ABSTRACT:
Overuse of fertilizer and/or animal wastes has been cited as the reason for elevated nitrate concentrations in groundwater in agricultural areas. In coastal plain regions of the United States and in other areas where farming practices are conducted over aquifers in unconsolidated sediments nitrate contamination may occur primarily as a result of climatic abnormalities even when nutrients are used according to recommended practices. Water quality standards often are cited as a way to protect groundwater quality. Research suggests that current best management practices are not capable of allowing producers in coastal plain regions to always comply with a nitrate standard for groundwater of 10 mg/l of nitrate.
Footnotes
W. L. Magette is an assistant professor, Agricultural Engineering Department; R. A. Weismiller and J. S. Angle are associate professors, Agronomy Department; and R. B. Brinsfield is an affiliate assistant professor, Agricultural Engineering Department, University of Maryland, College Park, 20742. This is scientific article no. A-5014, Contribution No. 8062 of the Maryland Agricultural Experiment Station, University of Maryland, College Park, 20742. The studies reported here were conducted by the Maryland Agricultural Experiment Station and Maryland Cooperative Extension Service with financial support from the Maryland Department of Agriculture through its Chesapeake Bay Research Program, the Northeast Pesticide Impact Assessment Program, and the Maryland Water Resources Research Center.
- Copyright 1989 by the Soil and Water Conservation Society
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