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TECHNICAL REPORT
Ground Water Quality

Tracing Nitrate Transport and Environmental Impact from Intensive Swine Farming using Delta Nitrogen-15

^a Dep. of Biology, Phytotron Building, Duke University, Durham, NC 27708
^b Dep. of Marine, Earth and Atmospheric Sciences, North Carolina State Univ., Raleigh, NC 27695-8208
^c Dep. of Soil Science, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC 27695
^d Delaware Geological Survey, Univ. of Delaware, Newark, DE 19716-7501

* Corresponding author (jkarr{at}duke.edu)

Received for publication January 11, 2000. Natural-abundance ¹⁵N showed that nitrate generated from commercial land application of swine (Sus scrofa domesticus) waste within a North Carolina Coastal Plain catchment was being discharged to surface waters by ground water passing beneath the sprayfields and adjacent riparian buffers. This was significant because intensive swine farms in North Carolina are considered non-discharge operations, and riparian buffers with minimum widths of 7.6 m (25 ft) are the primary regulatory control on ground water export of nitrate from these operations. This study shows that such buffers are not always adequate to prevent discharge of concentrated nitrate in ground water from commercial swine farms in the Mid-Atlantic Coastal Plain, and that additional measures are required to ensure non-discharge conditions. The median ¹⁵N-total N of liquids in site swine waste lagoons was +15.4 ± 0.2 vs. atmospheric nitrogen. The median ¹⁵N-NO₃ values of shallow ground water beneath and adjacent to site sprayfields, a stream draining sprayfields, and waters up to 1.5 km downstream were +15.3 ± 0.2 to +15.4 ± 0.2. Seasonal and spatial isotopic variations in lagoons and well waters were greatly homogenized during ground water transport and discharge to streams. Neither denitrification nor losses of ammonia during spraying significantly altered the bulk ground water ¹⁵N signal being delivered to streams. The lagoons were sources of chloride and potassium enrichment, and shallow ground water showed strong correlation between nitrate N, potassium, and chloride. The ¹⁵N-enriched nitrate in ground water beneath swine waste sprayfields can thus be successfully traced during transport and discharge into nearby surface waters.

Abbreviations: ¹⁵N-NO₃, delta nitrogen-1q5 of dissolved nitrate + nitrite • ¹⁵N-total N, delta nitrogen-15 of total dissolved nitrogen • USGS, United States Geological Survey

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