Environment & Consumption - Agricultural Runoff

Introduction

The freshwater sources located in the United States are vital to the sustainability of our population. These bodies of water are the primary source of drinking water for humans and wildlife, they are the habitats of many animals, we access them for fishing, and much more. This is why it is necessary to address any causes or practices which negatively impact the quality of our freshwater sources. In addition to addressing issues, it is important to determine what can be done to decrease their negative impact on the environment. The major cause of our water being polluted, that will be our sole focus here, is that of agricultural runoff.

Reintroduction to Issue

Agricultural runoff is "the runoff into surface waters of herbicides, fungicides, insecticides, and the nitrate and phosphate components of fertilizers and animal wastes from agricultural land and operations" (ecologydictionary.com, 2008). “Pollutants from farming include soil particles, pesticides, herbicides, heavy metals, salts, and nutrients such as nitrogen and phosphorus” and some of the causes of these pollutants are “soil erosion, feeding operations, grazing, plowing, animal waste, application of pesticides, irrigation water, and fertilizer” (Tox Town, 2014). "The latest National Water Quality Inventory indicates that agriculture is the leading contributor to water quality impairments, degrading 60 percent of the impaired river miles and half of the impaired lake acreage surveyed by states, territories, and tribes. Runoff from urban areas is the largest source of water quality impairments to surveyed estuaries (areas near the coast where seawater mixes with freshwater)" (EPA, 2014).

Environment Impacts

The pollutants (especially sediment) and other toxins entering our water supply result in extreme deterioration in the quality of our surface water. "Excess sediment can change a stream from one with a clean gravel bed to one with a muddy bottom. With this change many of our native fish and animals will disappear. Gravel beds and cobble bars within a stream provide important spawning areas for many aquatic stream species, including trout and other game fish. The soil particles cover spawning areas, smothering trout eggs, aquatic insects, and oxygen producing plants. Increased turbidity levels (suspended sediment) in a stream will increase water temperatures, reduce light penetration and plant growth, and affect the ability of fish to locate and capture prey by greatly reducing visibility. Trout and other fish can die from the abrasive, gill clogging effects of suspended sediment, which interferes with their breathing” (Stream Notes, n.d).

Other issues, as a result of the excess nutrients in pesticides entering our watersheds, include the development of algal blooms. The increased algae in the water limits sunlight, reduces oxygen levels, and this ends up killing off aquatic life and plants. (Keystone College, 2001). In addition, insecticides and pesticides are full of toxic chemicals and these toxic chemicals, while increasing the actual toxicity of the water quality, "can poison fish and wildlife, contaminate food sources, and destroy the habitat that animals use for protective cover" (EPA, 2003). Overall, the negative impacts of agricultural runoff are great and it is time to address what is currently being done, and what can be done to attempt to help the situation.

Present Efforts

There are many different advocacy groups/teams/organizations which are actively working to make a difference in our environment, including the treatment and quality of our water. For example, of the many organizations, there is one known as The Nature Conservancy. The Nature Conservancy is a worldwide organization which "partners with people communities in all 50 states and 30 countries to protect water sources" and they work in an attempt to "prevent deforestation and destruction of grasslands – nature’s water filters, restore forests and grasslands that have already been lost or damaged and sending erosion into our waters, equip farmers with practical ways to keep harmful run-off out of our waters, restore floodplains that act as sponges and send water down into groundwater supplies and filter pollution out of rivers, create new science that helps pinpoint the greatest threats to our waters and the most effective ways to combat them" (The Nature Conservancy, 2015). Looking even more closely, another advocacy group is the Clean Water Act Council.

The Clean Water Act Council is an advocacy group which has been in effect, in Wisconsin, since 1985. This advocacy group focuses on many areas, but when it comes to water pollution their efforts have been directed toward the following: "Protesting many ineffective or backwards state and federal proposals for pollution discharge controls… Fighting for enhanced rules protecting "Exceptional and Outstanding Resource Waters" like the Wolf River… Promoting greatly increased regulation of manure spreading and other non-point rural land run-off pollution… Challenging inadequate statewide DNR rules regulating urban storm water run-off.,. Promoting the Priority Watershed clean-up of the East River - through our Pedal, Paddle, Plod Triathlons… Providing non-profit fiscal sponsorship for Centerville CARES and Kewaunee CARES, local citizen groups in Manitowoc and Kewaunee Counties working intensively on agricultural surface run-off and groundwater contamination problems in their areas and statewide" (CWAC, 2015).

The issue of water pollution from nonpoint sources didn't go unnoticed at a nationwide level either. "In 2012, the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) launched the National Water Quality Initiative (NWQI), in collaboration with the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and state water quality agencies, to reduce nonpoint sources of nutrients, sediment, and pathogens related to agriculture in small high-priority watersheds in each state" (EPA, 2014). The quality of the water is monitored regularly