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World Bank Technical Paper No. 269. Water problems are emerging as the most compelling set of issues facing agricultural production in the 1990s. To address the policy challenges posed by this dilemma, this study focuses on the experience of the Eu
Agricultural operations can contribute to water quality deterioration through the release of several materials into water: sediments, pesticides, animal manures, fertilizers and other sources of inorganic and organic matter. This ''guidelines'' document on control and management of agricultural water pollution has the objectives of delineating the nature and consequences of agricultural impacts on water quality, and of providing a framework for practical measures to be undertaken by relevant professionals and decision-makers to control water pollution.
Although agriculture is one of the most significant and pernicious causes of water pollution in the U.S., federal environmental laws designed to protect water resources exclude or exempt most agricultural activities. State efforts to address water quality impacts from agriculture have met with little success. The challenge of finding a way to reduce agricultural water pollution without causing severe economic harm to farmers is one of the greatest environmental challenges of our time. Large scale industrialized agriculture, with its heavy reliance on fertilizer, pesticide and water inputs, is a major contributor to water pollution. Agricultural practices can cause serious adverse impacts to the quality of both groundwater and surfacewater. Rain or irrigation water that falls on farm fields, picks up water soluble pesticides such as atrazine and nutrients such as nitrites found in fertilizers, causing them to leach into groundwater. Rain and irrigation water that is not absorbed into the soil runs off of agricultural fields carrying with it a variety of pollutants which ultimately end up in surface water bodies. Run-off from farm fields frequently contains high levels of sediments from soil erosion from tilled fields, pesticides and fertilizers. Pesticides that enter waterbodies can adversely impact aquatic life. Nutrients from fertilizers can cause waterbodies to be hypereutrophied, which can severely impact submersed plants and aquatic animals. Run-off of sediments from soil erosion due to tilling can clog streams and fill in shallow areas in water bodies, thereby reducing habitat and light availability to submersed plants. A report by the National Water Quality Inventory identified agricultural nonpoint source (NPS) pollution as “the leading source of water quality impacts on surveyed rivers and lakes, the second largest source of impairments to wetlands, and a major contributor to contamination of surveyed estuaries and ground water.” The federal Clean Water Act (CWA), the primary federal authority for addressing water pollution, has been largely successful at reducing water pollution from point sources such as wastewater treatment plants and industrial discharges through the National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES). A major shortcoming of the NPDES program, however is that it does not apply to NPS discharges, including most agricultural runoff. Although most pollutant discharges to waterbodies from agriculture are not subject to NPDES regulation, the federal CWA does require states to establish water quality standards and total maximum daily loads (TMDLs) that can be used by the states to address agricultural water pollution through regulatory or non-regulatory mechanisms. A TMDL tells you how much of a particular pollutant a particular water body can assimilate without a violation of a water quality standard. Thus, the establishment of TMDL's is an important step in ensuring that state water quality standards are met. The greatest challenge, however, is the allocation of TMDLs among all point and nonpoint source dischargers, and the implementation of the TMDLs. For point source discharges, TMDLs are allocated and implemented through the NPDES permit program and may require pollution reductions beyond what would be required using only technology-based standards. For nonpoint sources such as agricultural, the allocation and implementation of TMDLs is much more daunting. This Article will explore a number of legal mechanisms that could play a role in ensuring that discharges from agricultural activities do not cause or contribute to violations of water quality standards. Specifically, this article will evaluate the relative effectiveness of: 1) narrative nutrient criteria and numeric nutrient criteria, 2) TMDL implementation through regulatory and nonregulatory mechanisms; and 2) Design-based standards such as Best Management Practices (BMPs) and performance-based standards in reducing water pollution form agriculture. The Article will draw on experiences from the State of Florida, including Everglades's restoration efforts, and efforts to reduce agricultural pollution in the Chesapeake Bay basin to demonstrate the efficacy of a variety of approaches and will suggest a multifaceted, watershed-based approach comprised of a combination of regulatory and nonregulatory federal and state efforts.
SEDIMENT AS A WATER POLLUTANT; PLANT NUTRIENTS AS WATER POLLUTANTS; PESTICIDES AS WATER POLLUTANTS; ANIMAL WASTES AS WATER POLLUTANTS; AGRICULTURAL POLLUTION IMPLICATIONS; AGRICULTURE'S INVOLVEMENT IN POLLUTED AND CLEAN WATER.
Agricultural operations can contribute to water quality deterioration through the release of several materials into water: sediments, pesticides, animal manure, fertilizers and other sources of inorganic and organic matter. This guidelines document on control and management of agricultural water pollution aims to delineate the nature and consequences of agricultural impacts on water quality, and to provide a framework for practical measures to be undertaken by relevant professionals and decision-makers to control water pollution. Contents Chapter 1: Introduction to Agricultural Water Pollution; Water quality as a global issue, Non-point source pollution defined, Classes of non-point sources, Scope of the problem, Agricultural impacts on water quality, Types of impacts, Irrigation impacts on surface water quality, Public health impacts, Data on agricultural water pollution in developing countries, Types of decisions in agriculture for non-point source pollution control, The data problem; Chapter 2: Pollution by Sediments; Sediment as a physical pollutant, Sediment as a chemical pollutant, Key processes: precipitation and runoff, Key concepts, Sediment delivery ratio, Sediment enrichment ratio, Measurement and prediction of sediment loss, Prediction models, Sediment yield, Scale problems, Recommendations; Chapter 3: Fertilizers as Water Pollutants; Eutrophication of surface water, Role of agriculture in eutrophication, Organic fertilizers, Environmental chemistry, The point versus non-point source dilemma, Management of water quality impacts from fertilizers, Mineral fertilizers, Organic fertilizers, Sludge management, Economics of control of fertilizer runoff, Aquaculture, Problems of restoration of eutrophic lakes; Chapter 4: Pesticides as Water pollutants; Historical development of pesticides, North-south dilemma over pesticide economics, Fate and effects of pesticides, Factors affecting pesticide toxicity in aquatic systems, Human health effects of pesticides, Ecological effects of pesticides, Natural factors that degrade pesticides, Pesticide monitoring in surface water, Pesticide management and control, The european experience, Pesticide registration, The danish example, Pesticides and water quality in the developing countries; Chapter 5: Summary and Recommendations; Necessity to internalize costs at the farm level, Integrated national water quality management, Assessment methodology, Environmental capacity, The data problem in water quality, Water quality indices for application to agricultural water quality issues, Economic analysis of cost of water pollution attributed to agriculture, Information technology and decision making, Use of water quality objectives, FAO and the POPs agenda, Pesticides in developing countries.