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Agricultural farming, whether from vineyards, seasonal crops, orchards, or nurseries, produces runoff that often contains suspended sediment, pollutants, pesticides, nutrients, heavy metals, and fertilizers. Runoff from farmed land, road surfaces, and tail water from outfalls and ditches, enters tributaries in route to major river systems and estuaries. These discharges may be in violation of the Maximum Contaminant Levels (MCLs), Basin Plan water quality objectives, Total Maximum Daily Loads (TMDLs), and they can have detrimental effects on human health, fisheries and recreational activities.
The list of possible pollutants and contaminates in an agricultural setting may number as high as 40. The availability of these materials for transport depends on farming practices, soil types, geography, and the distribution, intensity, and amount of rainfall. To detect these substances a monitoring plan must first be developed that specifically identifies the constituents of concern and the appropriate monitoring technologies. Some constituents, such as suspended sediment, can be successfully collected with an automated sampling technology such as Turbidity Threshold Sampling, while others may be detected with in situ sensors, and yet other pollutants that occur in very low concentrations may require a “clean hands” sampling technique. RiverMetrics™ can provide sampling solutions, training, and data review and analysis for your agricultural monitoring program.
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