Soil and Water Monitoring for Model Testing and Validation for TMDL Compliance and Nutrient Management

It is extremely important to have ongoing and continuous water quality monitoring programs inwatersheds for national water quality assessment in describing the status and trends in the quality ofsurface and ground water resources draining to international waters and causing major global waterquality concerns that may have human health implications. Extensive soil and water quality programsin watersheds also provide a sound and science based understanding of primary effects of bestmanagement systems implemented on the landscape in improving the overall quality of major waterbodies in a given region/basin. Since World War II, agricultural production has shifted from highlylabor-intensive to machine driven and chemical-intensive methods. The use of the latest technology infarm mechanization, plant and animal production systems, and in the production of new chemicals forinsect and weed control has resulted in an abundant supply of food and fiber at a relatively low cost. Atthe same time during the last 25 years, a serious public concern has emerged about the fate ofagrochemicals and their impacts on humankind and the environment (particularly in relation to waterquality). This concern was further intensified recently with the detection of many agriculturalpollutants in the worlds major water bodies through the use of several environmental monitoringprograms worldwide. A number of environmental monitoring programs were initiated in the UnitedStates to better understand the movement and the degradation of agricultural pollutants in the soilwater-air system. The results of these soil and water monitoring studies indicate that behavior ofagrochemicals in the soil and water system is a complex process influenced by hydrologic and geologicconditions of the region, chemical properties and agricultural production practices. Development ofsustainable agricultural production systems will be necessary to safeguard the worlds already damagedecosystem and water supplies and sound principles of science and technology will need to be applied tominimize environmental degradation. Many technologies are now available to increase the efficiencyof machines, nutrients, pesticides, and irrigation water use by adopting appropriate farming systems butthe positive role of these technologies on water quality can only be documented by implementingsound soil and water monitoring techniques in watersheds so that good water quality data are collectedto assure that nations water supply are safe for human and animal consumption.