Larry Risse looks forward to the twice-monthly, voluntary
checks of the water flowing
through his 100-acre farm. He wants to know if practices on his
land somehow contribute to
the pollution of nearby Lake Oconee.

“We need to know what kind of nutrients are being washed
away from our
fields,” Risse said.

A stream runs though his farm, only a few hundred feet from a
pasture rigged with
special collectors that sample the rainwater running off the
land.

Researchers with the University of Georgia and the
Agricultural Research Service of the
U.S. Department of Agriculture check the quality of water
entering Risse’s farm, the
runoff from nearby fields and the water quality when it
leaves.

Farmers Often Wrongly
Blamed

Farmers often get blamed for polluting water. But the research
is finding that the
impacts of land use vary greatly. Some farms do seem to add to
the pollution problem.

“But in some cases, the water leaving the farm is cleaner
than the water coming on
the farm,” said Dory Franklin, an ARS geographer.

On Larry Risse’s farm, for instance, his pond acts as a big
filter. As far as the
current technology can detect, it’s cleaning up the
pollution.

“As (pollutants) slow down, they sink into the pond and
stay in the pond, rather
than going out the back,” Franklin said.

Farmers, Scientists Work
Together

The water that cuts through the Risse farm and other farms
around the northern part of
Lake Oconee eventually winds up in the lake. Pollution in Lake
Oconee already worries
state officials, since it has high bacteria and nutrient levels.

Many of the local farmers have raced to the lake’s aid. By
keeping a close, scientific watch on the water going in at
various farms, the scientists can correct problems before
they get out of hand.

The farmers test a sample themselves, while the UGA
Agricultural Services Lab tests
another for more detailed analysis. The feedback is valuable.

“Often, a farmer has no way of knowing how his practices
are impacting the environment,” said Mark Risse, a biological and
agricultural engineer with the UGA College of Agricultural and
Environmental Sciences.

“In this study,” he said, “the farmers are ‘seeing’ their
water quality twice a month and after every big rain. They know
exactly how their farms impact water quality.”

Identifying
Solutions

As they see the research results, the farmers know firsthand
if changes to their lands
help or hurt.

Wherever researchers find problems, they identify solutions.
Some are as simple as
fencing off streams to keep cattle out and providing alternative
water sources. Others
involve building buffer zones or grass strips to naturally filter
water before it enters a
stream.

Farmers also learn to better manage manure and other nutrients
and use rotational
grazing, which can help both them and the environment.

The research project looks for low-cost ways to solve
problems. In some cases, the
landowner actually profits from the changes.

“We can recommend lot of practices that make a farm more
productive and improve the water quality, too,” Mark Risse
said.

The biggest benefactors are Lake Oconee and the people who use
it. “The benefit is
cleaner water for drinking, fishing, swimming,” Franklin
said. “Lake Oconee will
last a lot longer.”

Ultimately, the research could help more than Lake Oconee. The
scientists say the
approach they use is easily adaptable. It could be used to clean
up many other lakes,
streams and rivers in Georgia and nationwide.