Water Quality Impacts of Poultry Litter Management

摘要

The Lake Lanier drainage basin covers approximately 665,600 acres in NorthGeorgia and is the primary source of domestic water for the City of Atlanta. The drainage basin is located in the heart of the poultry producing region of the states with an estimated 274,000 tons of litter per year. The objective of this study is to quantify any differences in specific water quality parameters between a forested watershed and similar watersheds whose land use is dominated by poultry production and open lands that receive applications of poultry litter. Automated water samplers were installed to collected samples from the outlet streams of four watersheds. The samples were analyzed for ammonia, nitrate, COD, total suspended solids, and orthophosphate. During the weekly sample collection, field measurements were made of pH, conductivity, and temperature. One additional sample was collected at this time for determination of BOD and fecal coliforms an streptococci.