Local resource planning for water quality improvement

Excerpt

THE scene was a local coffee shop in Mason County, Illinois. Farmers were discussing a research study that showed high levels of nitrates and traces of pesticides in the local aquifer that supplies drinking water to most of the county. Nitrates exceeded the drinking water standard in 70 percent of the samples from 10 monitoring wells and in 39 percent of the samples from 14 generally deeper domestic wells. Trace levels of metribuzin; atrazine; and/or simazine, propachlor, and trifluralin were detected in groundwater samples from 10 to 13 monitoring wells located downgra-dient of corn and soybean fields (3). No trace levels were found in the domestic wells.

The farmers were concerned for two reasons. First, the aquifer was their supply of drinking water. Second, they were worried that if the problem persisted they would be forced to stop using chemicals vital to their farming operations.

The result of that early morning discussion was the Illinois River Sands Water Quality Project, which has been a reality in Mason County, Illinois, since the spring of 1990. The project came about because of a unique grassroots …