Kent SeaTech CorporationIFAFS Proposal
Kent SeaTech Water Sharing IFAFS Proposal
Consortium Members:
1) Kent SeaTech Corporation, San Diego, California (Lead Institution)
Principal Investigators: Mr. James M. Carlberg and Mr. Jon C. Van Olst
Principal Investigators: Mr. Michael J. Massingill and Mr. Rodney J. Chamberlain
2) University of Arizona, Tucson, Arizona
Principal Investigator: Dr. Kevin Fitzsimmons, Dept. of Soil, Water, and Env. Science
Principal Investigator: Dr. Jeffrey C. Silvertooth, Plant Sciences Department
3) Clemson University, Clemson, South Carolina
Principal Investigator: Dr. Dave E. Brune, Dept. of Agricultural & Biological Engineering
4) University of California Cooperative Extension Service
Principal Investigator: Dr. Fred Conte, Aquaculture Extension Specialist, UC Davis
Principal Investigator: Mr. Jose L. Aguiar, Farm Advisor, UC Riverside
5) McMullen Valley Water Conservation and Drainage District, Vicksburg, AZ
Principal Investigator: Mr. James D. Downing, P.E.
6) Vicksburg Farms, Vicksburg, Arizona
Principal Investigator: Mr. R. O. Cramer, General Partner
7) USDA Western Regional Aquaculture Center, Seattle, WA
Principal Investigator: Dr. Kenneth Chew, Director
This is a preliminary draft of the IFAFS water sharing proposal. It includes the overall concepts that we are hoping to address, but still is lacking an APPROACH section (other than a general task outline). We could use your help in adding to this outline and in adding a paragraph about the portion of the work that you will be responsible for.
We also would appreciate any and all editorial suggestions you would like to provide. You can either make comments in a different color in this file and return it to , or print the file, mark it up, and fax your suggestions to 805-649-9081.
Thanks very much,
Jack Van Olst
Director of Research
Kent SeaTech Corp
U.S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE
Cooperative State Research, Education, and Extension Service
Initiative for Future Agriculture and Food Systems (IFAFS)
JAWS: Joint Aquaculture/Agriculture
Water Sharing Programs for Manure Management
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Project Summary...... (not numbered)
Project Description...... 1
A. Introduction...... 1
B. Relevance and Significance...... 1
C. Approach ...... 1
D. Time Table...... 1
E. Evaluation and Monitoring...... 1
1) Evaluation and Monitoring of Project Results...... 1
2) Evaluation and Monitoring of Consortium Administration...... 1
F. Collaborative Arrangements...... 1
G. Need for Consortium Approach...... 1
H. Consortium Management Plan...... 1
Appendices to Project Description...... 1
Key Personnel...... 1
Conflict-of-Interest List ...... 1
Collaborative and/or Subcontractual Arrangements...... 1
Budget (Form CSREES-55) ...... 1
Current and Pending Support (Form CSREES-663) ...... 1
Assurance Statements (Form CSREES-662) ...... 1
Certifications...... 1
Compliance with NEPA (Form CSREES-1234) ...... 1
USDA Cooperative State Research, Education, and Extension Service
Initiative for Future Agriculture and Food Systems (IFAFS)
JAWS: Joint Aquaculture/Agriculture
Water Sharing Programs for Manure Management
PROJECT SUMMARY (250 Words)
The aquaculture industry needs water to expand, but most suitable supplies are already being utilized by land-based agriculture. Our USDA and NIST research indicates that a water sharing approach may allow high density aquaculture operations to be located adjacent to agricultural operations, utilize the source water in a non-consumptive manner, treat it at minimal cost, and deliver it to row crop farms. Fish manure that represents a disposal problem to aquaculturists becomes an asset to downstream agriculture operations, providing nitrogen fertilizer for row crops via fertigation. Multiple-uses of limited water resources allows the two industries to share a single water source, reduce environmental pollution, and effectively double crop production. We will develop aquaculture/agriculture water sharing technologies and conduct education and extension activities to implement this technology in the western states, where 89% of irrigated crops are located. The research will take place in California and at a new aquaculture/agriculture research facility in Arizona that will be designed to develop and showcase the most efficient water sharing technologies available.
Founded in 1972, Kent SeaTech has conducted 15 aquaculture research projects for USDA, NSF, DOC, and NIST. We will join with university scientists and extension experts to develop cost-efficient methods of interfacing aquaculture and agriculture facilities so that existing supplies of valuable irrigation water can be shared by both groups to conserve resources, reduce environmental pollution, and increase profitability. If this technology proves successful and were practiced at 4% of U.S. farms, aquaculture production could double, with no additional water resources required.
CONSORTIUM MEMBERS
1) Kent SeaTech Corporation, San Diego, California (Lead Institution)
Principal Investigators: Mr. James M. Carlberg and Mr. Jon C. Van Olst
Principal Investigators: Mr. Michael J. Massingill and Mr. Rodney J. Chamberlain
2) University of Arizona, Tucson, Arizona
Principal Investigator: Dr. Kevin Fitzsimmons, Dept. of Soil, Water, and Env. Science
Principal Investigator: Dr. Jeffrey C. Silvertooth, Plant Sciences Department
3) Clemson University, Clemson, South Carolina
Principal Investigator: Dr. Dave E. Brune, Dept. of Agricultural & Biological Engineering
4) University of California Cooperative Extension Service
Principal Investigator: Dr. Fred Conte, Aquaculture Extension Specialist, UC Davis
Principal Investigator: Mr. Jose L. Aguiar, Farm Advisor, UC Riverside
5) McMullen Valley Water Conservation and Drainage District, Vicksburg, AZ
Principal Investigator: Mr. James D. Downing, P.E.
6) Vicksburg Farms, Vicksburg, Arizona
Principal Investigator: Mr. R. O. Cramer, General Partner
7) USDA Western Regional Aquaculture Center, Seattle, WA
Principal Investigator: Dr. Kenneth Chew, Director
Page 1
Kent SeaTech CorporationIFAFS Proposal
USDA Cooperative State Research, Education, and Extension Service
Initiative for Future Agriculture and Food Systems (IFAFS)
JAWS: Joint Aquaculture/Agriculture
Water Sharing Programs for Manure Management
PROJECT DESCRIPTION
This proposal for IFAFS Consortium Funding addresses five important objectives under Topic 5. Natural Resource Management (Program Area 14.3 Animal Manure Management): (a) development of rates and methods of land application of manure that are most suitable for a given watershed; (f) determination of water quality impacts of nutrients, pathogens, and other waste products, and the development of strategies to reduce such impacts, and the development of programs to educate the public on such water quality issues; (g) development and implementation of alternative waste treatment technologies; (h) development and marketing of value-added products from animal waste; and (j) development of alternative animal production systems.
A. INTRODUCTION
Aquaculture, the controlled culture of fish and shellfish, is an extremely large industry worldwide, with more than 55 billion lb produced annually. In the U.S., aquaculture has become a one billion dollar industry, providing nearly 15% of our seafood supplies. Aquaculture is an ecologically efficient means of providing seafood for American consumers that reduces fishing pressure on our limited wild fisheries resources and reduces our dependence on imports. Many recent technological breakthroughs in genetics, nutrition, and pathology have made aquaculture the fastest growing sector of the agriculture industry, expanding at an annual rate of 20%. A survey conducted by the USDA National Agriculture Statistics Service indicated that freshwater fish culture in the U.S. involves primarily catfish (581 million lb), salmon (110 million lb), trout (63 million lb), tilapia (12 million lb), and striped bass (9 million lb).
However, aquaculture production in the U.S. appears to be reaching a limit, due to the finite supply of water. The industry also is threatened by environmental pollutants sometimes associated with the discharge of untreated fish farm effluents. As modern technologies for aquaculture develop, there are few locations in the U.S. where unutilized land and water resources are available for their implementation. U.S. agricultural operations already are utilizing nearly all of our water supplies that are not devoted to municipal and industrial activities. The few remaining untapped water resources often are designated for conservation and ecological preservation, or may have "wild river" status. No such limits are faced by foreign aquaculture companies, which have many advantages over U.S. producers. Many developing countries have tropical and sub-tropical climates in which large quantities of warm water are available for aquaculture. Also, land and labor costs are low and there are few environmental restrictions or limitations on drug usage. Imports of fish grown in Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Taiwan, China, and Indonesia have increased markedly as the foreign competition adopts U.S. culture technologies. In order for U.S. growers to compete against the strong advantages of foreign producers and expand significantly in the U.S., novel technologies and approaches will be required.
Since its inception in 1972, Kent SeaTech Corporation has been conducting research to develop advanced technologies to improve the competitive position of the U.S. aquaculture industry. With federal research funding from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the National Science Foundation, the U.S. Department of Commerce, and the NIST Advanced Technology Program, we have developed a variety of technological advances that are assisting the U.S. fish farming industry. Based on our preliminary research funded by USDA and the Advanced Technology Program, we believe that the solution to the problem of limited availability of water supplies for U.S. aquaculture development may involve a water sharing approach. Our studies indicate that high density aquaculture operations can be located in proximity to large agricultural operations, utilize the source water in a non-consumptive manner, treat it at minimal cost, and then deliver it to row crop farmers. This dual or multiple-use of limited water resources means that the two industries can share a single water source and may effectively double crop production by these techniques. When several innovative water treatment and recirculation technologies also are utilized, there may be a 300-400% increase in the total crop value yield per acre-foot of water consumed. There have been several previous attempts to increase productivity from water resources by combining aquaculture and agriculture. However, most of these have involved the stocking of small numbers of fish in existing irrigation canals as a secondary source of income for agriculture operations. As many of these operators have learned, fish culture is a difficult enterprise requiring a considerable amount of technical skill, and therefore these small, supplemental fish crop programs have not been overly successful. In contrast, what we propose is the combining of technologically advanced high density aquaculture technologies with modern row crop agriculture practices. Each industry is sophisticated enough that it requires professional management, but they can still share the water resource that they have in common to mutual benefit. The overall concept is illustrated below:
Agriculture also would benefit significantly by this approach. At the turn of the previous century, crop irrigation represented just 1% of all U.S. water use. However, as modern agricultural practices have developed, irrigation has grown rapidly and now represents 41% of all our water resource use in the U.S. More than 150 million acre-feet of water per year are devoted to irrigating crops. Nearly all of this water use occurs in the West, since 89% of all irrigated crops are farmed in the nine western water regions. The costs of irrigation water are substantial, varying from $6 to more than $400 per acre-ft. In many areas, local water costs are increasing and farmers are sometimes unable to operate at a profit. If techniques were available so that aquaculturists could utilize the source water and then pass it on to land farmers with no loss of volume or quality, the aquaculturists would be more than willing to pay a portion or even all of the farmer's water costs. The resulting increase in profitability for row crop farmers could be significant. Further, the fish manure that is present in aquaculture effluent is at relatively low concentrations and could provide an additional source of nitrogenous fertilizer for row crops.
The water sharing concept appears to resolve significant problems facing both aquaculture and agriculture. Kent SeaTech has conducted preliminary research funded by the NIST Advanced Technology Program which indicated that partially treated aquaculture effluent applied to test plots of corn and lettuce was able to provide all the water flow required for irrigation and did not appear to have any adverse chemical effects. In these studies and in additional research funded by the USDA SBIR program, we are finding that constructed wetlands may serve as inexpensive water treatment systems to treat a portion of the effluent so that it can be recycled and reused in the aquaculture component to increase production, before it is released to the agriculture operation. The ability to recycle the water is an important part of the overall concept, since it allows the water flow to the agriculture component to be intermittent, as required by the row crop irrigation schedule, and yet allows continuous flow through the aquaculture component via recycling.
We are using the term Joint Aquaculture/Agriculture Water Sharing (JAWS) to describe this overall concept. In this project, we propose to conduct research to develop and refine aquaculture/agriculture water sharing technology and to conduct education and extension activities that will develop and implement this technology in the western U.S. We will utilize a consortium approach to achieve these objectives, and have assembled an excellent team of cooperating researchers, educators, and extension experts to ensure that the technology becomes widely implemented. The research activities will take place at two locations: 1) the high density fish culture facility of Kent SeaTech Corporation in California, where the existing systems are being modified and retrofitted to allow the delivery of treated farm effluent to cooperating agriculture operations, and 2) a new high density fish culture facility to be developed by Kent SeaTech in conjunction with Vicksburg Farms, a modern agricultural operation in Arizona, which will be designed from the outset to utilize the most efficient water sharing technologies that we develop. The California studies will focus upon careful measurement of the effects of fish farm effluent on common row crops such as corn and lettuce, and will build upon initial work we conducted under funding from the Advanced Technology Program. The Arizona test facility will evaluate several new concepts that should result in increased water treatment and reuse capability, and will be specifically designed to assist in convincing agricultural interests that the water sharing concept will work in their application and result in significant cost savings. University extension experts in both states will work closely with the project to insure that the technology appeals to a broad base of small and large agricultural interests. Also, the Director of the USDA Western Regional Aquaculture Center will work collaboratively with the Consortium to encourage aquaculture extension specialists in all western states to promote this technology wherever it may be applicable. This combined research-verification-extension approach is exactly what will be required to convince agriculture operations of the significant benefits that could result from water sharing technologies.
PLACEHOLDER FOR 3 COLOR PICTURES
Project Objectives
The overall goal of this project is to develop and promote the widespread implementation of cost-efficient methods of interfacing aquaculture and agriculture facilities so that existing supplies of valuable irrigation water can be shared by both industries to conserve resources, reduce environmental pollution, and increase profitability.
In order to accomplish this goal, the Consortium will address the following eight Project Objectives:
1) To evaluate in large-scale field trials the suitability of aquaculture effluent water for irrigation of terrestrial agriculture crops.
2) To determine whether the primary waste products of aquaculture operations such as ammonia nitrogen, phosphorous, and fish manure are useful by-products that can be utilized by agriculture and simultaneously reduce effluent disposal problems of aquaculture.
3) To develop cost-efficient methods of aquaculture effluent treatment that will reduce pollution, permit multiple uses of existing water supplies, and leverage aquaculture production capacity.
4) To evaluate the use of constructed wetlands technology as an extensive method for potential use in aquaculture/agriculture water management to: a) treat aquaculture effluents to allow for recycling water to increase effective utilization of water resources; b) settle solids and concentrate aquaculture waste nutrients for delivery to agriculture; c) function as a buffer to modulate differences in water requirements between the needs for continuous use in aquaculture and intermittent use in agriculture.
5) To use the information developed during these studies to design, construct, and evaluate a prototype water treatment and sharing system of sufficient scale that the results will have commercial applicability and will be useful in convincing potential users of the feasibility of the concept. The prototype system will receive effluent from a high density fish culture system that will be provided to the consortium as in-kind match.
6) To conduct economic modeling studies using the results of the above research, in order to predict the cost-effectiveness of the integrated water sharing technologies at full-scale application.
7) To educate the farming community, water agencies, and general public regarding the economic and environmental benefits of water sharing technologies and the large opportunity for expanding aquaculture production without the need for developing any new water resources.
8) To conduct extension activities to promote water sharing strategies in the western U.S.
Previous Research
There has been relatively little research conducted on the sharing of water resources between aquaculture and agriculture. Most of the research that has been conducted has focused on the potential benefits involved in use of the nitrogen wastes in aquaculture effluent. While the value of the nitrogen released from fish farms may be significant, in our opinion the value of the water itself may be a much more compelling reason to develop sharing strategies. Also important is the role that water sharing could play in reducing the environmental impacts of aquaculture effluents that would otherwise be returned directly to receiving waters or percolate to groundwater. Westerman et al. (1993) estimated that the trout industry alone produces about 10 million kg of solid wastes annually. Another likely benefit is the storage function that a recirculating aquaculture and water treatment facility could offer, which could help to synchronize the intermittent water demands of row crops with the continuous water demands of high density aquaculture. Little research has been conducted concerning these important aspects of integration of aquaculture and agriculture.