Bliss Nitrate Project:
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When the Idaho State Department of Agriculture conducted monitoring in an area north of Bliss, the well and spring water was
found to have elevated levels of nitrate. There were times when the levels even exceeded the 10mg/L allowed by the EPA
and state drinking water standards.
Since this area is within
the boundaries of the Gooding Soil Conservation District, the District partnered with other agencies to discover the cause
of these elevated nitrates. The District and its partners applied for and received a 319 Grant and with the money, a technician
was hired. Mike Tucker began sampling existing wells and storing the data, then began drilling test wells and storing the
data from those wells.
The Bliss Nitrate Project area lends
itself to this kind of study, because of its position and geology, the area is almost a closed hydrologic system held within a
rather small bowl shaped area. It was thought that this would make an ideal area to test the possibility of locating
the problem, and reversing it.
Mike's carefully
collected and stored data will soon divulge the secret of the high nitrate levels.
Stay tuned to this web page for updates as they are received.
Bliss
Nitrate Newsletter- December 2008
Results of Soil Fertility and Irrigation Management
Studies:
The hypothesis that in years of high winter precipitation, or of continued over-irrigation, that leaching
water could move nutrients downward to the groundwater was tested during the crop years of 2005 and 2006.
The conclusions were:
*It was highly unlikely that any of the irrigation systems could
be managed to create deep percolation in mid-season, although it was possible to apply excess water in early or late season.
*
Soil moisture readings indicated that the water was well-managed on the fields that were monitored, with no excess water applied.
*Under
most likely weather and operating scenarios, the impact of irrigation on elevated nitrate in the groundwater in this project
was minimal.
The area northwest of Bliss has been identified by the State of Idaho
as one of the twenty-five high nitrate groundwater areas. The Bliss Nitrate Project originally started out as a 319 Grant
through the Idaho Department of Agriculture for a period of three years to identify possible sources of high nitrate
levels in the groundwater in this area.An informational meeting was held with landowners and operators on March 29, 2005.
Agronomic field observations and modeling efforts to characterize the potential for Nitrate-N movement through
the soil profile of applied fertilizers was undertaken from the fall of 2005 through 2007.
Three years of
agronomic residual nitrogen tracking has suggested that in fields managed under Irrigation Water Management (IWM) there has
been marginal risk from nitrogen being leached from the field.
District Involvement:
*Received
grant monies from DEQ to begin project.
* Established working group with professional and technical agencies.
*Coordinated
sampling with Dept. of Ag on springs and domestic wells.
*Organized meeting with local landowners in the project
area.
*Continued to monitor wells to find the high nitrate source.
Monitoring:
Monitoring began in April 2008 and will continue through April 2009
In order to continue the project and work toward an understanding of how nitrates are filtering into the area, the District
is now working with John Bokor and Amy Williams from the Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ). The District is utilizing
a series of monitoring wells drilled throughout the project area and water samples from the area. Nitrogen levels are tracked
by domestic well and spring samples taken from Butler and Walker springs locted at the northern edge of the project area.
Monthly sampling of the perched aquifer monitoring wells and quarterly sampling of the deep baseline well, in conjunction
with monthly sampling of the five nearest local domestic wells withdrawing from the deep aquifer was undertaken to determine
a relationship between the two aquifers using the seasonal variation of nitrate concentrations. Monitoring, using Idaho Dept.
of Ag. protocol began in April 2008 and will continue through April of 2009 providing data during the irrigation season and
non-irrigated period. Limited sampling results suggest similar trends between the monitoring wells and nearby domestic wells.
