Where do chemicals go when it rains?
Over a 15-week period last spring from planting to harvest, the researchers created 12 of those heavy rains in the first part of a 2-year study to measure agrichemical runoff. Those rains are yielding a downpour of data for Wauchope and fellow researchers with the U.S. Department of Agnculture and the University of Georgia Coastal Plain Experiment Station in Tifton. The team is analyzing first-year data, and Wauchope says, “It’s already clear that we are getting unique and very useful results.” Researchers cooperating in the study are Ben Burgoa, Clyde C. Dowler, A. William Johnson, Laurence D. Chandler, Harold R. Sumner, and Clint Truman, all of USDA’s Agricultural Research Service in Tifton; and Jessica Davis-Carter, Gary J. Gascho, and James E. Hook of the University of Georgia Coastal Plain Experiment Station there. Overall, more than 30 people are involved in the project, one of the most intensive runoff experiments ever performed.
