Preventing Agricultural Sector from Chemical Polluting of Groundwater

Next, according to the article “Iowa’s Nasty Water War”, (2016) claims that innocent people are at risk for major health problems. A specific example is shown with the Raccoon river that runs right through Iowa. Farmers are spraying their fields with fertilizers to help the crops grow with few problems which sounds like a great idea until a study had shown that there was a large amount of runoff from three rural counties near by. When nitrates are ran into a water supply and a infant consumes it such as in the child’s formula the nitrates constrict the oxygen in the baby's blood thus turning the child a light blue. Others that are vulnerable are pregnant women and the elderly because they have such weak immune systems and are susceptible to

Should California regulate groundwater? In my opinion, I think that farmers shouldn’t be able to get water from underground because other farmers are sucking up all the underground water. I had read an article that was talking about if they should let farmers be able to get water from underground. The article’s that I have read was that they think they shouldn’t because farmers would get gallons of water from underground. The state should regulate groundwater.

In my opinion I believe that the government should regulate groundwater, because some ranchers don’t think so? It is becoming an issue because farmers want to be digging holes in the ground to get water that doesn't belong to them. I think we should supervise water because who wants to take a bath in the river.

The states of Michigan, Indiana, and Ohio are mainly known for their auto industries, but automobiles aren’t the only thing these states specialize in. For starters, Michigan has a growing industry in technology. Technology just happened to be one of the top five industries fueling Michigan’s economy. This industry is supported by their unrivaled epic center for research and development. The research and development center is where work is directed towards the innovation, introduction, and improvement of products and processes. When dealing with technology, water technology is a necessity because it aids greatly in Michigan’s ever improving agricultural industry. The agricultural industry brings in $101billion to Michigan’s economy which

With our water aquifers running out of water fast and our farmer pumping out water as quickly as they can, our aquifers will not be able to replenish themselves fast enough to survive the constant water use, and if the Californian government were to just implement a law regulating how much water these farmers use, the state of California may be one step closer to solving the problem of groundwater depletion. Currently, when a farmer digs a well in California, they have no limitations on how much water they use nor do they have to tell anybody how much groundwater they use (Pool). In California, farmers use eighty percent of the state 's groundwater, and without the

Upon the signing of the Clean Water Act of 1965, President Lyndon B. Johnson said, “The banks of a river may belong to one man or one industry or one state, but the waters which flow between the banks should belong to all the people.” This statement is profound because it emphasizes the need of water is universal and should be accessible by everyone. But in order to preserve water organizations must be put in place that protect the water and make it accessible. In order to establish a global change in water sustainability, it is essential preservation efforts start on the local scale. The front runner in the local efforts to achieve sustainability is the protection of watersheds. The DuPage County has six primary watershed planning areas:

On April 1st, 2015 California Governor Jerry Brown passed an executive order calling for the reduction of water use in urban areas by 25 percent (average across all counties) relative to 2013 data (Bechtel). These restrictions did not include agricultural water uses despite Agriculture accounting for approximately 80 percent of water use within the state (Bechtel). On June 12, 2015 restrictions were placed on agricultural use that affected up to 114 senior water right holders (Sanders). These restrictions forbid farmers from using rivers that have been severely diminished by the drought as a source of water. However, they can still legally pump groundwater on their property and purchase water in the open market (Sanders). This means they don’t necessarily have to reduce the amount of water they use, it only strips them of one (for some farmers very important) water resource. Supporters of this order include State Water officials, State Senators Jim Nielson and Fran Pavley among other representatives, California farmers, Senior water rights holders, and of course Governor Jerry Brown (Stevens). Felicia Marcus of the State water Resources Control Board states, “Asking people to cut back, take shorter showers and put their lawn on a water diet is very different than fields that are fallow and thousands of people out of work” (Stevens).

According to UN Secretary General Boutros Boutros Ghali, “Water will be more important than oil this century”, and others have said that the next big war will be fought over water - not oil, not religion but water, which from space, looks like there is an abundance of. However, very little of the Earth’s water is actually drinkable; ninety-seven percent of water on our planet is saline located in the ocean, and only three percent is considered freshwater found in glaciers, lakes, rivers, and underground aquifers. (“Where Is All of The Earth’s Water?”) (See Appendix A). To make matters worse, this small amount of water is being contaminated with pollutants, and underground aquifers are being drained for agricultural uses, making water even more scarce. There are ways though to combat this growing problem by installing low impact stormwater maintenance systems which slowly filter and cleanse runoff water. One way of doing this is through bioswales, an ecosystem approach to stormwater runoff, and currently, Prairie Crossing Charter School does not have such a conservation measure like this in place. Since our school serves as an environmental

Back then, people used to think that we had an unlimited amount of groundwater in our aquifers, and we used to pump groundwater at insane rates. We were unaware of the unintended consequences we were causing by draining this much water. In the 1930s farmers noticed the ground had begun sinking. But by the late 1970’s the ground had sunk by 30 feet. Now we know how pumping groundwater can cause environmental changes. We realize our aquifers are running out of water. Now we are doing everything we can to save and replenish our aquifers. Environmentalists have come up with ways to decrease groundwater depletion and restore groundwater. Farmers could use rain gardens to restore groundwater and water institutions could recycle stormwater to also

REMIEDIATING AGRICULTURAL WATER CONTAMINATION Remediating Agricultural Water Contamination: Problem, Solution, and Barriers Paper Problem Concerns about water pollution are generally focused towards sources that are highly visible and chemically oriented. However, the greatest causes of water contamination and quantity abuse in the United States come from agricultural production (United States Environmental Protection Agency [EPA], 2012a), which is defined as a nonpoint source that pollutes with nutrients. In 2011, nine

Do you like going to the bathroom outside? Do you like taking showers? If you answered no on both of those questions then you would probably not want to regulate groundwater. In source 2 there was this girl named Angelica who hasn’t taken a shower in five months.Also in source 2 there are families with nightly dishes.If you don’t have a lot of water how are you going to wash you dishes? Most families don’t have a dishwasher, so they have to wash their dishes by hand.When you wash dishes by hand you tend to use more water than an average dishwasher.So they wouldn’t be able to wash there dishes because they have to use their water on the stuff that was important.If we don’t regulate ground water these things

Nitrate is the final breakdown of nitrogen fertilizers. It gets built up in groundwater under agricultural land. High levels of nitrates can also be found in streams and rivers due to runoff of fertilizer from agricultural fields. Ground water is used for drinking water by 90% of the rural population in the United States. Many rural residents have private wells but they aren't regulated by the Environmental Protection Agency. A few cases studies equated well water use and cancer risk. In Germany stomach cancer risk was associated with private wells and not in public water systems. Mary states “The United States Geological Survey assessed available private well measurements across the U.S. between 1970 and 1992 and found that 9 percent of samples exceeded the regulatory limit for nitrate. In agricultural areas, it is estimated that 22 percent of private wells exceed the MCL in contrast to less than five percent of public water

Supporting Detail: Nitrate leaching in the Waikato region caused by dairy farming led to around 30 % of groundwater sites under dairy land did not meet the Ministry of Health’s drinking water guidelines, compared with only 5 % from dry stock farms and urban wells when tested in 2008. Foote et

The country side: where there are trailing meadows of green grass, birds singing the day’s melody, children either are heading to the mill pond to fish or going to play in endless fields of dirt. This life seems simple and maybe even perfect. Down the back roads, many farms fill up the country side. Farming is a part of the importance of evolution. Humans went from not just hunting and gathering but making their own food to feed themselves and others too. This soon led into food production. Humans across the globe took this part of history and made production essential to life. There is a problem though, it is called soil pollution. Soil pollution is when either a natural or chemical product is put into the soil and makes it

The past and current agricultural practices in Minnesota have led to the degradation of the topsoil and water in the state. This degradation leads to a negative impact on the environmental and economic health of the state. Both the agricultural and recreational economies are effected by the lack of progress in keeping soil, excess nutrients, and chemicals out of the streams, rivers, and lakes. Minnesota has come up with solutions to address the issue from new technics for the industrial farming (cover crops/crop rotation), conservation efforts (wetland restoration/protection), and innovative farming practices (urban farming). Each solution has its advantages and disadvantages that will help in deciding if the solution is an environmentally sustainable and economically feasible decision. Furthermore, opinions on the solutions happening in Minnesota addressing the decline of the soil and water quality in the state due to the agriculture industry can be concluded in the finish of this paper.