Compost and Water Quality
This project is funded from 2011-2013 by WSARE grant OW10-329: "Protecting Water Quality and Promoting Economic Efficiency at Agricultural Composting Facilities". Our goal is to identify good management practices for protecting water quality at agricultural composting sites. We aim to help farmers reduce risk to the environment while producing good quality compost that can be produced at low cost. These efforts are also intended to help agricultural composters who are required to undergo risk screening by the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) identify practices that will be considered low risk to water quality.
During the project we are hosting agricultural composting workshops, conducting a survey of agricultural composters in Oregon, and drafting a Good Management Practices manual for protecting water quality at agricultural composting sites.
The project includes collaborating farmers who are experienced agricultural composters, Oregon DEQ, Oregon Department of Agriculture, and two composting consultants: Jeff Gage (Compost Design Services) and Will Gehr (S&H Landscape Supply & Recycling). OSU faculty working on the project include Nick Andrews, Linda Brewer and Dan Sullivan.
