By Rebecca Feldhaus
http://stream.publicbroadcasting.net/production/mp3/wkms/local-wkms-875343.mp3
Murray, KY – The Four Rivers Basin Team is a group of professionals and volunteers who collect water quality data in the region and raise funds to clean up existing pollution. Though streams might not be visible to every family walking out their front door, the system is vast. To put it in perspective, Kentucky has more stream miles than any other state, second only to Alaska.
Team Coordinator Maggie Morgan works with chemists, biologists, and farmers. She says agriculture can sometimes get a bad wrap for mass pollution that scientists say contributes to the Gulf of Mexico dead zone. But what's their rationale the amount of pesticides, fertilizers and animal waste that has the possibility of running into the ground water.
Morgan doesn't wholly agree. She says it's unfair to solely blame agriculture for polluted watersheds because most everyone is to blame. She cites phosphorus levels in home detergent and fecal coliforms from pet and human waste. However, while farmer's do contribute to the ongoing pollution issue Morgan says becoming educated and working together to understand the problem is an important first step.
"I know that in our region, in the Four Rivers Region, we have some really great proponents for good practices in agriculture. They really push their local farmers to use sustainable practices that are good for the environment."
Bob Johnson is a program coordinator at the US Department of Agriculture. He says the general blame also comes from the lack of education.
"As for what you're saying about blaming agriculture, there does seem to be a tendency to do that, and that's mainly I think, because it's an unknown. They know that Farmers use a lot of herbicides, they know farmers use lots of fertilizers so therefore they're thinking that since they're using them, they must be running off and causing pollution issues."
Executive staff adviser for Kentucky's Division of Environmental Services and team member Allen Kyle is taking a proactive method to curb pollution and increase awareness. He aims to achieve this by recruiting watershed members who could greatly impact water quality in the region.
"We're trying to get on, or get somebody from agriculture at all the watersheds to at least be able to present agriculture's perspective to the issues and how in relative to cleaning up the water, how we can help, one. And two, the process will affect agriculture in the long run."
An overall goal within the Four Rivers Basin is mobilizing behind the idea of precision agriculture. Bob Johnson explains exactly what this entails.
"Precision agriculture is the transition from using general broadcast techniques. In other words you have a hundred acre field, you put on so many pounds of fertilizer per acre. Precision ag takes that hundred acre field and divides it into two acre plots, and only puts the amount of fertilizer on that particular plot at exactly the rate needed."
Though precision agriculture is expensive, costing about $25,000 to begin, Johnson says it's a meaningful endeavor and should save farmers money in the long run. But is it catching on? Johnson cites at least 5 farmers in Calloway practicing precision ag. While the Basin Team and those invested in the Agriculture industry continue to seek better practices to reduce pollution, Maggie Morgan believes it's in everyone's best interest to keep the region's watersheds clean.