US Farmers Work to Curb Lake Erie Pollution

 Ohio — Lake Erie, the smallest of North America’s five Great Lakes, supplies fresh drinking water to an estimated 11 million people in Ohio, Michigan and southern Ontario province, Canada.

Yet sometimes pollution, both from industrial waste and farm-chemical runoff, leaves large areas of the lake covered in half-meter-thick layers of green slime. Scientists blame the excess phosphorus and nitrates entering the water, which act like fertilizer, for Lake Erie’s algal blooms.

Source of the problem

To find out where these extra nutrients¹ come from, the Ohio Department of Natural Resources has been studying data from its network of 14 water-quality monitoring stations installed along the rivers that drain into the Lake Erie basin. 

At one staton, water from the small stream is diverted into a large concrete flume where it is pumped into the testing station.

“We’ll have a sample a day, year round every day so that really pins down what the chemistry is like,” says Dave Baker² of Ohio's Heidelberg University, who oversees³ the monitoring stations for the Department of Natural Resources. 

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The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the federal government’s pollution watchdog, requires point sources, such as factories, to monitor and report their discharges. So Baker is looking for where the other sources of pollution come from.

“If there are problems in Lake Erie, we want to know where it’s coming from and make sure we’re putting resources to remedy the problem in the right place," Baker says. "It’s stations like this that help do that.”

In this case, a primary source of the pollution turns out to be chemical fertilizer that washes off farmland during rainstorms.

No-till farming

Because farmers and ranchers believe fertilizers are essential to high crop yields, they are reluctant to stop using them.

However, the USDA’s Natural Resource Conservation Service isn’t asking them to abandon farm chemicals, but rather to use them more sparingly so they don’t run off the land when it rains. One way they can do that is to practice so-called no-till farming.

When soil is constantly pounded by the wheels of a tractor and then fluffed up with a tiller, it breaks down the natural bonds in the soil, causing it to become very hard and compact. When that happens, water or fertilizer can’t penetrate⁴ the soil, and they run off the land into local waterways and eventually into Lake Erie.

Frank Gibbs, a soil analyst⁵ with the US Department of Agriculture, explains that in no-till fields, farmers don’t break up the earth before planting and they follow the same path every time with their heavy machinery⁶. That way, only the pathways, not the seed rows, become compacted.

“We’re using our head to farm rather than a big piece of steel," Gibbs says. "Dragging steel through the ground is not the answer, besides blowing all that diesel⁷ in the air.”

No-tilled soil results in greater water infiltration⁸, less runoff, less erosion, and reduced flooding.

“It’s all about water quality and managing water,” says farmer Allen Dean, who has embraced no-till farming.

Yet others remain cautious about making the switch, because tilled soils can take up to five years to regain⁹ the ability to absorb and hold water. And many growers lack the specialized¹⁰ equipment they need for no-till farming.

Cover-crop farming 

Another technique for reducing farm chemical pollution of Lake Erie is cover-crop farming. After the harvest, farmers plant a second quick-growing crop to reduce erosion. The deep-rooted plants, such as rye or turnips¹¹, help aerate¹² the soil, allowing worms and fungi¹³ to work their magic and helping¹⁴ the soil to absorb more water and nutrients.

Dean says it’s discouraging that some of his neighbors don’t yet use these methods, but he notes that government programs are encouraging them to switch.

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The USDA’s Environmental Quality Incentives¹⁵ Program has provided about $1.2 million grants to Ohio farmers to help them plant more than 10,000 hectares of cover crops. New machinery is also being developed that allows farmers to plant cover crops between rows of maturing crops.

“We want to make sure we do the best we can do and that our nutrients don’t go to the streams, and rivers and end up in Lake Erie or the Gulf¹⁶ of Mexico or wherever it might be,” Dean says.

By keeping their soils in good condition and reducing fertilizer runoff, Ohio farmers are not only helping themselves, but they are also reducing the threat to the region’s drinking water supply by improving the quality of water running into Lake Erie.

1 nutrients   

n.（食品或化学品）营养物，营养品( nutrient的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• a lack of essential nutrients 基本营养的缺乏
• Nutrients are absorbed into the bloodstream. 营养素被吸收进血液。 来自《简明英汉词典》

2 baker   

n.面包师

参考例句：

• The baker bakes his bread in the bakery.面包师在面包房内烤面包。
• The baker frosted the cake with a mixture of sugar and whites of eggs.面包师在蛋糕上撒了一层白糖和蛋清的混合料。

3 oversees   

v.监督，监视( oversee的第三人称单数 )

参考例句：

• She oversees both the research and the manufacturing departments. 她既监督研究部门又监督生产部门。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The Department of Education oversees the federal programs dealing with education. 教育部监管处理教育的联邦程序。 来自互联网

4 penetrate   

v.透(渗)入；刺入，刺穿；洞察，了解

参考例句：

• Western ideas penetrate slowly through the East.西方观念逐渐传入东方。
• The sunshine could not penetrate where the trees were thickest.阳光不能透入树木最浓密的地方。

5 analyst   

n.分析家，化验员；心理分析学家

参考例句：

• What can you contribute to the position of a market analyst?你有什么技能可有助于市场分析员的职务？
• The analyst is required to interpolate values between standards.分析人员需要在这些标准中插入一些值。

6 machinery   

n.(总称)机械，机器；机构

参考例句：

• Has the machinery been put up ready for the broadcast?广播器材安装完毕了吗？
• Machinery ought to be well maintained all the time.机器应该随时注意维护。

7 diesel   

n.柴油发动机，内燃机

参考例句：

• We experimented with diesel engines to drive the pumps.我们试着用柴油机来带动水泵。
• My tractor operates on diesel oil.我的那台拖拉机用柴油开动。

8 infiltration   

n.渗透；下渗；渗滤；入渗

参考例句：

• The police tried to prevent infiltration by drug traffickers. 警方尽力阻止毒品走私分子的潜入。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• A loss in volume will occur if infiltration takes place. 如果发生了渗润作用，水量就会减少。 来自辞典例句

9 regain   

vt.重新获得，收复，恢复

参考例句：

• He is making a bid to regain his World No.1 ranking.他正为重登世界排名第一位而努力。
• The government is desperate to regain credibility with the public.政府急于重新获取公众的信任。

10 specialized   

adj.专门的，专业化的

参考例句：

• There are many specialized agencies in the United Nations.联合国有许多专门机构。
• These tools are very specialized.这些是专用工具。

11 turnips   

芜青( turnip的名词复数 )； 芜菁块根； 芜菁甘蓝块根； 怀表

参考例句：

• Well, I like turnips, tomatoes, eggplants, cauliflowers, onions and carrots. 噢，我喜欢大萝卜、西红柿、茄子、菜花、洋葱和胡萝卜。 来自魔法英语-口语突破（高中）
• This is turnip soup, made from real turnips. 这是大头菜汤，用真正的大头菜做的。

12 aerate   

v.充气，让空气进入

参考例句：

• It were an aquarium,complete with an air pump to aerate the running water.但最让我难忘的礼物否则玩具，而是唯一带空气泵、能通气的鱼缸。
• Each insect contributes something just as ants aerate the soil.每一种昆虫都贡献了一些事情，就象蚂蚁松土给土壤增加空气一样。

13 fungi   

n.真菌，霉菌

参考例句：

• Students practice to apply the study of genetics to multicellular plants and fungi.学生们练习把基因学应用到多细胞植物和真菌中。
• The lawn was covered with fungi.草地上到处都是蘑菇。

14 helping   

n.食物的一份&adj.帮助人的，辅助的

参考例句：

• The poor children regularly pony up for a second helping of my hamburger. 那些可怜的孩子们总是要求我把我的汉堡包再给他们一份。
• By doing this, they may at times be helping to restore competition. 这样一来, 他在某些时候,有助于竞争的加强。

15 incentives   

激励某人做某事的事物( incentive的名词复数 )； 刺激； 诱因； 动机

参考例句：

• tax incentives to encourage savings 鼓励储蓄的税收措施
• Furthermore, subsidies provide incentives only for investments in equipment. 更有甚者，提供津贴仅是为鼓励增添设备的投资。 来自英汉非文学 - 环境法 - 环境法

16 gulf   

n.海湾；深渊，鸿沟；分歧，隔阂

参考例句：

• The gulf between the two leaders cannot be bridged.两位领导人之间的鸿沟难以跨越。
• There is a gulf between the two cities.这两座城市间有个海湾。