Runoff Treatment from a Turkey Production Facility
ABSTRACT RUNOFF flow from exposed, paved exercise yards at a west-central Wisconsin turkey-growing operation was directed through a network of grassed waterways. Partial treatment of wastes through dilution, settling, plant and microbial assimilation, adsorption, percolation, volatilization and denitrification resulted. The mass of nitrogen (N) removed by runoff from the site was 10% of the estimated total N available for transport, giving the waterway a 90% N removal efficiency. Despite these relatively low percentages of N in surface water runoff, high N and COD concentrations represented a potential for shock-loading to receiving surface waters. Nitrogen inputs, outputs, pools and fluxes in the grassed waterway system were determined.