Managing Subsurface Drain Discharge Effluents with Bioreactors

Nutrient pollution from agriculture, a by-product of excess chemical fertilizer and manure applications transported off-site from crop and livestock production operations, may impair the quality of many local and downstream receiving waters. These excess nutrients may also cause substantial direct or indirect drinking and recreational water quality impairments. One specific innovative tool to address nutrient loss from agricultural row crop operations is to “Require or provide heavy incentives to place constructed wetlands or bioreactors at tile drain outlets” (Nutrient Innovations Task Group 2009). Since many factors influence the rate of nutrient removal, the goal of this project is to demonstrate and optimize treatment effectiveness and efficiency for reducing nitrogen and phosphorus off-farm loss from tile drain discharges to sensitive receiving watersheds using bioreactor technology.