This project is providing facts based on a long term field scale study which should guide policy makers toward mechanisms to protect the water quality of west Tennessee and other areas with similar conditions. The project was designed and initiated by this team and currently consists of a conventional tillage site and a no-tillage site, divided by an intermittent stream which bisects the watershed. Except as noted below these two sites are identically instrumented and monitored. The monitoring sites consist of 25 acres with a square, one-acre test plot within each. The test plot has been bermed to force any runoff water to exit through an H-flume installed so runoff can be measured and surface water samples collected.
Excess water is diverted offsite through a buried non pervious drain line.
Data collection has been underway since the Fall of 1992. Precipitation and runoff are measured and recorded automatically. Water in the vadose zone is collected with pan lysimeter and solution samplers. Outside the bermed one-acre plot, test wells have been installed to monitor subsurface solute movement. Each site has 24 wells approximately 7 feet deep.