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When waterfowl began to die from selenium poisoning at Kesterson National Wildlife Refuge in California's San Joaquin Valley, considerable alarm arose among environmental and agricultural specialists. This new volume suggests that Kesterson is not a unique problem and the events there offer important lessons for the future. Irrigation-Induced Water Quality Problems uses the San Joaquin experience to suggest how we can prepare for similar problems elsewhere. As one committee member put it, "There will be elsewheres"â€"trace elements and organic contaminants are being concentrated by irrigation in many river basins. This book addresses how the Kesterson crisis developed, how irrigation can ...
Subirrigation and Controlled Drainage provides information by four subject groups: subirrigation/controlled drainage system planning and operation, economic/production impact, environmental impact, and barriers to further implementation of water table management systems. The chapter authors address water table management opportunities and issues by providing results and discussions of their research and experience. The book provides essential information to anyone associated with shallow water table management for agricultural production.
This book reviews the practice of reclaiming treated municipal wastewater for agricultural irrigation and using sewage sludge as a soil amendment and fertilizer in the United States. It describes and evaluates treatment technologies and practices; effects on soils, crop production, and ground water; public health concerns from pathogens and toxic chemicals; existing regulations and guidelines; and some of the economic, liability, and institutional issues. The recommendations and findings are aimed at authorities at the federal, state, and local levels, public utilities, and the food processing industry.
World human population is expected to reach upwards of 9 billion by 2050 and then level off over the next half-century. How can the transition to a stabilizing population also be a transition to sustainability? How can science and technology help to ensure that human needs are met while the planet's environment is nurtured and restored? Our Common Journey examines these momentous questions to draw strategic connections between scientific research, technological development, and societies' efforts to achieve environmentally sustainable improvements in human well being. The book argues that societies should approach sustainable development not as a destination but as an ongoing, adaptive learn...
Jan van Schilfgaarde, USDA Agricultural Research Service and National Research Council Committee on Irrigation-Induced Water Quality Problems In 1982, a startling discovery was made. Many waterbirds in Kesterson National Wildlife Refuge were dying or suffering reproductive failure. Located in the San Joaquin Valley (Valley) of California, the Kesterson Reservoir (Kesterson) was used to store agricultural drainage water and it was soon determined that the probable cause of the damage to wildlife was high concen trations of selenium, derived from the water and water organisms in the reservoir. This discovery drastically changed numerous aspects of water management in California, and especially affected irrigated agriculture. In fact, the repercussions spilled over to much of the Western United States. For a century, water development for irrigation has been a religiously pursued means for economic development of the West. The primary objective of the Reclamation Act of 1902 was, purportedly, the development ofirrigation water to support family farms which, in turn, would enhance the regional economy (Worster, 1985).