Improving Dissolved Phosphorous in Runoff with Water Quality Improvement Structures

This project proposes to construct a phosphorus removal structure on a poultry farm located in the Illinois River watershed, which will be strategically placed to intercept runoff occurring immediately around a poultry production house Awardee will also monitor the effectiveness of the structure by sampling inflow and treated water through the use of automatic samplers and flow meters, tracking the reduction of phosphorous load. The goal is to remove 50 percent of the phosphorous load. More specifically, this project aims to: • Construct a phosphorus removal structure on a poultry farm located in the Illinois River watershed (impaired watershed as indicated by the EPA 303(d) list), which will be strategically placed to intercept runoff occurring immediately around a poultry production house.
• Monitor the effectiveness of the structure by sampling inflow and treated water through the use of automatic samplers and flow meters, thereby allowing one to determine the phosphorus load reduction. Our goal is to remove 50% of the P load.
• After the PSM has been saturated with P in the structure, remove the spent material and test its ability to serve as P fertilizer or mulch in low P soils.
• Present the structure to agricultural producers, policy makers, and stakeholders (i.e. water quality advocate groups) in the area via field tours and web. Our goal is to reach 1000 people through site tours and presentations. Another goal is for this new BMP to be added to the NRCS EQIP program.
• Estimate the cost of implementation of this new BMP in poultry dense watersheds of Eastern Oklahoma and the potential phosphorus load reductions.