Country Lifestyle
Water Quality & Supply
A Landowner's Guide to Sustainable Forestry: Part 5: Forests and Water
Forests protect and purify water. Forest soils act like a huge sponge, capturing and filtering amazing quantities of rainfall. They slow runoff, preventing soil erosion and the resulting stream and lake sedimentation. Th...
A Shortcut to Wellhead Protection Delineation for Some Systems
This publication describes the fixed radius method to delineate a wellhead protection area, which may be an option for water supply systems that pump, on average, less than 100,000 gallons per day....
Agricultural Best Management Practices
This publication discusses the benefits of several agricultural best management practices for protecting or improving water quality. These BMPs are used in the Long-Term Hydrologic Impact Assessment model in the Tipping ...
Agriculture's Effect on Environmental Quality: Key Management Issues
This publication describes some important environmental concerns and offers management alternatives.
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Animal Agriculture's Effect on Water Quality Waste Storage
This publication discusses lagoons and earthen pits, holding ponds, solid waste storage, composting, and location associated with animal agriculture's effect on water quality.
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Animal Agriculture's Effect on Water Quality: Pastures and Feedlots
This bulletin discusses possible water pollution problems from pasture and feedlot systems and the management practices needed to protect water supplies....
Atrazine and Drinking Water: Understanding the Needs of Farmers and Citizens
This is a brief but detailed explanation of atrazine use in Indiana that offers insight into why the chemical is so widely used and how it gets into public drinking water supplies. This publication also addresses weed ma...
Atrazine Use & Weed Management Strategies to Protect Surface Water Quality
This publication discusses the importance of atrazine products to Indiana farmers, and best management practices (BMPs) for achieving weed control and reducing off-site movement into surface water....
Bacterial Contamination of Household Water
Explains how coliform bacteria can enter water supplies and the possible effects of bacterial contamination. Testing and treatment guidelines are provided....
Barley Straw for Algae Control
The use of barley straw for algae control has received a lot of publicity in recent years. It is now common to find small barley bales being sold in nurseries and garden shops for use in water gardens and small pools to ...
Beginner's Guide to Grant Writing Participant Manual
Designed with novices in mind, the Beginner's Guide to Grant Writing manual -- a companion to the Beginner's Guide to Grant Writing workshop--demystifies the grant-writing process from planning through implementation. Ta...
Bioindicators of Water Quality Quick-Reference Guide (2 pack)
This full-color publication shows aquatic insects that can be used as bioindicators of water quality in Indiana waterways. Bioindicators are biological systems that are sensitive to environmental changes and, therefor...
Bioindicators of Water Quality: Quick Reference Guide
This full-color publication shows aquatic insects that can be used as bioindicators of water quality in Indiana waterways. Bioindicators are biological systems that are sensitive to environmental changes and, therefor...
Bioindicators of Water Quality: Quick Reference Guide (50PK)
This full-color publication shows aquatic insects that can be used as bioindicators of water quality in Indiana waterways. Bioindicators are biological systems that are sensitive to environmental changes and, therefor...
CAFOs and Public Health: The Fate of Unabsorbed Antibiotics
This publication traces the life and activity of an antibiotic from administration to an animal, to excretion in feces or urine, to application to soil as fertilizer, and finally to possible entry into and contamination ...
Choosing a Consultant to Delineate the Wellhead Protection Area
This publication offers some guidelines for water supply operators and wellhead protection planning teams who must hire a qualified ground water scientist to delineate a wellhead protection area....
Conservation Tillage and Water Quality
This publication discusses conservation tillage, the impact of agriculture on water quality, and the impact of conservation tillage on surface and ground water quality. Tables are included listing the effects of surfac...
Corn Yield Response to Drainage Water Recycling Using Subirrigation
Drainage water recycling is a practice of capturing and storing agricultural surface and subsurface drainage water in a reservoir, and then reusing that water as supplemental irrigation. This innovative approach to drain...
Criteria for Evaluating Forestry Activities in Relation to Water Quality Management
This publication discusses interrelated forestry activities, potential pollutants, and practices to prevent and reduce pollution. ...
Cryptosporidium: A Waterborne Pathogen
This publication discusses what cryptosporidium is, the symptoms, diagnosis and treatment, and several questions pertaining to the disease....
Distillation for Home Water Treatment
This publication discusses distillation, distillation units, operation, maintenance, cost, certification, and validation. An illustration is included showing the parts and process of a distiller....
Drainage for the long haul: Key takeaways from the SEPAC study
Subsurface "tile" drainage is an essential agricultural water management practice on naturally poorly drained soils. This publication presents a brief synopsis of key takeaways from a 35-year study at the Southeast Purdu...
Drinking Water Quality Reports: Your Right to Know
This publication provides information for interpreting the drinking water quality report that customers of a public water system receive each year. It also covers types of contamination that can occur, treatment options,...
Effective Wellhead Protection Through Education
This publication describes some ways that the wellhead protection planning team can promote wellhead protection education in their communities. Education is only one part of wellhead protection planning....
Environmental Hypermedia Programs, Vol. II
It features 11 programs, several of which are available only on CD-ROM: Chemical Contamination in Fish Update; Environmental Planning for Small Communities (TRILOGY); Environmental Assessment Case Study (ALASKA); Envi...
Fish Kills in Indiana--Their Causes and Prevention
This publication examines the causes of fish kills and what can be done to prevent them. ...
Forestry and Water Quality: Pollution Control Practices
This publication discusses control of water pollution resulting from forestry activities, which involves a combination of prevention and reduction measures. These measures are built into the interrelated activities of ...
Healthy Water, Happy Home - Lesson Plan
Water is a vital natural resource. We need clean water for drinking, swimming, irrigating crops, and sustaining healthy fish and wildlife populations. The goal of this print-your-own boardgame is to help people unders...
Homeowner Conservation Practices to Protect Water Quality
Anyone who has a home with a yard can help protect and improve water quality. This publication offers practical advice about reducing impervious surfaces, select proper landscape plants, effective management of lawns, in...
Impact of Water Quality on Pesticide Performance
The quality of the water used to spray the product is one factor that doesn't get much attention for effective pesticide applications . Research clearly shows that the quality of water used for spraying can affect how pe...
Importance of Hardwood Tree Planting
The Importance of Hardwood Tree Plantings publication provides a brief overview of several key societal and environmental attributes that hardwood plantations provide, for example, timber production, wildlife habitat, fo...
Indian Creek Watershed Project: Key Takeaways for Success
The Indian Creek watershed project focused on improving water quality in a small agricultural watershed in central Illinois. The project encouraged local landowners to voluntarily adopt conservation practices and systems...
Indiana Farmstead Assessment for Drinking Water Protection
This publication helps farmers and agricultural specialists to conduct an environmental assessment of farmstead activities and potential risks to drinking water. Includes assessments for well water, septic system, fuel, ...
Indiana Farmstead Assessment for Drinking Water Protection - Basic Questions
This is a two-page quick check checklist that helps identify potential water contamination through farmstead activities. By checking yes or no to the questions it can help reveal if your farm has high or low risk areas. ...
Indiana Soil and Water: Four Strategies to Improve Your Field's Soil Health
This publication provides four basic strategies to help improve the health of your soil: (1) Practice no-tillage or strip-tillage, (2) Add more crops to your rotation, (3) include cover crops, and (4) manage nutrient...
Indiana Soil and Water: How to Understand and Interpret Soil Health Tests
This publication describes four common laboratory soil health tests that we evaluated. The publication also discusses the challenges of using these tests in Indiana croplands.
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Indiana Soil and Water: Tips for Environmentally Friendly Phosphorus Applications in Indiana
There is no single and universal answer to the question of how and when to apply P fertilizers. However, this publication does propose four basic P application management tips.
Individual Residence Wastewater Wetland Construction in Indiana
This publication describes general procedures for developing a constructed wetland for a single family residence. This guide is designed to be used with the diagrams included. It is intended for use by homeowners, regula...
Informing the Development of the Great Lakes Region Decision Support System
Land use planners in the Great Lakes region make recommendations that can affect the quality and quantity of ground and surface water resources. Challenges include a lack of up-to-date data, and insufficient political an...
Interpreting Nitrate Concentration in Tile Drainage Water
Monitoring nitrate nitrogen in field drainage tile outlets has important implications for water quality and efficient production agriculture. This publication provides some general guidelines for interpreting nitrate ...
Inventorying Potential Sources of Drinking Water Contamination
This publication provides guidance for the public water supply operators and local wellhead protection planning team members who will guide the completion of the contaminant source inventory. It explains the process of i...
This publication discusses the challenges of land application, reducing runoff, minimizing leaching, and developing a nutrient management plan. A table is included listing the steps to help maximize manure nutrient-us...
Land Application of Municipal & Industrial Biosolids
This publication discusses permits, pathogen control, toxic materials, biosolids testing, nutrient management, and record keeping....
Management Tips for Spring Manure Applications
As plans for planting and getting into fields accelerate in spring, preparing ahead for manure application will help to streamline the process, insure proper nutrient application rates to support anticipated crop yields,...
Nitrate and Indiana's Ground Water
This publication covers the health concerns of nitrate, ground water vulnerability to nitrate, well depth and construction, potential sources for nitrate contamination and treatment.
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On-farm Food Safety for Produce Growers: Microbial Water Quality testing
Water quality is important, because the water you use on your produce farm could potentially introduce human pathogens into your production fields, equipment and workers, washing and packing facilities, and directly o...
On-Farm Soil Monitoring for Water Resource Protection
This publication includes farmer tested monitoring methods for five soil quality indicators that affect field productivity and environmental quality. Methods covered include water infiltration rate, earthworm counts, soi...
Pasture Assessment for Water Resource Protection
Using the Quick Check and the Action Plan included in this publication can help determine, and prevent, high risks for possible water contamination associated with pastured animal production. It also includes local organ...
Pesticides and the Environment
This publication discusses what happens after application, pesticide properties, the application site, and putting it all together: the role of the applicator....
Pesticides and Water Quality: Principles, Policies and Programs
This publication presents information on water science, environmental fate, and public policy to assist the reader in developing an understanding of the issues surrounding pesticide use and water quality....
Phosphorus removal structures are a new best management practice for reducing surface water eutrophication by filtering dissolved phosphorus (DP) before it reaches a water body. This document briefly describes how, why, ...
Plugging Abandoned Water Wells: A Landowner's Guide
This publication discusses the Indiana regulations about abandoned wells, and the procedures that landowners must use to seal up different types of abandoned wells....
Q&A About Drainage Water Recycling for the Midwest
An 8-page publication, part of the Transforming Drainage project, that provides a broad overview of the benefits, costs and issues related to drainage water recycling systems. This publication is part of a series produce...
Questions and Answers about Drainage Water Management for the Midwest
This 8-page publication answers 27 frequently asked questions about drainage water management for Midwest corn and soybean cropping systems. Drainage water management is one strategy to reduce the nitrate loads in draina...
Questions, Answers About Saturated Buffers
A saturated buffer is an innovative practice that can remove substantial nitrate from field tile drainage water before it is discharged into streams or ditches. This publication, part of the Transforming Drainage project...
Recirculating Vertical Flow Constructed Wetlands for Treating Residential Wastewater
In parts of the United States where soils are very permeable, conventional septic tank and absorption field systems are considered the largest contributor to waterborne disease and pollution of water bodies. An economic...
Runoff Control Systems for Open Livestock Feedlots
Runoff from open feedlots must be controlled so that it does not enter a stream. Settling basins and infiltration channels are simple, effective, economical means of runoff control. This publication discusses design, and...
Silage Leachate: Use Caution and Protect the Environment
This 2-page PDF describes silage leachate, why it's important, and how you can deal with it. Silage leachate is liquid that seeps from silage storage structures. Because it is typically very high in nutrients that can ha...
Small Community Wastewater Cluster Systems
This publication focuses on alternative methods of handling wastewater for small communities and small groups of homes. It examines pretreatment and soil absorption rather that conventional large-diameter gravity sewers...
Soil drainage and crop yields: Insights from long-term SEPAC study
This is Part 1 of a 3-part series on a 35-year drainage study at the Southeast Purdue Agricultural Center in Butlerville, Indiana. Dr. Eileen Kladivko discusses cash crop establishment and yield as affected by drain spac...
Soil drainage and nitrate losses to surface waters: Insights from long-term SEPAC study
Part 3 of a 3-part series on a 35-year drainage study at the Southeast Purdue Agricultural Center in Butlerville, Indiana. Dr. Eileen Kladivko discusses drain spacing effects on the amount of water and nitrate-nitrogen l...
Soil drainage impacts on cover crop growth and soil improvement: Insights from long-term SEPAC study
Part 2 of a 3-part series on a 35-year drainage study at the Southeast Purdue Agricultural Center in Butlerville, Indiana. Dr. Eileen Kladivko discusses the effects of drainage on cover crop growth and the effectiveness ...
Sulfur Water Control (Rotten Egg Odor in Home Water Supplies)
This bulletin discusses the effects of sulfur water, how to test for it and how to remove it....
Terracing as a 'Best Management Practice' for Controlling Erosion and Protecting Water Quality
This publication seeks to answer the commonly asked questions about terraces, including "What are the different types?," "How do they work?," "Where are they most effective (or ineffective)?," "What does it take to con...
Tipping Points: What are they? Why are they important?
In the eight states in the Great Lakes region, those who make land use plans and natural resource management decisions must keep ecological integrity in mind. In this publication, Purdue University researchers discuss so...
Urban Best Management & Low Impact Development Practices
This publication discusses the benefits of several urban best management practices for protecting or improving water quality. These BMPs are used in the Long-Term Hydrologic Impact Assessment model in the Tipping Point P...
Water Conservation in the Home
Oftentimes we overlook ways to conserve water in and around the home; however, it is important to try to conserve water as much as possible. This publication provides practical water-saving techniques for the home, and r...
This publication discusses what ground water is, its use and quality. Illustrations are included showing the Hydrologic Cycle and sources of ground water contamination, the distribution of average annual precipitation ...
Why and How to Test Home Water Supplies
This publication discusses why your water should be tested, which tests to do and when to do them. ...
