| Abstract: | ABSTRACT. .Eighteen rural lakes in Lubbock County were sampled on a routine basis following runoff-producing rainfall for a period of approximately eighteen months to determine whether or not runoff from intensively farmed agricultural areas contained significant concentrations of nitrates, phosphates, herbicides, or insecticides. An additional fifteen lakes lying within a triangle bounded by the cities of Plainview, Canyon, and Hereford, Texas, were sampled one time during the summer of 1969 to provide additional data regarding the nature and extent of the potential problem in an area with a different soil type and a slightly different cropping pattern. Based on results of detailed analyses of approximately two hundred samples of water collected from the lakes and an equal number of sediment samples collected from the same lakes at the same time, it appears that the concentrations of all chemical pollutants in runoff from agricultural lands in the High Plains are well below the allowable concentrations for drinking water. |
