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News and Views
Nebraska Watersheds News and Views Winter 2005 Issue 3 Hello, and welcome to the quarterly electronic Nebraska Watersheds News and Views newsletter. I hope this issue and the ones to follow will provide useful information that will increase both your knowledge and interest of water resource issues. The purpose of the electronic newsletter is to provide information on watershed topics and issues, share ideas, programs and publicize events to watershed council members, watershed project coordinators, Extension educators and specialists, agency personnel, watershed management professionals and natural resources professionals. The newsletter is intended for educational purposes only. Newsletter information may be reprinted or reproduced. If you intend to use this material, please acknowledge the authors and the source of information. Interested persons are invited to contribute articles, news items, photographs or other materials for publication. Please, feel free to ask questions, share ideas, or provide feedback. Steve Tonn-University of Nebraska Cooperative Extension Educator-Douglas/Sarpy Counties/Omaha Lakes Extension Coordinator In This Issue
CIWM Conflict Training The Community Involvement in Watershed Management team of the Heartland CSREES Water Quality Initiative will be hosting a training workshop on Conflict and Deliberation in Watershed Management for invited participants from the Heartland Region (Iowa, Kansas, Missouri and Nebraska). The workshop will be held June 7th-10th at Lied Lodge and Conference Center at the Arbor Day Foundation in Nebraska City, NE. The workshop will feature guest presenter and facilitator Steve Smutko from North Carolina State University and will include the following four module topics: (1) Context: Understand the Complexity of Watershed Community Issues and Stakeholders (2) Sources of Conflict and Value of Conflict (3) Exploring Agency and Extension Roles in Addressing Controversial Watershed Management Issues (4) Personal Assessment: Where do I go from here? What more do I need to know? For more information regarding the workshop, please contact Steve Tonn or John Tharp. To learn more about the Heartland Water Quality Initiative, please visit http://www.heartlandwq.iastate.edu/. UNL Water and Natural Resources Research Lectures Continue Through April
Regional water issues and natural resources research highlight free weekly public lectures at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. The UNL School of Natural Resources Research Seminar is 3:30 to 4:30 p.m. Wednesdays through April 27, except March 16 and April 6, at L.W. Chase Hall on UNL's East Campus. Several of the series’ speakers are from UNL or within Nebraska. Others will travel from as far as Texas and Vermont. “The strength of this lecture series lies in the excellence of the speakers and the applicability of their lectures to local water and natural resources issues, across the board,” said Jim Merchant, seminar organizer and professor in UNL’s School of Natural Resources. On Mar. 2, UNL fisheries biologist Ed Peters talks about viewing the Platte River from a fish-eye perspective. Other scheduled UNL lecturers SNR hydrologist Xun-Hong Chen, who gives the final lecture on April 27. Outside speakers include civil engineer David Maidment of the University of Texas-Austin speaking on using geographic information systems (GIS) technology in furthering water research and Robert Costanza, director of the Gund Institute for Ecological Economics at the University of Vermont. Other speakers are from Iowa State and South Dakota State Universities and the U.S. Geological Survey in Kansas and Missouri. “There are topics here that everyone interested in water, wildlife and natural resources can benefit from, not just university researchers or academics,” said seminar co-organizer Kyle Hoagland, director of the UNL Water Center. Lectures are co-sponsored by UNL’s Institute of Agriculture and Natural Resources, School of Natural Resources and Water Center. Presenters from School of Natural Resources are listed as SNR. For more information, contact Merchant at jmerchant1@unl.edu or go to http://watercenter.unl.edu online. Dates, presenters and topics are:
Aurora Well Records Indian Ocean Earthquake When a massive undersea earthquake in the Indian Ocean generated deadly tsunamis last month, a groundwater monitoring well near Aurora recorded the catastrophic event. It’s another poignant illustration of how small a planet we all inhabit,” said University of Nebraska research geologist Matt Joeckel. Groundwater level recordings from a 170-foot deep well near Aurora clearly show an anomalous, or inconsistent, rise and fall in the groundwater level – as much as two-tenths of a foot above and below normal levels occurring over a 15-minute period directly corresponding to the Dec. 26, 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake. “The graph from the well shows very rapid rise and fall in the groundwater level, creating very clearly seen spikes on the graph,” Joeckel said. The distinct spikes were discovered by UNL School of Natural Resources associate geoscientist Scott Summerside and cartographer Jerry Leach in conjunction with a groundwater level monitoring program conducted by the university. The well is one of only three in Nebraska equipped with a continuous electronic recording device that monitors groundwater levels and is the only one of the three that recorded the clear spikes corresponding to last month’s 9.0 magnitude earthquake, the largest since the Alaskan earthquake of 1964. The same well also has recorded graphic spikes corresponding to other quakes worldwide, particularly in Mexico and Central America, Joeckel said. “Frankly, we’re not absolutely certain why this is, other than some wells are more apt to respond to seismic energy than others,” he said. “Some geologists believe there is a resonance effect at work in the response of aquifers to earthquakes.” Groundwater level changes in response to earthquake activity are called hydroseism, a well known, if inexact, science. We may not have felt the Indian Ocean earthquake here in Nebraska, but there’s little doubt in my mind that we recorded it,” Joeckel said. The Canary In The Coal Mine: Using Aquatic Life To Determine Stream Health
The fish and aquatic insects that live in a stream are an excellent indicator of its health. For an aquatic creature to survive they must have resources such as food, adequate amounts of dissolved oxygen (DO), sediment free gravel areas for reproduction and shelter from predators. All organisms have differing survival needs for instance; one may eat any type of algae, while another preys on only one type of insect. The types, abundance, and health of aquatic species change in predictable ways, biological monitoring can help determine if impairment is caused by chemical pollution or habitat alteration. Simply taking chemical readings (ex. pH, Dissolved Oxygen, Conductivity, and Temperature) or evaluating the physical habitat, may not give us the entire picture. Furthermore, by comparing fish and macro invertebrate assemblages upstream and downstream of a suspected source of pollution, biologists can tell if the stream is meeting the goals of the Clean Water Act. High quality streams have clean water, natural habitats, and diverse biological assemblages that include pollution sensitive or rare, and endangered species. Low quality streams have degraded chemical water or sediment quality and extensively modified habitats. They typically have few pollution-sensitive organisms and no rare or endangered species. Impacts of Urban Development on Waterways Urban development has a profound influence on the quality of the Omaha metro area’s waters. As the City spreads outward, more and more streams, especially small creeks feeding directly in to rivers, are transformed into urban streams. These natural areas are perhaps the most neglected watercourses. An urban creek may experience many things on its journey from its headwaters in the upper watershed to its mouth at the confluence of a larger creek, stream, or river. It may pass through a park or residential area in one reach, then flow past a shopping mall or industrial park in the next. In a small, steep, wooded draw behind a residential area, it may become a convenient place to dump grass clippings or garbage. It may pass through vacant lots, becoming lost among the discarded appliances, shopping carts, and tires. It may flow through an over-fertilized golf course. It may flow for long distances inside a culvert underground. It may receive stormwater runoff from oily roads, parking lots, and factory drainage ditches. Uninformed neighbors may even dump used motor oil or antifreeze into storm drains that empty directly into the stream. The situation worsens after construction. Roof tops, roads, parking lots, driveways and other impervious surfaces no longer allow rainfall to soak into the ground. Consequently, most rainfall is converted directly to runoff. The increase in stormwater can be too much for the existing natural drainage system to handle. As a result, the natural drainage system is often altered to rapidly collect runoff and convey it away (using curb and gutter, enclosed storm sewers, and lined channels). The stormwater runoff is subsequently discharged to downstream waters such as streams or lakes. Once buildings and pavement are introduced, less water is able to penetrate the soil to be filtered of contaminants such as automobile by-products, pesticides, fertilizers, and excess sediment. Not only is the land less able to filter contaminants, but increasing numbers of people produce a greater pollutant load. There are countless threats to water quality and wildlife habitat due to urbanization. The urban environment contributes 11.8% of nonpoint source pollution into the nation’s waters. Impacts result from residential, transportation, commercial, and industrial uses. Specific impacts include toxic substances that enter the food chain, petroleum products that are harmful to plants, fish and wildlife; excessive nutrients that increase algal blooms; and a reduction in water quality. Sediment, fertilizer, pesticides, trash, automotive products, oil, paints, solvents, pet waste, gasoline, household chemicals are all examples of runoff pollution. Stormwater management practices help to control runoff pollution through the use of nonstructural and/or structural techniques to intercept surface runoff from developed areas, filter and treat this runoff, and then discharge it at a controlled rate. The overriding condition that governs the quantity of stormwater runoff is the amount of impervious surfaces located on your property (driveways, roofs, carports, sidewalks, etc.) Stormwater quality, however, is governed by the accumulation of pollutants on the entire surface area, regardless of whether it is grassed or paved. As the use of chemicals around the home such as fertilizers, pesticides, engine oils, deicing materials, and similar products increases, the more degraded the stormwater runoff from your property will be. Although the effect of one property on the quality and quantity of stormwater runoff may seem insignificant, the cumulative impact from hundreds of thousands of yards across the Omaha metropolitan area continues to be destructive to our water quality. Pivot Conversion Program Proves Successful, Boosts Incentives An incentive program to boost irrigation efficiency got a boost of its own as officials announced improvements to the South Platte NRD Center Pivot Conversion Program. Now in its third year, the program offers cost-share funds to help producers convert furrow-irrigated land to sprinkler irrigation, either by a center pivot or lateral move systems. Grant funding from the Nebraska Environmental Trust, utilizing Nebraska proceeds, made the program possible. The goal of the pivot conversion program is to protect both groundwater quality and quantity. University of Nebraska research shows that by reducing the amount of irrigation water applied per acre, such conversions hold the greatest promise for limiting the leaching of agricultural chemicals into the groundwater. The incentive to convert from furrow to sprinkler irrigation is now $97.75 per acre — up from $80 previously —not to exceed 30 percent of the actual cost of the sprinkler system and installation. The program also provides 50 percent cost-share on up to 1,400 feet of underground pipe from the water source to the sprinkler, and on an attached irrigation flow meter. Cost-share is not available for improving a pump or electrical work. According to Ken Quandt, NRD water resources coordinator, the cost-share adjustment reflects the rising cost of steel and other system materials. “This adjustment merely brings the program in line with the cost increases,” Quandt said, noting that the average cost of a new center spin sprinkler has risen to about $41,000 to $46,000. The Nebraska Environmental Trust has provided just over $200,000 to the program, which has helped producers install 22 sprinkler systems in the South Platte NRD since last year. The Trust has committed another $100,000 through the spring of 2006. Since the program began, 1,910 acres have been converted from furrow to sprinkler irrigation, mainly in the South Platte River Valley near Big Springs. Projects in the Lodgepole Creek Valley scattered across the NRD have also received funding. “We’ve seen some pretty significant reductions in nitrates in the groundwater below some of these fields,” Quandt said. “We know it’s having a very positive impact.” Quandt pointed to a five-year trend of decreasing nitrate levels in the South Platte Valley, where nitrate levels fell from 12.25 parts per million in 1999 to 10.38 in 2004. “The Pivot Conversion Program is partially responsible for this," he said. For more information, contact Quandt at (308) 254-2377 or toll free at (877) 800-1030.
A Nebraska Environmental Trust sign marks a center pivot conversion project just west of Sidney. Nebraska Environmental Trust Executive Director Mary Harding discusses the project with producer Russ McMillen of Sidney. Watershed Activities Views Events Successes Wagon Train Lake Watershed No Till Workshop A very successful no till workshop was held for Lancaster County farmers in
mid February. Thirty three producers attended the workshop. The workshop was a
team effort of the University of Nebraska Cooperative Extension – Lancaster
County and the Wagon Train Lake Watershed Project. Dr. Paul Jasa, UNL
Cooperative Extension Engineer, was the featured workshop presenter. For more
information on the no till workshop, contact Jim Harder at 402-423-9683 ext. 5
or email james.harder@ne.usda.gov.
Cedar River Youth Monitoring Teams The Cedar River Stabilization Project Committee has set up Youth Monitoring Teams in conjunction with schools along the Cedar River. Schools actively monitoring include the Wheeler Central High School in Bartlett and the Spalding Academy High School. Spalding High School, Burwell High School, Cedar Rapids High School, and Fullerton High School are organizing and will hopefully be on board soon. Activities conducted by the Youth Monitoring Teams include: • Measure channel width • Conduct chemical water tests for phosphorous, nitrates, chlorine, pH, sediment, ammonia, dissolved oxygen • Measure temperature of the water • Photograph the sites • GPS the streambank and develop maps of the sites • And take extensive notes on the conditions of the site including land use, any obstructions in the stream, and wildlife and habitat conditions Training seminars have been held to educate the teams and their instructors. In February 2004, a training seminar included Terry Hickman, NDEQ, Amanda Ruzicka, NRCS, and Vicki Bauer, Cedar River Stabilization Project. A follow up workshop was held on February 15, 2005. At this workshop, Spalding Academy’s waypoints were downloaded and mapped. Amanda Ruzicka and Vicki Bauer assisted with the downloading. Arcview GIS was used to download the points and develop the maps. The teams are scheduled to monitor the erosion sites in their area twice a year in May and again in October. Training sessions will then be held every February. An annual Stream Workshop has been held in June of each year and will probably continue with the youth being involved along with landowners. For more information contact Vicki Bauer at (308) 728-3393 or e-mail vicki.bauer@ne.usda.gov. Issued in furtherance of Cooperative Extension work, Acts of May 8 and June 30, 1914, in cooperation with the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Elbert C. Dickey, Director of Cooperative Extension, University of Nebraska, Institute of Agriculture and Natural Resources. It is the policy of the University of Nebraska-Lincoln not to discriminate on the basis of gender, age, disability, race, color, religion, marital status, veteran's status, national or ethnic origin or orientation. |
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