IFCA has established a very valuable relationship with water supply officials in Illinois.  We keep them apprised of our 4R efforts to reduce nutrient losses and they in turn share with us what they are seeing with water quality in the surface water lakes.  

 

This winter, environmental conditions have resulted in nitrogen losses to the lakes from various sources.  As a result, nitrate levels have risen in the lakes resulting in concern, especially for those water supplies that cannot treat to remove nitrogen, namely Lake Springfield and Lake Bloomington.  

 

Click here for a bulletin that explains the issue and outlines 4R practices to address the issue.  Please work directly with your farmer customers to make them aware of this issue and offer 4R approaches this spring that can reduce nutrient losses, particularly nitrogen losses.  We have a very successful 4R effort in Illinois and have been able to retain the trust of the regulatory agencies, environmental groups and water supply officials with our proactive efforts. 

 

Please direct questions to Jean Payne at (309) 827-2774 or Dan Schaefer at (217) 202-5173.  Thank you all for your immediate attention and the actions you will take to educate your customers and work with them to provide the science based solutions that agriculture can offer to address water quality concerns.