#Water Quality tool for Indexing Agricultural Runoff Notes
###Harbans Lal, Environmental Engineer ####National Water Quality/Quantity Team, WNTSC/USDA-NRCS, Portland, OR
- WQI: parameters expressed in different units and measured in different ranges.
- "hard to understand and follow by non-professionals" thus the concept of WQI is introduced
- WQI is a dimensionless number that combines the values of multiple WQ factors such as DO, pH, BOD, COD, Ecoli, Temp, Nutrients (N&P), etc.into a single value by normalized subjective rating curves
- "introduction to water quality index" in Water Efficiency journal
- Why agriculture? Ag needs & pollutes water. NRCS needs more tools for evaluating effectiveness of conservation practices.
- Planning and assessment tools (CPPE)
- Modeling (CEAP, RUSLE2, etc)
- Edge of Field (EoF) monitoring
- Available tools are either too generic or too expensive
- WQIAG: Water Quality Index for Runoff Water From Agricultural
- WQIAG is a live web tool. Requires Silverlight for some ungodly reason.
- Ranks runoff from ag fields (1-10): 10 being the best
- Mult. field characteristics and mgmt factors
- Weighting for different factors for local prefs
- Site-specific weather data with the possibility (?) of customization
- Tool demo
- Need HUC number?
- Application rate is as a % of LGU recommendations
###Brooks Engelhardt, Resource Conservationist, USDA-NRCS ####Use of the Runoff WQ Index in Ventura County, CA
- EQIP case study. WQI in a citrus orchard.
- Lemon orchard treated with cover crop.
###Concluding remarks
- WQIag incorps professional knowledge and local preferences through weighting factors
- Low cost, low (did he mean high?) rigor, high intensity usage tool for first level of approximation
- Highly useful when actual monitoring is out of reach
###Future Plans
- Re-designing nutrient management componenet and tile drain system
- Extending WQIag framework at the hwole farm and watershed level _ Working with the Idaho National Lab of the US-DOE to link with their LEAF framework for evaluating water quality at landscape level
- Calibration with actual monitoring and other models
- Been in talks with discovery and pioneer farms for calibration
###Q/A
- Is this a re-do of the NRCS water quality indicator of 20 years ago?
- Field index only
- What about PI?
- PI does not give you a ranking of water that might be exiting the field (?)
- Will this tool be incorporated into CDSI?
- Maybe, but it would be a long process.
- How does this compare to NTT
- He has been part of developing NTT, which is based on APEX and is quantitative. WQI is only a ranking tool and does not attempt to quantify.
- How well does the tool respond to extreme weather?
- It doesn't. Monthly averages are the only option.
- State-specific parameters?
- Use tool as it is. If weighting factors are not sufficient, contact your state office.