Purdue Agronomy

Water Quality Research Facilities


Field Scale Facilities provide a "laboratory" for Field Scale Studies.

Two outdoor laboratories designed to study agricultural effects on surface and subsurface water quality.

The Department of Agronomy maintains two fully-instrumented field stations which allow graduate study and research in:

Soil Ecology

Pesticide Transport

Crop System Management

Nutrient Cycling

Near West Lafayette the Agronomy Department operates the 951-acre Agronomy Research Center (ARC). The Water Quality Field Station (WQFS) is located there.
 Visit the WQFS page to view the animated gif explaining how our tipping bucket flowmeters work!

At a Purdue facility located near Butlerville, Indiana, in Jennings County, water quality related research is conducted at a field station, the Experimental Drainage Project, which is located at SEPAC, the Southeast-Purdue Agricultural Center.

Using test plots large enough to accommodate real agricultural practices, each site has data-logging instrumentation which records local rainfall, soil water flow, and triggers automatic sample collectors.

Collected samples are analyzed in various labs studying nutrient, tracer, pesticide, and metabolite transport.

These two sites are operated in conjunction with researchers in Agronomy, Botany & Plant Pathology, Agricultural Economics, and Agricultural & Biological Engineering.

Other programs underway in Agronomy which involve water quality issues include characterizing the effects of tile drainage on soil ecology and studying the effects on agriculture of land-use planning decisions such as urbanization of rural fringes.


More Information on Facilities and Programs
This is now an active image map!

Indiana county map, use text links

 

Purdue Agronomy Water Quality Research Facilities:

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Water Quality Field Station, ARC.

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SEPAC's Experimental Drainage Field.

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The Laboratory for Soil Microbiology.


Indiana's Hydrologic Unit Area Water Quality Projects:


HUA General Description of Hydrologic Unit areas

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Upper Tippecanoe River Water Quality Project

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Tri-County Water Quality Project


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Visit some WETnet program areas

created by the Department of Agronomy

Indiana's Wellhead Protection Rule and Water Quality.


Community Wellhead Protection.

Our detailed description.

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Marion County
Wellhead Protection

button Coming soon - the text of the new ordinance!

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Elkhart County Wellhead Protection


Other online resources at Purdue:

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More Purdue online
Water Quality Resources.

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Indiana Water Resources Association.

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Indiana NAPRA Project

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Purdue Environmental Science and Engineering Institute


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