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Conservation, Tail-Water Recovery, and On-Farm Storage

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Conservation, Tail-Water Recovery, and On-Farm Storage Chapter 1: Conservation, Tailwater Recovery, and On-Farm Storage ____________________________________________________________ Table of Contents Section 1: Introduction ________________________________________________________________3 Plan Summary ______________________________________________________________________3 Section 2: Formulation and Comparison of Alternatives_____________________________________7 No Action__________________________________________________________________________7 Actions ____________________________________________________________________________7 Action 1 ___________________________________________________________________________7 Action 2 ___________________________________________________________________________8 Action 3 __________________________________________________________________________16 Water Conservation _________________________________________________________________18 On-Farm Water Development _________________________________________________________18 Sunflower River Sediment Control _____________________________________________________20 Section 3: Environmental Impacts ______________________________________________________21 References Cited ___________________________________________________________________23 Appendix A: Cost of Conservation Practices______________________________________________24 Appendix B: Assumptions used for Economic Evaluation ___________________________________25 List of Tables Table 1: Costs for tailwater ponds and on-farm water storage reservoirs. _________________________19 Table 2: Sample tailwater recovery pond costs and benefits.____________________________________19 Table 3: Sample storage water reservoir costs and benefits. ____________________________________19 Table 4: Monthly suspended sediment load calculated for the Sunflower River watershed at the town of Sunflower. Sampling site 20 in Figure 4. _______________________________________________20 List of Figures Figure 1: Permitted wells in Mississippi. ____________________________________________________5 Figure 2: Land irrigated from groundwater wells and surface water relift. Catfish ponds are filled from groundwater wells. _____________________________________________________________________6 Figure 3: Mississippi Delta’s 11 digit watersheds.____________________________________________10 Figure 4: Mississippi Delta’s major river watersheds. _________________________________________11 Figure 5: Farm Service agency tract boundaries for Sunflower County. ___________________________12 Figure 6: NRCS water quality sampling sites in the Mississippi Delta.____________________________13 Figure 7: Bolivar County conservation database example. _____________________________________14 Figure 8: Satellite imagery example. ______________________________________________________15 Page 2 of 25 Section 1: Introduction Plan Summary Actions involve planning the installation and use of currently available soil and water conservation measures on a coordinated watershed basis to improve water use efficiency to stop the 100,000 acre-feet per year overdraft by improving water use efficiency, maximizing the use of rainfall, and additionally to have a positive impact on receiving water quality. The key to successfully implementing the installation of conservation practices such as tailwater recovery ponds and storage reservoirs is to locate them in the watershed where they can be most effective. This requires watershed planning and landowner cooperation. Principal project measures were developed to make this type of planning and installation possible. Project measures include the following; 1. Develop a network to obtain and coordinate individual farmer and agency support. 1. Lay the framework to develop a GIS capable of supplying regional resource data in natural watershed units. 2. Lay the framework to develop a method to plan and implement individual practices on a coordinated watershed basis. 3. Begin to develop the implementation plan to install tailwater recovery ponds to serve wells used to irrigate cotton, corn, soybeans, and rice acres. 4. Begin to develop the implementation plan to install on-farm water storage reservoirs. 5. Begin to develop the implementation plan to install appropriate water conservation and water quality practices. Proposed practices for water storage, conservation, and quality protection are those recommended by the USDA NRCS Field Office Technical Guide for Mississippi. Descriptions of these practices are presented in Section 3 Formulation and Comparison of Alternatives. The 6/3 method for water savings in catfish ponds was recommended.1 It was important to focus natural resource management efforts toward scientifically documented issues and solutions so that the limited financial and human resources available to implement solutions could be spent in a manner that would produce the most effective combination of environmental and economic results. It was also important to remember that nature ignores manmade political boundaries. A watershed approach to planning across competing interests, programs, and political boundaries was essential to the success of any regional water resource management program. In fact, coordinating local, state, and federal programs on a watershed basis to get more from every dollar invested is a common sense approach to implementing all conservation and environmental programs. Land treatment for water conservation can be used to increase irrigation and water use efficiency decreasing the overdraft by decreasing pumping. Practices included measures for irrigation water management, irrigation water conveyance, and tailwater recovery. A list of these practices and the cost of implementation are supplied in Appendix A of this chapter. There were about 322,000 acres of furrow-irrigated cotton and corn, and 415,000 acres in rice soybean rotation using some 6,700 wells (Figures 1 & 2). 2 Past experience indicated that one tailwater recovery system could handle the water from about 4 wells. A total of 1,675 ponds would need to be constructed to serve all of these row crop wells. Center pivots irrigate another 210,000 acres from about 1,140 wells. (Figure 2) Studies done by Mississippi NRCS in the late 1980s indicated that these systems were running at close to maximum efficiency; therefore, no conservation practices were needed to improve these systems. A cost comparison of an efficient, readily operator accepted, pivot system to construction of a less accepted, land and labor Page 3 of 25 intensive tailwater recovery system, indicates that it may be more feasible to cost share on conversion to pivot systems rather that installation of tailwater systems. 3 There are about 115,000 acres of catfish ponds operating on about 1500 wells currently permitted in the Delta. (Figure 2) Storage and use of rainwater could potentially cut water needs in a pond from 22 inches to 11 inches per season. This would be potential water savings of 105,000 acre feet. This practice is now commonly called the 6/3 method. 1 Implementation of this practice through education efforts should make additional efforts in pond water management unnecessary. Industries can become more water efficient by eliminating one pass cooling and by recycling water used in manufacturing processes. Municipalities can improve water conservation through public education programs, monitoring and maintenance of distribution systems, and through the use of gray water for applications where potable water is not necessary such as watering public parks and golf courses. Increasing the use of rainwater by building on-farm storage reservoirs was also an option. Page 4 of 25
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