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Water Quality

  1. This vernal pool in Ohio is an example of a non-floodplain wetland that is not protected under the new federal rule. These waterbodies are interconnected in many ways with stream and river networks. Photo courtesy of Mažeika Sullivan

    A watershed moment for U.S. water quality

    Aug 17, 2020

    A new federal rule that determines how the Clean Water Act is implemented leaves millions of miles of streams and acres of wetlands unprotected based on selective interpretation of case law and a distortion of scientific evidence, researchers say in a new article in Science. Mažeika Sullivan, director of the Schiermeier Olentangy River Wetland Research Park at The Ohio State University is the lead author on the article.  Read more about the new rule and what it means for now-unprotected waters in the Ohio State News release by Emily Caldwell.

     

  2. Photo: Getty Images

    New fertilizer guide for field crops

    Aug 17, 2020

    Farmers in Ohio, Indiana, and Michigan now have a new guide for creating fertile ground for their corn, soybean, wheat, and alfalfa crops. Working with a team of soil scientists and agronomists from across Ohio, Indiana, and Michigan, Steve Culman, a soil fertility specialist with The Ohio State University College of Food, Agricultural, and Environmental Sciences (CFAES), led the effort to revise a 1995 guide for fertilizing field crops. The free and newly revised Tri-State Fertilizer Recommendations for Corn, Soybeans, Wheat, and Alfalfa offers guidelines for how much nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium, calcium, magnesium, sulfur, and micronutrients soil should have to spur high crop yields without jeopardizing water quality. 

  3. Lake Erie is among the bodies of water in Ohio affected by phosphorus runoff from farm fields. (Photo: Getty Images)

    Attracting more farmers to participate in water quality efforts

    Aug 28, 2019

    COLUMBUS, Ohio—Skepticism, more than anything else, is keeping farmers from changing how they apply fertilizer to their fields, according to a behavioral scientist at The Ohio State University.

    Many farmers question whether the conservation measures they are being asked to do, such as applying fertilizer underground rather than on the surfaces of fields, will actually improve water quality in Lake Erie, said Robyn Wilson, a professor in the College of Food, Agricultural, and Environmental Sciences (CFAES).

  4. A program called “Agriculture and Water Quality Issues: OSU Research and Agency Initiatives Guide Farmers’ Solutions,” hosted by the Ohio State-based Environmental Professionals Network, is Sept. 12 in Columbus. (Photo: iStock.)

    Event to Look at Farming, Water Quality, Ohio’s Efforts for Both

    Aug 28, 2017

    Agriculture and water quality flow together. So do Ohio’s efforts to improve them.  The next Environmental Professionals Network (EPN) breakfast program will look at those ties and at new progress in serving the state’s farmers, food and water.  The event, which is open to the public, is Sept. 12 at The Ohio State University.

  5. A March 8 program by the Environmental Professionals Network will look at three major initiatives to clean and protect water. (Photo: Ingram Publishing.)

    Event to Feature Local, National Water Quality Efforts

    Mar 3, 2016

    This month’s breakfast presentation by the Environmental Professionals Network, which includes an optional joint meeting with the Water Management Association of Ohio, will feature three major initiatives aimed at protecting and improving water quality.   “The importance of water is increasingly on the public’s mind, which is good, but the challenges are significant,” said David Hanselmann, the network’s coordinator and a lecturer in the College of Food, Agricultural, and Environmental Sciences at The Ohio State University.

  6. State agency directors to speak on nutrient runoff, water quality at EPN October Breakfast

    Sep 17, 2013

    Water quality is the focus of next week's Environmental Professionals Network breakfast program. CFAES Dean Bruce McPheron will moderate a panel discussion featuring the directors of the Ohio Department of Agriculture, Ohio Environmental Protection Agency, and Ohio Department of Natural Resources — David Daniels, Scott Nally, and Jim Zehringer, respectively — who will speak on Ohio’s programs and policies to control nutrient runoff and protect and improve water quality.