NESPAL > Water Use & Quality > Research Projects > Landscape Approach to Protecting Water Quality

Landscape Approach to Protecting Water Quality in the Southeastern Coastal Plain
by George Vellidis

"Today, we see fewer and larger livestock operations. We see more water quality problems. We also see a mass migration of large livestock operations to regions with the least rules leaving our communities with separate and unequal environmental and health protections. For too long, this issue has been left to fester -- pitting neighbor against neighbor, tearing communities apart. Some want an outright ban on large operations; others want them heavily regulated. I think all of us can see the writing on the wall. We must work together to figure out how we preserve our health, our environment, and a sustainable, economically viable livestock industry -- which accounts for half of all sales in U.S. agriculture today."
U.S Agriculture Secretary Dan Glickman
National Summit on Animal Waste Issues, May 5, 1998

The Gulf-Atlantic Coastal Plain of Georgia region is experiencing rapid growth in animal confinement facilities, primarily in the poultry sector. This project is a comprehensive, multidisciplinary, five-year study initiated during February 1996 to provide the knowledge base for the integration of increased animal production into the regional agricultural system without sacrificing water quality.

The research will ultimately lead to development of guidelines for management of animal agriculture based on landscape-scale environmental quality considerations. Nineteen scientists from the University of Georgia, the USDA-ARS Southeast Watershed Research Laboratory, and the USDA-Natural Resources Conservation are involved with the project. The general objectives of the project are:

1. Assess the current status of voluntary and regulatory approaches to protecting environmental quality in animal agriculture and evaluate producer acceptability to new guidelines.
2. Determine the current water quality effects of animal-based agriculture in three different Coastal Plain ecoregions.
3. Create/modify spatially distributed data sets of the three representative watersheds and map the location of existing and proposed animal production and processing facilities in relation to other landscape features which affect hydrology and water quality.
4. Predict the effect of land use and landscape configuration changes on water quality at watershed and field scales.
5. Develop guidelines for management of animal agriculture based on landscape scale environmental quality consideration

To understand the dynamics of water quality and animal agriculture on a landscape scale, three watersheds, each approximately 150 square miles in size, were identified in the Georgia coastal plain. The three watersheds are representative of most hydrologic conditions found in the coastal plain. In addition, one watershed is characterized by intensive swine production, the second by poultry production, and the third by traditional row-crop production. Water samples are regularly collected from the streams draining these watersheds. Samples are analyzed for parameters that determine the water quality of streams and rivers. Resulting data are used to calibrate and validate mathematical predictive tools so that the tool's users can have confidence in its predictions.

Funding: This work was supported by funds from the USDA-CSREES Special Grants Program and by Hatch and State funds allocated to the Georgia Agricultural Experiment Stations.