Simulation of irrigation reuse system nitrate losses and potential corn yield reductions

Places, where intensive row crop irrigated farming is practiced, are experiencing nitrate contamination of groundwater. The farmers are increasingly becoming aware of high nitrate concentrations in the groundwater. As a result, farmers have started to test their groundwater for nitrate concentrations and take account of this concentration in their crop nitrogen budget. If a farmer utilizes an unlined reuse pit and groundwater nitrate concentration to base his nitrogen fertilizer budget on, he may underestimate his nitrogen fertilizer requirement for a given yield goal because of nitrate loss out of the reuse pit. The objective of this study was to compute: (1) nitrate loss from the irrigation reuse pit during an irrigation season, 1 July to 31 August; and (2) the potential corn yield reduction for a field receiving irrigation water from the reuse pit. A computer program based on the Green–Ampt equation was written to simulate these losses and yield reductions. Use of the Green–Ampt infiltration equation allows for a two-layer reuse pit, which may have a clay liner on top of the native soil material. To conceptualize the magnitude of water loss volumes and mass of nitrate leached, the reuse pit was assumed to serve a 32.4-hectare field. The results show that lining the pit with clay can significantly reduce nitrate leaching from a reuse pit and cut yield losses. The results also show the importance of a lined reuse pit in sandy sub-soils. Budgeting for crop nitrogen needs assuming irrigation water from the pit with a substantial nitrate concentration could result in crop nitrogen stress. If ponding were also considered in the reuse pit, it would increase the nitrate and yield losses from the reuse pit.