Latest / The Illinois Nutrient Loss Reduction Podcast / Episode 22 | Navigating the New Waters of Sustainably Sourced Grain Markets
Transcript
- Episode 21 | ICC's System Approach to Improving Water Quality 00:00:06:03 - 00:00:31:22 Todd Gleason This is the Illinois Nutrient Loss Reduction Podcast, episode 21. Illinois Central College's system approach to improving water quality. I'm U of I Extension's Todd Gleason. Pete Fandel has been putting together a system approach to improving water quality coming off of farm fields located on the ICC campus overlooking the Illinois River near Peoria. Can you tell me just a bit about this approach? 00:00:31:24 - 00:00:49:28 Pete Fandel Yeah. Well, basically on the we have about 50 tillable acres here on the ICC campus. And several years ago we started looking at cover crops just for kind of, you know, purposes of soil health and water quality. And then that kind of eventually snowballed into kind of an expanded program kind of really focused in on the nutrient loss reduction strategy and water quality. 00:00:50:00 - 00:01:10:24 Pete Fandel Where the first phase was, we did a paired field study, two fields side by side with separate, separate independent tile lines. Once farmed, conventionally tillage corn and soybeans. The others no till corn and soybeans with cover crops every year. And then we analyze all the tile water flowing out of those two fields for nutrient loads and concentration. 00:01:10:26 - 00:01:31:24 Pete Fandel That's been going for about five years. Couple of years later, we added a bioreactor. So it all the water after it leaves those two fields, then flows through a bioreactor. And again we have water sampling to tell how good of a job a bioreactor can do at removing, nitrates from the tile water. And then the next phase of that project was just here in July. 00:01:31:26 - 00:01:55:04 Pete Fandel We built a one acre wetland on our campus that actually drains almost all of the water off the 50 acres of the agricultural fields. Through all that, all the tidal water will basically flow through a one acre wetland. And again this spring, then we'll put water monitoring stations, on the inlet and the outflow of the wetland, again, to be able to monitor the effectiveness of wetlands at removing nutrients, in the tile water. 00:01:55:07 - 00:02:03:15 Todd Gleason So tell me about the difference between the two farms. You've had that running for five years. Which is plenty long enough to collect the data to get a good idea. 00:02:03:18 - 00:02:19:22 Pete Fandel Correct. I mean, obviously, year in, year out, there's variances depending on weather and rainfall, etc., but, on average, basically when you move to a system where you're having cover crops in a field, that's about a 40% reduction in nitrates getting to the tile line, that can and that our data tended to. 00:02:19:22 - 00:02:38:18 Pete Fandel So that happen from the very first year that cover crops were planted. So I think there's a big advantage of having a cover crop in a field and being able to capture all that leftover nitrogen that might be in a field, or that's being converted by the microbes in the soil after you're done with harvest, etc.. Being able to put that nitrogen back into an organic form in a plant rather than it getting to the tile lines. 00:02:38:22 - 00:02:46:08 Todd Gleason You also have a woodchip bioreactor in the system that's acting as a filter. Can you tell me how it's been working? 00:02:46:11 - 00:03:01:20 Pete Fandel Yes. I mean, definitely the bioreactor does a good job at cleaning up the water that flows through the bioreactor. I'd say one of the limiting factors though of a bioreactor is, during the peak rain events, or I should say high rain, high flow events where you get lots of rainfall in a short amount of time. 00:03:01:22 - 00:03:24:23 Pete Fandel A lot of the water bypasses the reactor because it just can't handle that much water. So in the grand scheme of things, the total amount of water that gets cleaned by the bioreactors is only about 15%, roughly of the amount of water that actually flows out of those two fields, but that 15% is very effectively cleaned. But again, it's a small fraction of the total load of the water coming out of the field just because of the high flow events. 00:03:24:26 - 00:03:30:06 Todd Gleason This woodchip bioreactor is the second filter in the system. Beyond the cover crops on one of the fields. 00:03:30:06 - 00:03:30:19 Pete Fandel Correct. 00:03:30:19 - 00:03:35:13 Todd Gleason And then there is a third element. You're in the midst of putting together a constructed wetland. 00:03:35:15 - 00:03:42:23 Pete Fandel Exactly. That's that's why we yeah, it's kind of unique that we have them all in the same system. So we can kind of analyze the different loadings at different stages. 00:03:42:26 - 00:03:56:24 Pete Fandel But yeah, the point of the wetland is obviously it's at the very end of the, of the 12 inch tile that drains pretty much the entire 50 acres. So we're hoping to be able to obviously capture all that and all the nutrients coming out of the tile water, see what the what the wetland can do with that. 00:03:56:27 - 00:04:14:09 Pete Fandel It was the wetland was designed by the Wetlands Initiative. And and after they designed it, the the designs were went through the NRCS to make sure they were approved by their practices as well. So it's sized accordingly where it should be able to filter out all them. Pretty much most of the nutrient load coming off the 50 acres. 00:04:14:11 - 00:04:29:14 Pete Fandel And it it is a little bit different than a typical wetland you might see on a farmer's field or in a farmer's, because it's, it's on a main road here on our campus. So it was kind of it was kind of aesthetically designed. So it's not just really a rectangle. It's kind of a flowing, meandering, kind of a big horseshoe shaped wetland. 00:04:29:16 - 00:04:39:06 Pete Fandel So it has some aesthetic value to it. It's got some deeper pockets and some islands in it. So it's kind of again, it's designed to look nice but also effectively hopefully clean all the tile water as well. 00:04:39:08 - 00:04:44:06 Todd Gleason How do you incorporate this into the agricultural curriculum there at ICC? 00:04:44:10 - 00:04:55:28 Pete Fandel Oh, absolutely. We yeah, we incorporate all the all the different trials we do on the, on the tillable acres and the wetland projects and all against incorporated into many of the different ag classes we do, from soils to soil fertility to, you know, just a host of the different courses. 00:04:56:01 - 00:05:05:05 Pete Fandel We try to get the students involved in looking at the research data and understanding why we do certain practices and the reflects on the environment and all that kind of stuff. We incorporate that very much into the core, into the coursework. 00:05:05:05 - 00:05:10:21 Todd Gleason If people want to see this, they can just drop by the ICC campus there at the top of the bluff near Peoria. 00:05:10:27 - 00:05:27:13 Pete Fandel Correct. Yeah, the wetlands very much on one of the main drags that you can see it as you drive by. Right now, it actually is just planted to grass and oats because the wetland plants wouldn't have survived the winter if we'd have planted them yet. So right now, it's just a temporary planting next spring, late spring, early summer. 00:05:27:16 - 00:05:43:12 Pete Fandel We'll plant all the wetland plants into it, and then we'll divert all the water from the from the main to go through the wetland. So this year, you know, the rest of this year you won't see much yet. Next year where you should be the see the really big change in kind of the progression of the wetland plants growing in the, over the next couple of years after that. 00:05:43:19 - 00:05:49:07 Todd Gleason Am I right that the cover crops seem to be the most effective tool for you to use to control nutrient loss? 00:05:49:11 - 00:06:01:13 Pete Fandel Oh, definitely. The wetland, as far as the effect on your soil effect on water quality cover crops, I think are the easiest and probably the least expensive of any of the practices you can do and seem to have one of the bigger effects on the nutrient loading on the tiles. 00:06:01:13 - 00:06:11:13 Pete Fandel So yeah, I think it's a great practice too. And we've got lots of data on cover crops for different reasons, different plots. Do we. Yeah, we've been doing that for many more years even than the, the know, kind of the water quality work. 00:06:11:13 - 00:06:19:12 Todd Gleason Pete Fandel is with Illinois Central College. You can drop by the ICC campus near Peoria if you'd like to see the constructed wetland. 00:06:19:12 - 00:06:39:28 Todd Gleason In fact, Fandel says the woodchip bioreactor is also open, meaning they've left the top of it uncovered. Normally, those are closed systems, so you can see the woodchips and how they degrade over time and what the construction looks like right there at Illinois Central College. I'm University of Illinois Extension's Todd Gleason.