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Water sampling in WLEB
A water sampling project in the Western Lake Erie Basin is helping to identify best management practices to control nutrient runoff.
Allison Dauer is a conservation district technician in Hillsdale County collecting samples at tile outlets for the project. She says the thanks to a grant with the Michigan Farm Bureau and the Natural Recourses Conservation Service, they will have a better idea of what is happening on fields.
“We are monitoring the tile outlets for nitrates, phosphorus, total suspended solids and dissolved reactive phosphorus.”
Dauer says she’s been collecting samples biweekly from April till the end of June.
“We have noticed with the heavy rainfall events there is a slight spike in total suspended solids and nitrite levels.”
She tells Brownfield samples are being collected on fields with different management practices including conservation reserve fields, and crop fields with and without cover crops.
Dauer says the district plans to teach farmers about water sampling on their own farms at the district’s fall field day.
AUDIO: Interview with Allison Dauer (4:17 mp3):
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