Water Quality Assessments in the Mississippi Delta. Regional Solutions, National Scope

292 Pages·2004·32.69 MB·English

by  Mary T. Nett, Martin A. Locke

Water Quality Assessments
in the Mississippi Delta
In Water Quality Assessments in the Mississippi Delta; Nett, M., et al.;
ACS Symposium Series; American Chemical Society: Washington, DC, 2004.
September 11, 2012 | http://pubs.acs.org
Publication Date: April 13, 2004 | doi: 10.1021/bk-2004-0877.fw001
In Water Quality Assessments in the Mississippi Delta; Nett, M., et al.;
ACS Symposium Series; American Chemical Society: Washington, DC, 2004.
September 11, 2012 | http://pubs.acs.org
Publication Date: April 13, 2004 | doi: 10.1021/bk-2004-0877.fw001
ACS SYMPOSIUM SERIES 877
Water Quality Assessments
in the Mississippi Delta
Regional Solutions, National Scope
Mary T. Nett, Editor
Water Quality Consulting
Martin A. Locke, Editor
Agricultural Research Service, U.S. Department of Agriculture
Dean A. Pennington, Editor
Yazoo Mississippi Delta Joint Water Management District
Sponsored by the
ACS Division of Agrochemicals
American Chemical Society, Washington, DC
In Water Quality Assessments in the Mississippi Delta; Nett, M., et al.;
ACS Symposium Series; American Chemical Society: Washington, DC, 2004.
September 11, 2012 | http://pubs.acs.org
Publication Date: April 13, 2004 | doi: 10.1021/bk-2004-0877.fw001
TD 224 .M65W345 2004 copy 1
Water quality assessments i n
the Mississippi Del ta
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Water quality assessments in the Mississippi Delta: regional solutions and national scope
/ Mary T. Nett, Martin A. Locke, and Dean A. Pennnington, editors.
p. cm.—(ACS symposium series ; 877)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 0-8412-3812-X
1. Water quality—Mississippi—Delta (Region). 2. Agriculture—Environmental
Aspects—Mississippi—Delta (Region). 3. Best management practices (Polution
prevention)—Mississippi—Delta (region)
I. Nett, Mary T., 1952- II. Locke, Martin Α., 1954- III. Pennington, Dean Α., 1952-. IV.
Series.
TD224.M65W345 2004
6363.739'4'09762—dc2 203063643
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In Water Quality Assessments in the Mississippi Delta; Nett, M., et al.;
ACS Symposium Series; American Chemical Society: Washington, DC, 2004.
September 11, 2012 | http://pubs.acs.org
Publication Date: April 13, 2004 | doi: 10.1021/bk-2004-0877.fw001
Foreword
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In Water Quality Assessments in the Mississippi Delta; Nett, M., et al.;
ACS Symposium Series; American Chemical Society: Washington, DC, 2004.
September 11, 2012 | http://pubs.acs.org
Publication Date: April 13, 2004 | doi: 10.1021/bk-2004-0877.fw001
Preface
The Mississippi Delta is rich in culture and history with a strong
agricultural base underpinned historically by the cotton industry. This
region was formed and continues to be sustained by the meanderings of
the Mississippi River and its tributaries. The low-lying topography and
intricate system of rivers, oxbow lakes, and canals throughout the Delta
are constant reminders that water is an important resource that must be
managed carefully and never taken for granted. As the point of
confluence for water flow from central continental North America, the
Mississippi Delta provides the crucial and final link in the drainage
system feeding into the Gulf of Mexico. This emphasizes the delicate
balance of the Mississippi Basin with each component of the system
affecting the one that follows. In 1995, scientists and others interested in
balancing agricultural viability in the region with environmental integrity
formed a coalition known as the Mississippi Delta Management Systems
Evaluation Area (MDMSEA) Project to assess the influence of well-
chosen agricultural "best management" practices on water quality and
ecological stability. The inclusion of the Mississippi Delta within the
national context of the U.S. Department of Agriculture MSEA projects
added an important component in the effort to conserve and improve
water and soil resources across the entire United States.
The first portion of the book (Chapters 1-5) provides the
background on the National MSEA Program and describes the agri-
-cultural and water quality issues in the Mississippi Delta. These chapters
set the stage in turn for the presentation of individual research results
(Chapters 6-15) from the project. The final chapters (Chapters 16-18)
address watershed management and applications to the overall national
water quality goals and relationships to the efforts in other regions.
Given the importance of the Mississippi Delta to U.S. agriculture
and the need for environmental stewardship, this book should serve as a
valuable resource for an audience far exceeding the boundaries of the
Mississippi Delta region. We acknowledge the hard work and dedication
of the many individuals who supported the Mississippi Delta MSEA
xi
In Water Quality Assessments in the Mississippi Delta; Nett, M., et al.;
ACS Symposium Series; American Chemical Society: Washington, DC, 2004.
September 11, 2012 | http://pubs.acs.org
Publication Date: April 13, 2004 | doi: 10.1021/bk-2004-0877.pr001
project through to this stage of its existence and who made contributions
toward completing this book.
Martin A. Locke
National Sedimentation Laboratory
Water Quality and Ecological Processes Research Unit
Agricultural Research Service
U. S. Department of Agriculture
598 McElroy Drive
Oxford, MS 38655-1157
Chapter 1
Mississippi Delta Management Systems Evaluation
Area: Overview of Water Quality Issues
on a Watershed Scale
Martin A. Locke
National Sedimentation Laboratory, Water Quality and Ecological Process
Research Unit, Agricultural Research Service, U.S. Department
of Agriculture, 141 Experiment Station Road, Oxford, MS 38655
(telephone: [phone], email:
2
pesticides were identified as the primary lake pollutants of
concern, and lakes were monitored for changes in water
quality, microbial communities, and fish populations. Other
aspects under investigation included: runoff from fields, soil
resource management, ground water quality, insect and weed
control, agricultural production, and socioeconomics. Results
from the first five years of research have demonstrated the
capability of these management practices to reduce the
transport of nonpoint source pollutants to the oxbow lakes
monitored.
Centuries of meandering by the Mississippi River carved out the region of
the United States known today as the Mississippi Delta, an area that includes
sections of present day states of Mississippi, Louisiana, Arkansas, Missouri, and
Tennessee (Figure 1). Untold quantities of sediment eroded from the center of
what would later be named the North American Continent and were redeposited
during annual spring floods. Sediment lossf romt he more northern uplands was
gain for the Mississippi Delta as rich alluvial soils formed underneath vast areas
of cypress swamps and white pine forests. Native Americans established small
settlements that developed into the Mound Culture along the many tributaries,
streams, andr iverst hroughout the region. They were the ones who gave the
rivers along the Mississippi Basin names such as "Mississippi" or "Great Water"
and "Yazoo" that we still use and recognize today. Thef irstE uropean explorers
such as DeSoto arrived in the Mississippi Delta region in the 1500s, and it was
not long before others followed and began to settle the land. The great cypress
and bottomland hardwood forests were cleared, giving way to livestock and row
crops. An intricate system of levees and ditches was built during thef irstp art of
the 20th Century, diverting excess water from farms and residential areas to
natural streams and bayous.
With the discovery that climate and growth conditions were favorable,
cotton was introduced as a key economic crop in the Delta. Great demand for
cloth fabric by the textile mills of Europe and the Eastern United States fueled
the economy of the Mississippi Delta Region for decades, and "King Cotton"
flourished. During the 100 years that followed the U.S. Civil War, farm
practices gradually changed from labor intensive, largely African American, to
highly mechanized operations. Mechanization enabled farmers to work more
land area in a given day. Tilling the earth with heavy equipment, however, took
its toll, leaving the soil more vulnerable to the erosive forces of nature which
1
sometimes resulted in annual sediment losses of up to 16 tons ha' (/, 2).
In Water Quality Assessments in the Mississippi Delta; Nett, M., et al.;
ACS Symposium Series; American Chemical Society: Washington, DC, 2004.
September 11, 2012 | http://pubs.acs.org
Publication Date: April 13, 2004 | doi: 10.1021/bk-2004-0877.ch001
3
As in the Mississippi Delta, other regions of the United States have
experienced large quantities of soil loss as sediment runoff. The US
Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA) reported in 1986 that nonpoint
pollution was the major cause of the Nation's water quality problems, and that
agriculture was a major nonpoint source, primarily pinpointing sediment,
nutrient, and pesticide losses resulting from soil erosion (5). Efforts on a
national scale have been made to address issues of nonpoint pollution from
agriculture, but often, progress has been impeded by agricultural and
environmental policies that moved in opposite directions (4).
Management Systems Evaluation Areas - A National Initiative
Establishment of MDMSEA
The need to improve and conserve America's water resources was
recognized at the highest level with the Presidential Initiative on Water Quality
in 1989. The Presidential Initiative established the objectives of (i) protecting
ground water resources from contamination; (ii) developing water quality
programs to address contamination; and (iii) providing the basis to alter practices
contributing to contamination (5). One underlying premise of this initiative was
the notion of "volunteerism": that it was the ultimate responsibility of America's
farmers to change practices to avoid contaminating water resources. The US
Department of Agriculture (USDA) responded to the Presidential Initiative by
establishing a Water Quality Program. A national research and assessment effort
called the Management Systems Evaluation Areas (MSEA) emerged from the
USDA Water Quality Program (tf). The National MSEA project was to be a
multi-agency effort involving the USDA Agricultural Research Service (USDA-
ARS) and the USDA Cooperative State Research, Education, and Extension
Service (USDA-CSREES) in cooperation with state agricultural experiment
stations; the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service (USDA-NRCS); the
USDA Economic Research Service (USDA-ERS), the US Geological Survey
(USGS), and the USEPA. For a more comprehensive review of the history and
establishment of the National MSEA program, other sources are available (e.g.,
7, Romkens chapter, this volume).
The original objectives of the MSEA Program were to evaluate the effects
of agrichemicals on ground water in the Midwest in various "at-risk" geographic
areas and to develop protocols of best management practices (BMPs) to
safeguard ground water resources, while satisfying the economic, environmental,
and social needs of the region. Initial research efforts focused on five states:
In Water Quality Assessments in the Mississippi Delta; Nett, M., et al.;
ACS Symposium Series; American Chemical Society: Washington, DC, 2004.
September 11, 2012 | http://pubs.acs.org
Publication Date: April 13, 2004 | doi: 10.1021/bk-2004-0877.ch001