An ISU agriculture engineer is developing alternative technologies to help prevent livestock waste runoff from reaching Iowa waterways.

Jeffery Lorimor, associate professor of agricultural and biosystems engineering, is researching new ways livestock producers can contain, dilute and manage the waste created by large-scale cattle operations.

New federal regulations passed by the Environmental Protection Agency under the Clean Water Act will require producers with 1,000 head of beef cattle or 700 head of dairy cattle to install basins or lagoons to hold runoff wastes and prevent them from mixing with waterways.

Chris Murray, a nutrient management specialist for the Natural Resource Conservation Service, said producers “will have to control all direct entrances of animal waste going directly into a water system.”

Lorimor said the conventional basin systems do not sufficiently control the waste.

“Zero containment is theoretically impossible,” he said. Lorimor said he believes there are really four reasons the basins don’t work.

“One, people don’t like lagoons. They do overflow. They don’t contain 100 percent [of the waste]. Iowa farmers don’t know how to irrigate, and it is expensive.”

In an effort to counteract these problems, Lorimor suggests three different methods livestock producers can use. First would be to control the runoff by implementing a wetland. The least effective of the three, the wetland would slow the runoff down, allowing much of the anaerobic wastes to mix with the soil.

Second would be an infiltration system. With this system, a small three-sided dam or berm would be built to catch the runoff. The soil would then be used to filter out the waste, and a buried tile would catch the excess and carry it to a wetland, thus preventing it from reaching the water table.

Infiltration, however, “would only be able to filter out 80 percent of the waste, and the rest would have to be brought back to the surface,” Lorimor said.

Third, and in Lorimor’s opinion, the best option, are vegetation filter strips. These strips catch the waste and allow it to penetrate the soil. “They are easier for people to use. Farmers understand grass waterways, and they can still use their fields,” Lorimor said.

These alternative technologies will offer producers a cost-effective way of protecting Iowa’s water. He said it can cost $100 a head to build the basins.

He said his alternatives are “probably going to cut that in half [depending on the situation].”

Lorimor is working with the Department of Natural Resources to get his alternatives approved for large-scale use.

Reza Khosravi, acting supervisor for the Water Quality Bureau of the DNR, said, “We are in the process of looking at those alternatives. The EPA should also give their blessing.”

Should the alternatives be permitted, Lorimor would work with the DNR to develop the rules governing their application.

For Lorimor, “It all comes down to management.”

He said the purpose of his research is to preserve the water quality for the public, and prove that these systems can do a better job of protecting the water.