Water-Resources Investigations Report 03-4036
By S.C. Komor and D.S. Hansen
Prepared in cooperation with the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency
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Attenuation of cattle feedlot runoff in two grass-covered filter strips in Minnesota was estimated by measuring chemical loads into and out of the strips. Filter strips of the Bock and Sanborn sites were 60-m long and 20-m wide and received runoff from cattle feedlots that supported 35 and 225 cattle, respectively. Feedlot and filter-strip runoff were measured using flumes with stage sensors. Water samples were collected using automated samplers. Attenuation values were calculated from four storm-runoff events. Ground water sampled beneath and outside the filter strips indicated some infiltration losses of sulfate, chloride, and nitrogen at the Bock site where soil permeability was greater than at the Sanborn site. Chemical constituents in filter-strip runoff, and their corresponding ranges of attenuation were as follows: chemical oxygen demand, 30–81 percent; dissolved chloride, 6–79 percent; dissolved sulfate, -3–82 percent; dissolved ammonia nitrogen, 33–80 percent; suspended ammonia plus organic nitrogen, 29–85 percent; dissolved organic nitrogen, 14–75 percent; suspended phosphorus, 24–82 percent; dissolved phosphorus, 14–72 percent; and fecal coliform bacteria, 18–79 percent. The ranges seem to be affected by barriers of direct contact of the runoff water with the soil. This varies seasonally by coverage of the soil by ice in winter and vegetation in summer months. Greater attenuation values occurred in October and May when mats of wilted, flat-lying grass covered the filter strips; attenuation values were less during the summer when tall growing grass covered the filter strip
Abstract
Introduction
Purpose and scope
Previous studies
Description of study area
Bock site
Sanborn site
Methods
Quality of water
Bock site
Sanborn site
Attenuation of runoff and chemical loads
Summary
References
For additional information write to:
U.S. Geological Survey
District chief
2280 Woodale Drive
Mounds View, MN 55112
Copies of this report can be purchased from:
U.S. Geological Survey
Branch of Information Services
Box 25286, MS 517
Federal Center
Denver, CO 80225
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