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Saturated buffers remove nitrogen from tile drainage

Photo credit: ADMC

The Ag Drainage Management Coalition says their research proves saturated buffers are a cost-effective way to remove nitrogen from tile drainage.

Coalition director Keegan Kult tells Brownfield they worked with the Farm Service Agency to test the buffers at seven sites in Illinois, Iowa and Minnesota, and then asked the University of Illinois Department of Crop Sciences to determine areas where the buffers could be used.

“They modeled about nine and a half million acres of tile drain landscape they thought could be routed through these saturated buffers. So, that equates to about 22% of the overall drained area in the Midwest and so that is a pretty significant amount.”

He says with that level of implementation in the Midwest, the load to the Gulf of Mexico could be reduced by two to three percent.

Kult tells Brownfield the idea is often hard to sell to farmers, but saturated buffers are very cost effective.

“The typical installation site, we have found, costs about $3,600 and so that practice will last probably 40 to 50 years and it’s pretty maintenance free.”

He says the use of saturated buffers is now part of the CLEAR (Clean Lakes, Estuaries and Rivers) initiative funded through the Conservation Reserve Program.

Interview with Keegan Kult

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