Nitrate and Other Water Pollutants under Fields and Feedlots B. A. Stewart, F. G . Viets, Jr., G . L. Hutchinson, and W. D. Kemper Soil and Water Conservation Research Division, Agricultural Research Service, U. S. Department of Agriculture, Fort Collins, Colo. 80521
Agriculture’s effect on nitrate pollution of ground water was investigated in the South Platte valley of Colorado. The valley is intensively farmed and contains many concentrated livestock feeding operations. A water table, generally between 3 and 20 meters below the surface, underlies much of the area. The average total nitrate-nitrogen to a depth of 6.7 meters in the profiles for the various kinds of land use was: alfalfa (Medicago safiua) (13 cores), 70; native grassland (17 cores), 81 ; cultivated dryland (21 cores), 233; irrigated fields not in alfalfa (28 cores), 452; and feedlots (47 cores), 1282 kg. per hectare. Ground water samples often contained high concentrations of nitrate, and those obtained beneath feedlots contained ammonium-nitrogen and organic carbon.
P
ossible agricultural sources of ground water pollutants include fertilizer materials applied t o soil and wastes from concentrated livestock feeding operations. Their contribution to pollution of underground water was studied in the middle South Platte River valley in Colorado. This valley is an intensely farmed irrigated area underlain with a water table varying from about 3 to 20 meters beneath the surface. Most of the 621,000 cattle in feedlots in Colorado (as of Feb. 1, 1967) are located in this valley. Nonirrigated pasture and cropland surrounds the valley and is part of the semiarid High Plains. Experimental One-hundred twenty-nine cores extending from the surface t o the water table or bedrock from sites of differing land use in this area were obtained and analyzed. The cores were obtained during the period of April 26 through July 21, 1966. Locations were chosen to represent varying soils, water table depths, and soil uses. Insofar as possible, locations were selected that had feedlots, irrigated fields, and nonirrigated fields within the same soil type. This selection allows a comparison of the effects of feedlot operations with effects of intensified farming where heavy applications of plant nutrients are frequent. Use of commercial fertilizers in the area have been steadily increasing, although there is no evidence of their general excessive use. The highest rate of fertilizer nitrogen applied on any of the fields sampled was 736 Environmental Science and Technology
about 175 kg. per ha. The nonirrigated areas served as a control, since these fields have never received any fertilizers. Emphasis was placed on the quantity of nitrate in transit to the water table, but other pollutants were also measured. Nitrate is of concern because of the potential health hazard to livestock and humans (particularly infants) that high amounts of nitrate in water present. A detailed report, including descriptions of equipment used to obtain unwetted, undisturbed cores and of analytical procedures, is being published elsewhere (Stewart, Viets, et al., in press). The detailed report also includes estimates of fertilizer usage, feedlot ages, and the texture and water content at all depths for all of the cores. Results and Discussion
Nitrate in Core Samples. Nitrate found at various depths in cores from different land uses is presented in Figure 1. Bar heights show the number of cores at the specified depth that contained nitrate (expressed as p.p.m. of N in soil on dry-weight basis) in the quantity indicated by the bar position. Nitrate was determined on either 15- or 30-cm. depth increments of the entire core, but only data from intermittent depths are presented here. As distance from the soil surface increases, fewer cores are represented, because the majority of the cores were less than 12 meters long and several were less than 5 meters. Data for cores from nonirrigated areas are separated into those from cultivated areas and those from areas in native sod. Nonirrigated cultivated fields from which cores were taken are usually cropped only every second year in a fallowcrop system and, with one exception, had never been fertilized. Average annual precipitation in the area is 40 cm. A difference in the nitrate distribution patterns of the two groups is apparent. Most cores from sod areas were nearly free from nitrate. For example, a t the 3.3- to 3.6-meter interval, 10 of the 16 cores contained no nitrate (less than 0.5 p.p.m. of nitrate-N). At the same depth in cores from cultivated areas, only five of 24 samples were free of nitrate; four samples contained more than 3 p.p.m. of nitrate-N. Differences between the nitrate contents of cores from cultivated areas and those from sod areas were largest at depths greater than 2 meters below the soil surface, which is below the rooting depth of most crops grown under dryland conditions. This accumulation of nitrate under cultivated dryland sites (this can also be seen in Figure 2, which is presented later in the text) is significant in relation to the historic loss of total nitrogen during cultivation. Several studies have shown that
total nitrogen in these soils decreases about 5 0 z during 30 t o 50 years of cultivation. A large portion of this decrease cannot be accounted for by crop removal. Leaching losses have generally been considered negligible in the Great Plains because of the low rainfall, and losses by volatilization and erosion have been emphasized. Findings of this study suggest that leaching losses may have been greatly underestimated, even though the rainfall in the study area averages only about 40 cm. a year. Nitrogenous compounds under sod areas are not subject to the same degree of leaching because grass is always present to absorb nitrate as it is released from decomposition of organic matter and dead plants. Hydraulic conductivity measurements indicated that the average rate of downward movement of water was essentially the same beneath the sod and cultivated areas, about 2.5 cm. per year (cubic centimeters of water per square centimeter of soil). Cores from irrigated fields are divided into two groupsthose from fields in alfalfa (Medicago satiaa) and those from fields planted to other crops, primarily sugar beets (Beta oufgaris) and corn (Zea mays). There is a striking difference in the amounts of nitrate present in these two groups. Cores obtained from alfalfa fields contained little nitrate. For example, at the 2.4- to 2.7-meter depth, 11 of the 13 cores were free from nitrate. Similar results were obtained at the other depths. In contrast, cores from irrigated fields in other crops contained significant quantities of nitrate. At the 2.4t o 2.7-meter interval for these cores, only nine of the 25 cores were free of nitrate, and five cores contained more than 3 p.p.m. of N as nitrate. At the 7.2- to 7.5-meter depth, one core contained no nitrate-N, seven cores showed concentrations between 1 and 3 p.p.m., and one core contained more than 3 p.p.m. of nitrate-N. When expressed as concentration in the soil solution, the nitrate-N concentrations were generally between 20 and 40 p.p.m. Hydraulic conductivity measurements indicated a n average downward movement of 8.9 cm. of water annually under the irrigated fields growing crops other than alfalfa. On the basis of these measurements, an average of approximately 25 kg. of nitrate-nitrogen per hectare is lost annually from these fields to the water table. The hydraulic conductivity value reported is for the profile at its water content a t sampling and may not be completely valid on a year-round basis. I n the previous irrigation season, rates might have been higher than those measured in samples taken in the spring of 1966 after the profile had a chance to drain much of the irrigation water accumulated during the previous season. Reported values, therefore, probably represent the minimum. Nitrate concentrations under al-
NONIRRIGATED SOD TELTKATED
15
I
IRRIGATED OTHER
AGALFA
I
DEPTH (ml
0-015
NO;-N
,n
CORRALS
I/
(ppmi
Figure 1. Histograms showing the distribution of nitrate-N at increasing depths for cores from different land use areas
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Table 1. Chemical Data for Water Samples from Surface of Ground Water Reservoir beneath Four Feedlots and Adjacent Irrigated Fields Depth to Water NOa-N, "4-N, Organic Redox Core No. Table, M. P.P.M. P.P.M. C, P.P.M. P, P.P.M. Potential, Mv. Feedlot 7-E 10 8.6 5.1 130 0.25 - 340 Irrigated field 7-B 10 0.1 0.0 18 0.06 300 Feedlot 9-F 5 18 5.7 130 0.36 -310 Irrigated field 31 3 12 9-c 0.1 0.04 360 Feedlot 9-E 21 4 90 5.8 0.22 340 Irrigated field 9-J 3 8.5 0.01 430 0.0 9 Feedlot 16-B 11 1.1 1.3 100 170 38 16-D Irrigated field 18 26 11 0.4 0.05 430
falfa fields are low because no nitrogen fertilizers are applied to this crop and because alfalfa is a very deep-rooted plant which can remove nitrate from greater depths of the profile. The average downward movement of water under alfalfa fields was 9.6 cm. per year. Amounts of nitrate found under feedlots were extremely variable. The totals found ranged from nearly none to more than 4500 kg. of nitrate-nitrogen per hectare in a 7-meter profile. If this much nitrate were leached from a 1-hectare feedlot, the nitrate-N level of 450,000 cubic meters of water could be raised to the 10-p.p.m. level considered as the maximum safe limit by the U. S. Public Health Service. This amount of water would approximately equal the free water under 20 hectares for much of the area covered by this study. Hydraulic conductivity measurements on core samples from beneath feedlots indicated that the average downward movement was 5.6 cm. per year. Samples from the shallow depths of the corral cores generally contained either high levels of nitrate or none. This is illustrated by the U shape of the histogram for the 0- to 0.15-meter depth (Figure 1). Nitrate was not found in samples with redox potentials less than 300 mv., indicating that nitrate was either not formed, or was reduced under feedlots that had profiles lacking oxygen. The low oxygen level in these profiles probably resulted from a high biological oxygen demand induced by the presence of large amounts of organic carbon. Redox potential measurements made on the first meter of several of the cores from corrals were very low and appeared to depend on feedlot management, feedlot age, and the water content of the profile. There were some indications that denitrification was also occurring under some feedlots at depths greater than 6 or 7 meters. The redox potentials at these depths were not exceedingly low, but bacterial counts were much higher under corrals, particularly at the lower depths, than they were under cultivated fields. There also appeared to be a good relation between the magnitude of the microbial population and the occurrence of nitrite. This observation, together with data showing the absence of nitrifying bacteria in the soil layers containing 738
Environmental Science and Technolog)
04
.
.______ --+65 ___-
*.-
l-
2-
- 3-
E
/:io
-
I
k 0 W
.’ I
-
.\
CORRALS
: \
IRRIGATED FIELDS
1 0
I
5
I
10
1
I
15
20 NO;-N
I
25
I
30
I
35
(pprn)
Figure 2. Average nitrate-N distribution with depth of profiles
nitrite, justifies the assumption that enzymatic denitrification was occurring in those portions of the profile containing increased numbers of soil microorganisms. consequently, much of the nitrate found under feedlots will probably never reach the water table. Feedlots, ranging in ages from about 5 t o 90 years, were sampled. There were, however, n o clear-cut trends regarding the effect of feedlot age on nitrate present beneath the feedlot. The differences in stocking rates and feedlot management were so varied that the effect of age could not be adequately assessed. Figure 2 shows the average nitrate distribution with depth of profiles from feedlots (47 cores), irrigated fields in crops excluding alfalfa (28 cores), and dryland cropped fields (21 cores). The comparatively high nitrate concentrations under corrals and the decrease with depth, presumably due to denitrification, is apparent. The accumulation of nitrate between 2.5 and 3.5 meters below the rooting depth of dryland crops is significant in relation to the historic loss of total nitrogen from the surface of dryland cropped soils. The nitrate concentrations under native grassland (17 cores) and alfalfa (13 cores) at the various depths were very low and are not shown. The average total nitrate-nitrogen to a depth of 6.7 meters in the profiles for the various kinds of land use was: alfalfa, 70; native grassland, 81 ; cultivated dryland, 233; irrigated fields not in alfalfa, 452; and feedlots, 1282 kg. per hectare.
Analyses of Water Samples. Water samples were obtained from the core holes at many of the locations. The largest differences between waters collected under corrals and irrigated fields were in their concentrations of ammonium and organic carbon. The average concentration of ammonium-N of the waters from beneath 28 irrigated fields was 0.2 p.p.m., and only two samples contained as much as 1 p . p m On the other hand, waters from beneath 29 feedlots averaged 4.5 p.p.m. of N as ammonium. Fifteen of these contained more than 1 p.p.m., seven of which were above 5 p.p.m. The highest concentration of ammonium-N was 38 p.p.m. Similar differences were found in the organic carbon concentrations. Organic carbon in water samples from irrigated fields averaged 14 p.p.m., and the highest value was 29 p.p.m. Waters from beneath feedlots averaged 73 p.p.m. of organic C ; 14 of the 20 samples contained more than 30 p.p.m.; and 6 of the 14 exceeded 100 p.p.m. The highest concentration of organic carbon found in a water sample was 300 p.p.m. Generally, water samples high in organic C contained high amounts of ammonium-N. Total soluble phosphorus was also usually higher under corrals. Some of the more striking data obtained from chemical analysis of water samples from beneath four corrals and adjacent irrigated fields are shown in Table I. The differences in concentrations of pollutants in other pairs of samples were not always as large as those shown but showed the same trends. The water samples were obtained from the surface of the ground water reservoir and, therefore, are not necessarily representative of the water in a domestic well at the same site. However, the results d o give some indication of the kinds and amounts of materials moving through the soil to the ground water.
Conclusion
Data presented show that nitrate is moving through the soil and into the ground water supply under both feedlots and irrigated fields in crops, excluding alfalfa. Although much larger amounts of nitrate are present under feedlots per unit area, indications are that irrigated lands are contributing more total nitrate to the ground water. The ratio of irrigated land to that in feedlots for the study area is approximately 200 to 1. Feedlots, however, are usually located near the homestead and may have a pronounced effect on the water quality from domestic wells. The findings that water under feedlots frequently contained ammonium (or a compound releasing arnmonium) and organic carbon, and had a very offensive odor cause further concern about the effect of feedlots on underground water supplies. Literature Cited
Stewart, B. A,, Viets, F. G., Jr., Hutchinson, G. L., Kemper, W. D., Clark, F. E., Fairbourn, M. L., Strauch, F., U . S. Dept. Agr. A R S 41-134,to be published. Receiced j?)r reciew June I 2 , I967. Accepted August 28, 1967. Research conducted in cooperation with Colorudo Agriculturul Experiment Station (ScienriJicJournul Series No. 1209).
Volume 1, Number 9, September 1967 739
