On-Farm Water Storage Systems in Porter Bayou Watershed, Mississippi

Abstract

Since the 1970s, groundwater levels in the Mississippi Alluvial Aquifer have decreased at a rate of approximately 100,000 acre-feet per year due to increased irrigated acres. There are roughly 13,000 permitted irrigation wells dependent on water from the Mississippi Alluvial Aquifer. Farmers and landowners are faced with two major issues with regard to sustainably managing agroecosystems in the Mississippi Delta region, namely, the declining groundwater levels in the Mississippi Delta Shallow Alluvial Aquifer, and nutrient loads into the Mississippi River and the Gulf of Mexico. Due to concerns over groundwater declines and increasing fuel costs to run irrigation pumps, farmers in the Mississippi Delta region have begun implementing irrigation conservation measures, such as tailwater recovery (TWR) ditches and storage ponds to capture irrigation and surface water runoff from the field for later use. Monitoring of two on-farm water storage (OFWS) systems at Pitts and Metcalf farms in Porter Bayou Water shed was initiated in February 2012. Water samples from storage ponds and TWR ditches were analyzed for different water quality parameters. Additional information such as water level in the TWR ditch and water weather station were recorded at 10-minute and 15 minute intervals. An inventory of installed and pending OFWS systems in Porter Bayou Watershed will be conducted as part of this study.