrient Management Workshop
Lethbridge, AlbertaFebruary 23, 2017
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Connection between land and water
What’s the connection?
Nutrient
Management
WaterQuality
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Watershed
– An area of land where all the water flows to the same common area, this could be a creek, lake, river, wetland, or ocean.
Land cover:• Natural• Agriculture• Urban• Industrial• Recreation• Transportation• Utilities
Main stem
Outlet
Larger river or lake
Lake
Head waters
Wetlands
Riparian
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Human influences
What determines water quality?
Instreamprocesses
Water quality
FlowNatural watershed features
Non-point sources
Pointsources
Atmospheric
deposition
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Nutrient losses
Manure spreading
Cattle wintering
Direct access
Fertilizer
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major event contributing area
normal event contributing area
Runoff potential
Outlet
Critical source areas
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Outlet
Critical source areas
Over application of manure
Direct cattle access
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At what scale?
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• CAESA five-year program 1992-1997.
• Agricultural practices are contributing to the degradation of water quality.
Agriculture impacts on water quality in Alberta: An initial assessment (1998)
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Beneficial management practices (BMPs)
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Nutrient BMP Evaluation Project
(2007-2012)
Evaluate the environmental effectiveness and economic considerations of applying BMPs in two watersheds.
BMPs at the field scale improved water quality, but generally at an economic cost.
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Challenges to adopting BMPs
• Interest• Available time and priorities• Convenience/practical• Experience and awareness• Education• Age/gender• Cost/resources• Community involvement (e.g., watershed groups)• Legislation• Incentive programs
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Growing Forward 2: 2013-2018
Federal-provincial-territorial partnership with a mandate to drive an innovative, competitive, and profitable Canadian agriculture and agri-food sector.
Environmental Stewardship Programs:Confine Feeding Operation StewardshipOn-farm StewardshipOn-farm Water ManagementAgricultural Watershed EnhancementIrrigation Efficiency
Nextfederal-provincial
Agriculture Policy Framework(2018-2023)
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Alberta’s Land Use Framework
• Cumulative effects approach.• Legislated water quality objectives are being implemented.• All industries and water users will be expected to comply.
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Nutrient Objectives Project (2016-2019)
In agricultural watersheds with BMPs, what are the ‘target’ in-stream nutrient concentrations we are trying to achieve?
How do we know when we have succeeded?
Objectives:
• Establish a framework for setting achievable nutrient objectives in agriculturally-dominated watersheds.
• Relate nutrient ‘objectives’ to regional nutrient ‘thresholds’ and aquatic ecosystem health/services.
Alberta Agriculture and ForestryAlberta InnovatesUniversity of AlbertaUniversity of Calgary
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Alberta Phosphorus Watershed Project
Purpose
• To assess whether water quality can be improved at a sub-watershed scale through the wide-spread adoption of BMPs by producers.
ILWG
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Alberta Phosphorus Management Tool (APMT)
• Is a risk-based assessment tool, which focuses on phosphorus loss from farm operations and provides BMP options to mitigate risks.
Series of questions: Yes/No or risk levels
Excel based
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A few summary points
• Agriculture can have negative effects on water quality (nutrients).
• The 4Rs approach to nutrient management is a good start … (crop focused)
• The management of livestock need to be part of the solution (manure management)
• Critical source areas (transport and source factors): surface water drainage and groundwater vulnerability
• Nutrient BMP adoption can be slow: education/awareness, incentive programs, other economic instruments, credit trading, etc.
• Practice change at the farm/field level
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Thank you [email protected]