Long-Awaited Phosphorus Removal Software Set To Arrive

Oklahoma State University (OSU) researchers have nearly completed a new, long-awaited software to aid in the removal of dissolved phosphorus from nonpoint source water runoff.

“Development of the phosphorus removal structure and modeling software has been in the works nearly 10 years,” the Muskogee Phoenix reported.

The Natural Resources Conservation Service, a division of the federal Agriculture Department, is considering recommending the software to farmers. The agency provided a grant of $133,000 to fund a demonstration project using the software at a poultry farm. The grant was provided three years ago to a partnership between OSU and The Illinois River Watershed Partnership.

The government award, known as a Conservation Innovation Grant, states:

This project proposes to construct a phosphorus removal structure on a poultry farm located in the Illinois River watershed, which will be strategically placed to intercept runoff occurring immediately around a poultry production house. The awardee will also monitor the effectiveness of the structure by sampling inflow and treated water through the use of automatic samplers and flow meters, tracking the reduction of phosphorus load. The goal is to remove 50 percent of the phosphorus load.

Chad Penn, an OSU professor who contributed to software development, said the demonstration project in Adair shows the effectiveness of the software.

“The Adair County structure was designed to cumulatively remove up to 45 percent of the dissolved phosphorus contained in runoff water flowing from nearby poultry barns during the course of a year. Penn said the system, like models deployed in Stillwater and Maryland, removed all dissolved phosphorus during the first year and has cumulatively removed about 60 percent of the nutrient since its deployment,” the Phoenix report said.

“The way these things work is you have a material that can absorb phosphorus, but its capacity is finite,” Penn told the Phoenix. “As the material becomes more saturated, its ability to further remove phosphorus decreases ... (and) after the material can no longer absorb phosphorus it can be removed and replaced.”

The EPA commented on the danger that phosphorus poses to water bodies:

Since phosphorus is the nutrient in short supply in most fresh waters, even a modest increase in phosphorus can, under the right conditions, set off a whole chain of undesirable events in a stream including accelerated plant growth, algae blooms, low dissolved oxygen, and the death of certain fish, invertebrates, and other aquatic animals.

For more on the removal of nutrients like phosphorous, visit Water Online’s Nutrient Removal Solutions Center.