Source Water Protection Activity Guide

Quick Select

Use any of the following drop-down menus to navigate through the guide. Choosing a potential contaminant source category from the drop-down menu will narrow your potential contaminant source choices. Choosing a protection activity category from the drop-down menu will narrow your protection activity choices.


Contaminant Type


Potential Contaminant Source Category Potential Contaminant Source


Protection Activity Category Protection Activity



Dairy

Potential Contaminant Source

A dairy is a farm or business enterprise that raises and produces milk products for human consumption from cows, goats, or other animals. Dairies produce large amounts of waste, including manure and wastewater, in small areas. Depending on management practices, these wastes can contribute pollutants such as nutrients, organic matter, sediment, pathogens, heavy metals, hormones, antibiotics, and ammonia to ground water or surface water, especially if a dairy is located on sandy soils where the depth to ground water is shallow. Poor management practices include inadequately sized and poorly lined ponds or other storage structures that allow manure or wastewater to escape into the surrounding environment, poorly maintained and unlined corrals that let contaminated wastewater seep into ground water, inadequate stormwater runoff controls, and applying too much wastewater or manure to fields too quickly or using inadequate methods. Dairies may also have aboveground or underground storage fueling tanks on site that, if not properly maintained, can impact ground water or surface water. CAFOs are agricultural facilities that house and feed numerous animals—typically cows, hogs, chickens, or turkeys—in a confined area for 45 days or more during any 12-month period.

 

 



Possible Protection Activities:

Potential Contaminants:
  • IOC, VOC, Microbe

    Resources for this Source:
  • Idaho Association of Soil Conservation Districts
    Conservation districts are local units of government established under state law to carry out natural resource management programs at the local level. Districts work with millions of cooperating landowners and operators to help them manage and protect land and water resources on all private lands and many public lands in the United States.
  • EPA: Source Water Protection Practices Bulletin
    Information on managing above ground storage tanks to prevent contamination of drinking water.
  • EPA: Source Water Protection Practices Bulletin
    Information on managing livestock, poultry, and horse waste to prevent contamination of drinking water.
  • EPA: Source Water Protection Practices Bulletin
    Information on managing agricultural fertilizer application to prevent contamination of drinking water.
  • EPA: NPS Outreach Toolbox
    The Nonpoint Source (NPS) Outreach Toolbox is intended for use by state and local agencies and other organizations interested in educating the public on nonpoint source pollution or stormwater runoff. The Toolbox contains a variety of resources to help develop an effective and targeted outreach campaign.
  • Idaho Department of Environmental Quality
    Information on concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFOs).

Related Sources:

Categories:

  • Agricultural/Rural