Cascading Waterway: Multiplier Effect of Combining Grassed Waterway and inline Wetland Basins
Sustainable Agriculture
Wm. Bruce Clevenger
Associate Professor and Field Specialist, Farm Management
Ohio State University Extension
Napoleon
Abstract
There is no single Best Management Practice (BMP) for all soil conservation and water quality concerns. Agricultural landscapes in crop production have unique characteristics that require matching the BMP to the site that addresses the local resource concern. A Cascading Waterway combines two conservation practices into a single design and offers a potential multiplier effect. BMPs often mitigate soil erosion for surface water flow areas and/or non-point source pollution from nutrients moving off production fields. The Cascading Waterway is a grassed waterway built in a concentrated surface water flow area of a field with constructed water basins that pool water in-line with the water flow. In 2019, three Cascading Waterways were constructed at the Defiance Agricultural Research Association (DARA) site/farm in Defiance, Ohio. Each of the three designs were unique by combining traditional grassed waterways with differing numbers of water basins: one design having a single water basin, one design with two water basins, and a third design with three water basins. All Cascading Waterways have the basin(s) in-line with the waterflow from the headwater to the discharge. Each design varied in waterway length and the number of water basins according to the surface drainage area of the field. In 2020, a multi-agency and private industry partnership was established to monitor water quality components throughout the three-basin Cascading Waterway. A first of its kind, mobile sampling and analytical lab was deployed from March to April of 2021. Preliminary results begin to explain how dissolved, suspended, and total solids, Ammonia-N, Nitrate/Nitrite-N, dissolved phosphorus, and total phosphorus are moving through the grassed waterways and three stages of the water basins. The water basins are increasing biodiversity within a cropland landscape by naturally selecting aquatic plants and animals to inhabit the basins. The Cascading Waterways have been part of public education at a fall field day, a summer soil health research project, a self-paced BMP tour, two educational videos, and public conservation newsletters. The Cascading Waterway BMP has the potential to be designed and implemented in a variety of regions and land uses to aid in soil conservation and water quality.
Authors: Tyler Miller, Wm. Bruce Clevenger, Rachel Cochran, Kevin Hancock
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Tyler Miller District Technican, Defiance Soil & Water Conservation District, Ohio, 43512
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Wm. Bruce Clevenger Extension Educator & Associate Professor, Ohio State Unversity Extension, Ohio, 43512
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Rachel Cochran Extension Water Quality Associate, Ohio State University, Ohio, 45879
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Kevin Hancock District Administrator, Defiance Soil & Water Conservation District, Ohio, 43512