Water Resources Research Act Program

Details for Project ID 2003TX93B

Relating Nutrient Imports to Exports and Losses During Sod Production

Institute: Texas
Year Established: 2003 Start Date: 2003-03-01 End Date: 2004-02-28
Total Federal Funds: $4,182 Total Non-Federal Funds: $11,100

Principal Investigators: Brandon McDonald, Don Vietor

Project Summary: Several efforts are now underway to determine the extent to which using dairy manure to produce turfgrass sod may improve the water quality in the Bosque River watershed of Central Texas. In general, the idea is that removing dairy manure will likely lessen runoff nonpoint pollution while providing nutrient and phosphorus inputs needed to grow turfgrass. Once the turfgrass is grown, it will be marketed to urban areas in Dallas, Fort Worth, and other sites. The intent of this study is to quantify runoff and leaching losses of nitrogen and phosphorus from fields where Tifway Bermudagrass is grown. The fields will be instrumented with surface runoff collection systems and flow meters to gather data on water quality and water quantity associated with runoff from these plots. Later, this information will be used to develop a geographic information system and use of the Soil Water Assessment Tool (SWAT) to model the effects of turfgrass production with dairy manure on water quality in the Bosque watershed. This work is supported by the Texas turfgrass industry.