Rice Farming

Like his father and grandfather before him, Charlie Heinsz has a deep regard for the soil that sustains his livelihood and feels obliged to protect it.

Over the years, the Heinsz have installed more than 30 sets of pipe and flashboard risers as well as other water-control structures to hold winter water on their fields near Shelby, Miss. The practice has helped them conserve topsoil by reducing the impact of rainfall on soils and capturing any soil that does move before it leaves the field.

“With the pipes in and with the control gates, we bring the water down slowly. We don’t have the erosion,” says Heinsz, who grows soybeans and rice for seed. “The only place it’s very noticeable is where the water got too high [after a heavy rain] and it ran across the road.

“That is where you see what erosion really is. It makes you remember what it used to be like when we didn’t winter flood.”

The result is not only less soil erosion and fewer gullies to fill but fewer drains to clean out and reduced field preparation in the spring.

Until the fall 2001, when heavy rains caused rutted fields during rice harvest, many of Heinsz’s fields had gone untilled for four years.

“We’ve done nothing in the rice fields other than just knocking the levies, rolling the straw and putting in boards,” Heinsz says. “When we drained the fields, we went right back in and planted soybeans. There’s no debris, no straw. The water does away with it.”

Perhaps more importantly, Heinsz is voluntarily implementing practices that may help him comply with the federal Clean Water Act’s TMDL, or total maximum daily load, provisions that may be mandated in the future.

Under the gun to comply
Mississippi is part of the Environmental Protection Agency’s southeast region that was sued by environmental groups in the late 1990s for not complying with the Clean Water Act’s intent to develop TMDLs.

The Mississippi Department of Environmental Quality is still developing TMDLs for water bodies within the state. And how the final rules will affect agriculture is yet unknown.

“What’s the load for that pollutant, how much is natural, how much is man contributing and what level can go into the water body and still allow it to meet its use?” says James MacLellan, Mississippi DEQ construction, urban and forestry nonpoint-source coordinator in Jackson. “Sometimes it’s not easy to do. Sometimes, it’s fairly easy, but many are not.”

One that is not so simple is sedimentation, because the science surrounding the pollutant is still developing, MacLellan says. Sedimentation involves soil particles being deposited into water bodies. It is estimated that between 2 and 7 tons of soil per acre are lost annually to erosion from agricultural lands in the Mississippi alluvial valley.

“It’s not easy to just set a limit and say it shouldn’t go above this limit because sedimentation just naturally changes,” MacLellan says.

Water quality officials are concerned about sedimentation for a number of reasons. When suspended in water, soil particles can cloud or muddy water, preventing sunlight from reaching aquatic plants and animals. The problem is known as turbidity.

Soil particles also can cover and fill in gravel beds or other depressions in streams or creeks used by fish and other aquatic life for reproduction, feeding or resting.

In addition, small soil particles can transport fertilizer or pesticides attached by chemical bonds. As the sediments settle from the water, the chemicals may detach and become available.

And winter flooding is one practice that conservation groups, such as Ducks Unlimited, believe will help growers reduce sediment contributions to water bodies as well as retain valuable topsoil. Winter flooding also creates temporary wetlands, increases wildlife habitat and can provide another revenue source for farmers who lease fields to waterfowl hunters.

The EPA supports the practice and has awarded DU more than $500,000 in grants to cover the cost of the pipes and flashboard risers used to flood and hold water on fields in Arkansas and Mississippi. DU, in turn, is providing them free of charge to growers who agree to hold water on their fields between Nov. 15 and March 1 and do so for 15 years. The growers aren’t required to pump or divert water onto fields during that time, only put boards in to retain rain.

A clear improvement
As part of the grant projects, DU project biologist Tim Willis is collecting monthly winter water samples from about 30 side-by-side paired fields in Mississippi—one with a water-control structure and one without.

Preliminary data from samples collected in December 2001 show fields with the structures averaged 95 percent less sediment than the conventional fields. Water samples were collected after a 12- to 13-inch rain.
In January and February, the fields with structures averaged 35 percent less sediment and 42 less sediment, respectively. Willis says he’d like to examine how the previous crop affected sediment levels.

True believers
Hugh and Larry Campbell, who farm rice, soybeans and cotton near Clarksdale, Miss., don’t need the results of water samples to know that winter flooding helps reduce sediments.

“Everywhere your fields drain into a ditch, you have silt bars and it messes up your drainage,” Hugh Campbell says. “The [winter flooding] stops soil from going into the ditch and keeps it open. In one year, you can tell your soil isn’t going into the ditch with this and it stops the erosion.”

Of the approximately 2,000 acres of their farmed rice ground, they flood about half of it annually during the winter using nine pipes and risers.

They have also discovered that winter flooding helps decompose straw and makes spring field preparation a breeze.

“It absolutely rots the straw,” says brother Larry Campbell. “You disk it two or three times in the fall, come back in the spring and disk it once and you’re done.”

Augmenting an existing program
Brent Howton, who farms near Brinkley, Ark., is looking into the free pipe program as another way to help improve the runoff from his farm. An admitted advocate of soil conservation, Howton has converted most of his farm ground to no-till after seeing the benefits on a few pieces with highly erodible soil where he was required to do it.

“The ground really doesn’t get worked for 36 months,” Howton says. “It’s amazing—if you don’t do anything to the fields and it rains and you have runoff, the water looks like you could hold a glass of it and drink it. I’ve been amazed at how clear the water is.”

He intends to plant filter strips along creek banks running through his property, and winter flooding would further reduce soil erosion and improve water quality. The Languille River watershed in which Howton farms has been identified by the Arkansas Soil and Water Conservation Commission as “impaired.”

“We’re not being regulated to do it,” Howton says. “We’re not under a court order. These are things that just make sense.”

The Clean Water Act in a nutshell

Clean Water Act of 1972: A national law governing water pollution. Until recently, the Environmental Protection Agency and its state counterparts focused on point-source pollution. So far, environmental groups have brought at least 40 different lawsuits in 38 states seeking enforcement of total maximum daily loads (TMDLs). The EPA is under court order or consent decree in many states to develop TMDLs. The CWA authorizes states to develop TMDLs. If they don’t, the EPA can step in.

The EPA revised TMDLs standards, finalizing the new rules in July 2001. But lawsuits from a number of agricultural groups forced the agency to pull the rules and place an 18-month moratorium on implementing them. The extra time is to be used to determine how to implement the TMDLs with the least amount of disruption to agriculture and other industries.

303 (d) list: A nationwide list containing more than 20,000 water bodies state agencies have identified as “impaired,” meaning they don’t meet state water quality standards even with point-source pollution-control measures in place. The Clean Water Act requires the states to develop priority rankings for each water body, based on its use, and then develop appropriate TMDLs based on those rankings.

A stream that is categorized as only aquatic life support, for example, may be allowed higher pollution levels than a stream intended for public drinking water supply or even primary contact recreation. Primary contact recreation includes activities such as swimming.

TMDLs: A kind of pollution budget that will be developed for each 303(d) listed water body. It includes the maximum amount of both nonpoint-source and point-source pollutants that can be discharged into a water body without violating state water quality standards. It must include a margin of safety and also accounts for natural sources.

The targeted pollutants also vary among water bodies and even among sections of the impaired body. In the Big Sunflower River watershed of Mississippi, for example, one section of the stream may have higher-than-allowed amounts of nutrients, turbidity, pH and pathogens whereas another section only has problems with pesticides and copper.

One way states, such as Louisiana, are addressing TMDLs is to develop a set of best management practices, or BMPs, designed to help farmers voluntarily reduce targeted pollutants.

Point-source pollution: Pollution originating from a stationary site or fixed source, such as a factory, a confined animal feeding operation or a wastewater plant effluent discharge pipe.

Nonpoint-source pollution: Pollution sources that are diffuse or don’t have just one origin point, such as runoff from residential yards, highways or farm fields.

Contact Vicky Boyd at (209) 571-0414 or vlboyd@att.net.

A clear advantage Winter flooding helps save topsoil, reducing erosion and drain maintenance bottom-line impacts remain unknown
By Vicky Boyd Editor
Like his father and grandfather before him, Charlie Heinsz has a deep regard for the soil that sustains his livelihood and feels obliged to protect it. Over the years, the Heinsz have installed more than 30 sets of pipe and flashboard risers as well as other water-control structures to hold winter water on their fields near Shelby, Miss. The practice has helped them conserve topsoil by reducing the impact of rainfall on soils and capturing any soil that does move before it leaves the field. “With the pipes in and with the control gates, we bring the water down slowly. We don’t have the erosion,” says Heinsz, who grows soybeans and rice for seed. “The only place it’s very noticeable is where the water got too high [after a heavy rain] and it ran across the road. “That is where you see what erosion really is. It makes you remember what it used to be like when we didn’t winter flood.” The result is not only less soil erosion and fewer gullies to fill but fewer drains to clean out and reduced field preparation in the spring. Until the fall 2001, when heavy rains caused rutted fields during rice harvest, many of Heinsz’s fields had gone untilled for four years. “We’ve done nothing in the rice fields other than just knocking the levies, rolling the straw and putting in boards,” Heinsz says. “When we drained the fields, we went right back in and planted soybeans. There’s no debris, no straw. The water does away with it.” Perhaps more importantly, Heinsz is voluntarily implementing practices that may help him comply with the federal Clean Water Act’s TMDL, or total maximum daily load, provisions that may be mandated in the future. Under the gun to comply Mississippi is part of the Environmental Protection Agency’s southeast region that was sued by environmental groups in the late 1990s for not complying with the Clean Water Act’s intent to develop TMDLs. The Mississippi Department of Environmental Quality is still developing TMDLs for water bodies within the state. And how the final rules will affect agriculture is yet unknown. “What’s the load for that pollutant, how much is natural, how much is man contributing and what level can go into the water body and still allow it to meet its use?” says James MacLellan, Mississippi DEQ construction, urban and forestry nonpoint-source coordinator in Jackson. “Sometimes it’s not easy to do. Sometimes, it’s fairly easy, but many are not.” One that is not so simple is sedimentation, because the science surrounding the pollutant is still developing, MacLellan says. Sedimentation involves soil particles being deposited into water bodies. It is estimated that between 2 and 7 tons of soil per acre are lost annually to erosion from agricultural lands in the Mississippi alluvial valley. “It’s not easy to just set a limit and say it shouldn’t go above this limit because sedimentation just naturally changes,” MacLellan says. Water quality officials are concerned about sedimentation for a number of reasons. When suspended in water, soil particles can cloud or muddy water, preventing sunlight from reaching aquatic plants and animals. The problem is known as turbidity. Soil particles also can cover and fill in gravel beds or other depressions in streams or creeks used by fish and other aquatic life for reproduction, feeding or resting. In addition, small soil particles can transport fertilizer or pesticides attached by chemical bonds. As the sediments settle from the water, the chemicals may detach and become available. And winter flooding is one practice that conservation groups, such as Ducks Unlimited, believe will help growers reduce sediment contributions to water bodies as well as retain valuable topsoil. Winter flooding also creates temporary wetlands, increases wildlife habitat and can provide another revenue source for farmers who lease fields to waterfowl hunters. The EPA supports the practice and has awarded DU more than $500,000 in grants to cover the cost of the pipes and flashboard risers used to flood and hold water on fields in Arkansas and Mississippi. DU, in turn, is providing them free of charge to growers who agree to hold water on their fields between Nov. 15 and March 1 and do so for 15 years. The growers aren’t required to pump or divert water onto fields during that time, only put boards in to retain rain. A clear improvement As part of the grant projects, DU project biologist Tim Willis is collecting monthly winter water samples from about 30 side-by-side paired fields in Mississippi—one with a water-control structure and one without. Preliminary data from samples collected in December 2001 show fields with the structures averaged 95 percent less sediment than the conventional fields. Water samples were collected after a 12- to 13-inch rain. In January and February, the fields with structures averaged 35 percent less sediment and 42 less sediment, respectively. Willis says he’d like to examine how the previous crop affected sediment levels. True believers Hugh and Larry Campbell, who farm rice, soybeans and cotton near Clarksdale, Miss., don’t need the results of water samples to know that winter flooding helps reduce sediments. “Everywhere your fields drain into a ditch, you have silt bars and it messes up your drainage,” Hugh Campbell says. “The [winter flooding] stops soil from going into the ditch and keeps it open. In one year, you can tell your soil isn’t going into the ditch with this and it stops the erosion.” Of the approximately 2,000 acres of their farmed rice ground, they flood about half of it annually during the winter using nine pipes and risers. They have also discovered that winter flooding helps decompose straw and makes spring field preparation a breeze. “It absolutely rots the straw,” says brother Larry Campbell. “You disk it two or three times in the fall, come back in the spring and disk it once and you’re done.” Augmenting an existing program Brent Howton, who farms near Brinkley, Ark., is looking into the free pipe program as another way to help improve the runoff from his farm. An admitted advocate of soil conservation, Howton has converted most of his farm ground to no-till after seeing the benefits on a few pieces with highly erodible soil where he was required to do it. “The ground really doesn’t get worked for 36 months,” Howton says. “It’s amazing—if you don’t do anything to the fields and it rains and you have runoff, the water looks like you could hold a glass of it and drink it. I’ve been amazed at how clear the water is.” He intends to plant filter strips along creek banks running through his property, and winter flooding would further reduce soil erosion and improve water quality. The Languille River watershed in which Howton farms has been identified by the Arkansas Soil and Water Conservation Commission as “impaired.” “We’re not being regulated to do it,” Howton says. “We’re not under a court order. These are things that just make sense.” The Clean Water Act in a nutshell Clean Water Act of 1972: A national law governing water pollution. Until recently, the Environmental Protection Agency and its state counterparts focused on point-source pollution. So far, environmental groups have brought at least 40 different lawsuits in 38 states seeking enforcement of total maximum daily loads (TMDLs). The EPA is under court order or consent decree in many states to develop TMDLs. The CWA authorizes states to develop TMDLs. If they don’t, the EPA can step in. The EPA revised TMDLs standards, finalizing the new rules in July 2001. But lawsuits from a number of agricultural groups forced the agency to pull the rules and place an 18-month moratorium on implementing them. The extra time is to be used to determine how to implement the TMDLs with the least amount of disruption to agriculture and other industries. 303 (d) list: A nationwide list containing more than 20,000 water bodies state agencies have identified as “impaired,” meaning they don’t meet state water quality standards even with point-source pollution-control measures in place. The Clean Water Act requires the states to develop priority rankings for each water body, based on its use, and then develop appropriate TMDLs based on those rankings. A stream that is categorized as only aquatic life support, for example, may be allowed higher pollution levels than a stream intended for public drinking water supply or even primary contact recreation. Primary contact recreation includes activities such as swimming. TMDLs: A kind of pollution budget that will be developed for each 303(d) listed water body. It includes the maximum amount of both nonpoint-source and point-source pollutants that can be discharged into a water body without violating state water quality standards. It must include a margin of safety and also accounts for natural sources. The targeted pollutants also vary among water bodies and even among sections of the impaired body. In the Big Sunflower River watershed of Mississippi, for example, one section of the stream may have higher-than-allowed amounts of nutrients, turbidity, pH and pathogens whereas another section only has problems with pesticides and copper. One way states, such as Louisiana, are addressing TMDLs is to develop a set of best management practices, or BMPs, designed to help farmers voluntarily reduce targeted pollutants. Point-source pollution: Pollution originating from a stationary site or fixed source, such as a factory, a confined animal feeding operation or a wastewater plant effluent discharge pipe. Nonpoint-source pollution: Pollution sources that are diffuse or don’t have just one origin point, such as runoff from residential yards, highways or farm fields. Contact Vicky Boyd at (209) 571-0414 or vlboyd@att.net.
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