Tag Archives: water

EPD’s Proposed Water Plan for Southwest Georgia

Posted on by

Dawson, GA |

For the first time in more than a decade, the Georgia Environmental Protection Division is actively working on creating a plan to ease regulations put in place back in 2012 after one of the worst droughts the state has ever seen. That suspension, which halted any new withdrawal permits as well as any modifications to existing withdrawal permits on the Flint River Basin, was meant to protect water resources from being overconsumed.  However, that could all soon change after years of evaluation and data collection.

“The 2012 suspension was never intended to be a permanent suspension. We knew that we needed to use and manage the water resource effectively. So we’ve just been working over the last twelve years to get better water data, better metering data, to go through and evaluate that information. We’re also in a really unique position where we have funding from ARPA, that’s going to the Georgia Water Planning and Policy Center for the for the development of an incidental take permit and a habitat conservation plan. That all sounds like a lot of jargon, but really what it boils down to is we have some threatened, endangered mussels in the lower Flint basin, and this is a way for us to protect our existing water users and protect those mussels, while at the same time, stopping and trying to think through how do we want permitting to look moving forward,” says Ania Truszczynski, Chief of the EPD Watershed Protection Branch

The proposed modifications are contingent upon two main factors: additional capacity being identified and the protection of water and those already permitted to use it, and if those criteria are met, new permits would be under drought restrictions that users would need to comply with to ensure proper management.

“When times are good, when times are normal, even when times are a little bit dry, you can irrigate just as anyone normally would, but when we get into a really significant drought, the kinds of things you saw in 2007, in 2011, restrictions can be put in place and that person would not be able to withdraw from the Floridan aquifer anymore to make sure that we were not using too much of that water resource. The second thing that we’re talking about is making sure that we’ve got really good compliance options. So if folks do have a situation where they’re irrigating outside of their permitted acreage, that we have a good path to compliance, it’s going to get them where they need to be, where we can protect the water resource, but we’re really all working together,” says Truszczynski.

According to Murray Campbell, a farmer who has been a part of this discussion since the first moratorium was put in place in 1999, says this modification would be a great win for those like himself, who wouldn’t be able to farm without irrigation.

“We are so much further down the road in the science and knowing what’s going on and being able to predict what will happen with the modeling. We are on the verge of being able to protect the permits that we have, which is important, to correct some of the inaccuracies that we have in some of the permits and that we can then see where those areas are, where we can open up and have some more permits that may be under a drought restriction, under a significant situation, but we have come so much farther where we were twenty-five years ago it’s unbelievable, and we are making great progress and it’s going to be good for agriculture,” says Murray Campbell, Owner of Murray Campbell Farms.

The EPD hopes to have a final decision regarding the current suspension in November.

By: John Holcomb

UGA Water Efficiency Team Dedicated to Helping Producers

Posted on by

Midville, GA

No matter if it’s corn, cotton, or peanuts, the one thing each of these Georgia staples need is sufficient water during growing season, and with rainfall being so unpredictable during the summer, farmers must rely on irrigation to fill in the gaps. However, the amount can sometimes be tricky, which is why having the UGA Water Efficiency Team to lean on can provide a little piece of mind.

“We’re trying to hit that sweet spot, putting in irrigation soil moisture sensors, helping farmers with different types of irrigation and water management tools such as the smart irrigation apps,” says Jason Mallard, UGA’s Area Ag Water Agent. “We are working with them on some of the different models and that kind of thing that we have.”

Getting that information comes from numerous tests done on a variety of different soils.

“There are some pivots in Southwest Georgia that we’re working with where we have in the neighborhood of fifteen, twenty different, individual plots under one pivot with multiple sensors. We have two to three reps for each treatment under one pivot where we’re able to define that spot where we get the highest yield for the least amount of water applied,” says Mallard.

It’s not just research this team specializes in, but also the implementation, as they provide expertise in the field as well as a pathway for growers to try out this new technology.

“There’s new technology coming out every year that we are trying to help the farmers and help them install and learn this new technology,” says Mallard. “That part of what the Ag Water Team is trying to do. We’re going out and putting these practices on the farm with the farmers at little to no cost for them to be able to try this new technology and see how it works on their farm and get to experience that without much investment.”

This couldn’t come at a better time as budgets are being tightened due to the ever-increasing price of production.

“With input costs being as high as they are and even diesel prices being like they are, it’s very important to be able to apply water only when is needed. And that is also conserving pumping costs and conserving our state water resources. So, yes, we can definitely have impact with this throughout their farm if they apply this technology,” says Mallard. “It varies for the input costs, yes, you pretty much get what you pay for when you use this technology.”

Even if some farmers aren’t quite ready to implement this new technology, they are still encouraged to have a plan for their water use heading into the planting season.

“From the lowest input, such as a checkbook method, all the way up to some of our sensors, which are twenty-five hundred dollars per location within the field, just pick some type of irrigation water management strategy and go with it,” says Mallard.

By: Damon Jones