Principal Investigator: Matt C. Smith (University of Georgia)
Principal Investigator: Jackie Sellers (University of Georgia)
Sponsor: GWRI
Start Date: 1994-06-01; Completion Date: 1994-06-01;
Keywords: agriculture, nonpoint pollution, nitrate contamination, wastewater
Description:
The Lake Lanier drainage basin covers approximately 665,600 acres in North Georgia and is the primary source of domestic water for the city of Atlanta. The drainage basin is located in the heart of the poultry producing region of the state with an estimated 274 million birds produced or housed within the basin. These birds could produce as much as 274,000 tons of litter per year. The objective of this study is to quantify any differences in specific water quality parameters between a forested watershed and similar watersheds whose land use is dominated by poultry production and open lands that receive applications of poultry litter. Automated water samplers were installed to collect samples from the outlet streams of four watersheds. The samples were analyzed for ammonia, nitrate, COD, total suspended solids, and orthophosphate. During the weekly sample collection, field measurements were made of pH, conductivity, and temperature. One additional sample was collected at this time for determination of BOD and fecal coliforms and streptococci. The four streams selected for monitoring were Little John, Mud Creek, East Little River, and West Little River. These sites were monitored from August, 1993 through March, 1994. The Little John site was selected as the control site, i.e. a watershed with no concentrated animal agriculture activities. Approximately 91 percent of the Little John watershed is forested and eight percent is in pasture. The East Little River and West Little sites were the same as used in a Clean Lakes Study of Lake Lanier. Mud Creek is the only site with a potential for significant influences from urban runoff and waste water treatment discharges. There are 87, 35, 43, and 0 chicken houses in the West Little, East Little, Mud, and Little John watersheds, respectively. For many of the measured parameters (dissolved oxygen, COD, BOD, total suspended solids, fecal coliforms, fecal streptococci, and temperature) there were no significant differences between watersheds. The parameters for which significant differences existed include ammonia, nitrate, electrical conductivity, pH, and orthophosphate. The data collected during this study do not provide strong evidence that the high concentrations of poultry houses and the associated land application of litter are contributing to a degradation of the water quality in the streams that were monitored. Almost all of the significant differences were associated with Mud Creek, and these differences are likely due to the discharge of municipal waste treatment plant effluent into the stream. High levels of fecal coliform and fecal streptococci bacteria have been noted previously in the streams in the Lake Lanier watershed. This study also showed high levels of bacteria in the water. The levels were high, however, for all of the sites, including Little John which is, on the whole, undeveloped.