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Farm Experiment

Thursday, 17 July 2014 16:56

Craig Merkley with the Upper Thames River Conservation Authority demonstrates the farm-scale phosphorus filter he believes will work to improve the quality of runoff surface water at Hoenhorst Dairy Farms

The UTRCA & Hoenhorst Farm in Innerkip are building experimental farm-scale phosphorus filter

INNERKIP – An Innerkip dairy farm is the site of an experiment that promises to improve water quality in the Upper Thames watershed.

Hoenhorst Dairy Farms and the Upper Thames River Conservation Authority are building a farm-scale version of a filter developed by Dr. Will Robertson at the University of Waterloo.

The system removes phosphorus from surface water runoff contaminated by the farm's feed bunker silos using a man-made wetland and water filter made of steel slag. The reactive material is a byproduct of steel production and was donated to the project by US Steel Canada Lake Erie Works.

"[The filter] will remove a lot of the nutrients that are in the bunker silo runoff and take it into the plant material or treat it through the Phosphex Filter, so at the end of the day, the water will be cleaner coming off this property," said Craig Merkley, with the Upper Thames River Conservation Authority's conservation services unit.

"It's an experiment, but it's also a demonstration," he said.

Phosphorus is a nutrient. With the appropriate conditions, phosphorus in waterways can trigger algae blooms, like the ones found in the Pittock Resevoir and Lake Erie.

"We're getting some funding from a couple of different sources. The Ministy of the Environment has put some money in through the Showcasing Water Innovation Project to try and encourage projects like this that will improve our local water quality," Merkley said.

Merkley said the project has a budget of about $17,000 and the filter spans about two- and a-half acres of land on the Hoenhorst property.

"At about $20,000 dollars an acre, that's about $50,000 worth of land being taken out of production," he said.

"There is certainly a significant investment on the land-owners side into the system."

 

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