Grass filter strip BMP, under construction.
Principal Investigator: Joe Eugene Lepo
Supporting Agency: Florida Department of Agricultural and Consumer Services;
Florida Department of Environmental Protection; Three Rivers Research Conservation
and Development
Location: : North Escambia County farm of Martin Heibert
The goal of the project is to evaluate the effectiveness of a grass filter strip
best management practice (BMP) in removing nutrients and suspended solid from
overflow of a catfish aquaculture pond. The catfish pond is equipped with a
12" PVC standpipe that will allow overflow to be directed as a sheet flow onto
a grass filter strip that is approximately 10 meters wide and 100 meters long.
Autosamplers have been positioned at the head and end of the filter strip; the
samplers will respond to overflow resulting from rain events and will collect
samples for analytical work. The parameters analyzed will be total nitrogen,
total phosphorus, and total suspended solids. The downstream autosampler will
be repositioned as necessary to gain information on the length of the filter
strip necessary to clean overflow. This project deals with control of agricultural
runoff water quality in response to the Clean Water Act requirements to establish
total maximum daily loads for polluted water bodies. The project is in collaboration
with a number of state and regional regulatory and extension agencies, including
the U. S. Environmental Protection Agency, the Institute for Food and Agricultural
Science, and the Natural Resources Conservation Service.
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| Catfish aquaculture pond in North Escambia County | Grass filter strip BMP, under construction. |
The standpipe in the pond directs overflow into a pipe beneath
the road in the foreground and out into the filter strip.
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Diagram of the grass filter strip |