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Reducing nutrient loss benefits everyone
An agriculture policy specialist says everybody wins when nutrient loss can be reduced. Jonathan Coppess of the University of Illinois cites the Des Moines water works suit against upstream counties it says are responsible for the nitrates that Des Moines has to remove from the water.
“I don’t think it’s going too far to say that if Des Moines succeeds that certainly other municipal water entities that have to clean nitrates out of the water supply will look at this very closely as a precedent they might use as well,” Coppess told Brownfield Ag News at the Illinois Farm Assets Conference Tuesday in Normal, Illinois.
Finding a way to reduce nutrient loss from the soil benefits everyone involved, said Coppess.
“You pay money to put nitrogen in your field, it doesn’t help you out when it gets into the tile and into the river, then Des Moines or somebody else has to clean it up, so it’s kind of one of those things that begs for a solution and one that’s a productive way of getting that nitrogen loss reduced, keep in in the field, have it available for those crops and out of the drinking water,” said Coppess. “I think we all come out better.”
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