Water News Archive

Thursday June 8, 2017

Abandoned swine lagoons and earthen storage basins may contain valuable nutrients

person sampling lagoon sludge from an excavator bucket

When a swine lagoon is abandoned, the owner has the choice of decommissioning the lagoon or maintaining the integrity of the lagoon. Decommissioning means dewatering the lagoon and land applying the sludge at the bottom. One cannot just fill in the hole. The process of removing the water and the sludge is time consuming and takes resources and planning to complete properly. One aspect of the process does have some cost recovery and that is utilizing the sludge in a beneficial way.

Thursday June 1, 2017

Is Your Irrigation System Ready For the Season?

Center Pivot in soybean field Greeley County, NE

Simple checks you can preform on your center pivots to make sure they are ready for the irrigation season.

Monday May 15, 2017

Nebraska Weather and Your Water Supply

Nebraska weather is anything but stable and predictable. February reiterated that point to us as we saw record numbers of days with highs in the 70s, our first thunder of 2017 followed by up to two feet of snow in some parts of the state. Severe thunderstorms and tornadoes are most common during May, June and July but they can occur at any time and are increasingly common as warm air patterns begin to dominate during the spring months.

Friday May 12, 2017

Finding Win/Win Opportunities for Manure

This article is Part 1 of a two-part discussion on the value of manure. Part 2 focuses on soil quality benefits provided by manure and appeared in the March 6, 2017 CropWatch.

Monday May 1, 2017

Pesticide Safety

Pesticides are a commonly used method of managing pests in our landscapes. However, pesticides are poisons, so they need to be handled carefully. With spring here and summer coming right around the corner, it is a good time to reinforce those safety precautions to everyone who might be using pesticides.

Thursday March 16, 2017

2017 Sandpit Lake Management Workshops

Nebraska Extension, the Nebraska Department of Environmental Quality, and Game and Parks again have partnered to offer a series of pond and lake management introductory workshops. These workshops are free and open to everyone who makes decisions for and about lakes and ponds or anyone who wants to learn more about protecting them. If you’ve ever had an algae bloom, fish kill, murky water, or just want to know what’s going on in the lake, this workshop is for you. All 2017 workshops are focused on sandpit lakes.

Wednesday March 8, 2017

2017 Spring Stormwater Symposium

Spring Stormwater Symposium Agenda Cover

The 2017 Spring Stormwater Symposium brought together professionals from both public and private sectors to learn from local, regional and national experts. The symposium will focused on examples of stormwater program funding and management, and took an in-depth look into the life cycle of a successful stormwater management project.

Graywater Use in Nebraska

With the forecast of another dry year, more people are inquiring about reusing their graywater to water their plants or lawn with. It is not legal in Nebraska to discharge untreated graywater. Wastewater in Nebraska is comprised of graywater and blackwater. Graywater is defined in Nebraska Onsite Wastewater Regulations as water that has been used for bathing, laundering clothes, and sink waste that is not kitchen sink waste. Blackwater is water that carries off waste from toilets, urinals, and kitchen sinks.

Integrated Pest Management

Integrated Pest Management, or IPM, is a long-standing, science-based, decision-making process that identifies and reduces risks from pests and pesticides. It coordinates the use of pest biology, environmental information and available technology to prevent unacceptable levels of pest damage by the most economical means, while posing the least possible risk to people, property, resources and the environment. IPM provides an effective strategy for managing pests in all areas from developed residential and public areas to crop and wild lands.

Agricultural Irrigation & Water Quality

Map illustrating concentrations of nitrate-nitrogen across the state

Research has shown that concentrations of nitrate - nitrogen have accumulated in the groundwater beneath areas where irrigation is intense and where the soils are permeable allowing for leaching of nitrogen fertilizer. Leaching is most severe for surface irrigation systems used to irrigate sandy soils. The Platte River Valley and Eastern Sandhills have been most severely affected.

Contact the Manure Team

Design Videos for Small AFOs

Screenshot from one of the Design Videos

Watch this series of six videos for information on planning a Vegetative Treatment System on a small AFO.

Yield Goal Development

Setting a Realistic Corn Yield Goal Nebguide Discusses how to set a realistic corn yield goal by acknowledging climatic yield limitations of corn in Nebraska and the yield history in a field.

Order CD/DVD Set

Order the Water Optimizer CD/DVD set for $7.00. The CD/DVD set contains material not available for download: background information, applications, examples and research results for the Water Optimizer program.

Evaluating Soil Health

Soil health is defined as the continued capacity of the soil to function as a vital living ecosystem that sustains plants, animals, and humans. Typically, soil health includes three types of soil characteristics: biological, physical, and chemical. Although sometimes used interchangeably, soil quality generally refers to soil chemical and physical properties.

Feed Management Practices that Affect Animal Manures

Excess nutrients in livestock feed all end up in manure because animals cannot utilize them. What you feed your livestock makes a big difference in the composition of the manure output. Feed management practices that not only meet animal requirements but minimize the amount of excess nutrients in manure help reduce risk of water contamination problems. Knowing the requirements of the animal you are feeding can improve your ability to feed the animal the correct amount of nutrients.

Variety Selection & Tests

EC197, Using Winter Wheat Yield Data to Improve Variety Selection PDF only (224 KB; 8 pages) This extension circular describes a method for comparing and selecting various wheat varieties.

Crop Water Use (Evapotranspiration)

The evapotranspiration (ET) process is a key variable in many disciplines including irrigation management, crop growth, hydrologic cycle, plant physiology, soil-plant-water-atmosphere relationships, microclimate and surface interactions, and drainage studies.

Estimating Manure N App Rates

Manure nitrogen application rates must be estimated annually based upon the most recently available information for manure nutrient concentration (manure sample) and the estimate of crop nutrient needs. Since this information is not typically available at the time of a permit application, estimating manure nitrogen application rates as part of a permit is, at best, an educated guess made without essential information. However, the underlying principles and assumptions that will be used to estimate manure nitrogen application rates can be defined in a permit application.

Stormwater Education for Kids

The stormwater activity sheets below can be downloaded and used with the Stormwater Sleuth comic book or on their own. They are designed for students from 4th - 6th grades, but may be appropriate for other ages as well.