---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: "Makuch, Joseph" <Joseph.Makuch@ars.usda.gov>
Date: Dec 1, 2010 11:31 AM
Subject: [ENVIRO-NEWS] Rain Gardens Sprouting Up Everywhere
To: <Enviro-News@ars.usda.gov>
From: ARS News Service [mailto:NewsService@ars.usda.gov]
Sent: Wednesday, December 01, 2010 8:15 AM
Subject: Rain Gardens Sprouting Up Everywhere
________________________________________
ARS News Service
Agricultural Research Service, USDA
--View this report online, plus photos and related stories, at www.ars.usda.gov/is/pr
--Follow us on Twitter at http://twitter.com/ARSInformation
________________________________________
[deletions]
Rain Gardens Sprouting Up Everywhere
By Don Comis
December 1, 2010
Rain gardens are increasingly popular with homeowners and municipalities and are mandatory for many communities nationally. U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) scientists are finding ways to improve rain gardens so they not only reduce runoff, but also keep toxic metals out of storm drains.
Rain gardens are plantings in depressions that catch stormwater runoff from sidewalks, parking lots, roads and roofs. Rain gardens come in various shapes and sizes, from large basins carved by front-end loaders to small artificial streambed-like formations complete with pebbles. Rain gardens not only slow water down to give it time to soak into the ground and be used by plants, but also filter out sediment and chemical pollutants.
Plant physiologist Rich Zobel at the Agricultural Research Service (ARS) Appalachian Farming Systems Research Center (AFSRC) at Beaver, W.Va., and research associate Amir Hass, who works for West Virginia State University in Institute, W.Va., and is stationed at Beaver, are working on improving rain gardens. They are collaborating with ARS hydrologist Doug Boyer and ARS soil chemist Javier Gonzalez at Beaver, and colleagues at the ARS Southern Regional Research Center (SRRC) in New Orleans, La., and the ARS Eastern Regional Research Center (ERRC) in Wyndmoor, Pa.
ARS is USDA's principal intramural scientific research agency, and this research supports USDA's commitment to agricultural sustainability.
The scientists at the SRRC found that poultry litter biochar-activated carbons created from the charred remains of poultry litter-is a powerful pollutant magnet. It can attract heavy metals such as copper, cadmium and zinc, which are ordinarily tough to snag from wastewater.
ARS chemists Isabel Lima and Wayne Marshall (now retired) at the SRRC developed the ARS-patented method for turning agricultural bio-waste into biochar. They created the biochar by subjecting poultry litter-bedding materials such as sawdust, wood shavings and peanut shells, as well as droppings and feathers-to pyrolysis, a high-temperature process that takes place in the absence of oxygen.
Hass and colleagues are testing the poultry litter biochar as well as other farm and industrial byproducts at two demonstration rain gardens in the Beaver area, as well as at plots at a county landfill and a mineland reclamation site.
Read < http://www.ars.usda.gov/is/AR/archive/nov10/gardens1110.htm > more about this research in the November/December 2010 issue of Agricultural Research magazine.
________________________________________
USDA is an equal opportunity provider, employer and lender. To file a complaint of discrimination, write: USDA, Director, Office of Civil Rights, 1400 Independence Ave., S.W., Washington, D.C. 20250-9410 or call (800) 795-3272 (voice), or (202) 720-6382 (TDD).
________________________________________
[deletions]
ARS News Service, Information Staff, Agricultural Research Service
5601 Sunnyside Ave., Room 1-2251, Beltsville MD 20705-5128
NewsService@ars.usda.gov | www.ars.usda.gov/news
Phone (301) 504-1636 | fax (301) 504-1486
***********************************************
Enviro-News is a service of the Water Quality
Information Center at the National Agricultural
Library. The center's Web site is at
http://www.nal.usda.gov/wqic/.
The Enviro-News list facilitates information exchange.
Inclusion of an item in Enviro-News does not imply
United States Department of Agriculture(USDA) agreement,
nor does USDA attest to the accuracy or completeness of
the item. See
http://www.nal.usda.gov/wqic/environews.shtml#disclaimer
You can contact the list owner at
owner-Enviro-News@ars.usda.gov.
***********************************************
From: "Makuch, Joseph" <Joseph.Makuch@ars.usda.gov>
Date: Dec 1, 2010 11:31 AM
Subject: [ENVIRO-NEWS] Rain Gardens Sprouting Up Everywhere
To: <Enviro-News@ars.usda.gov>
From: ARS News Service [mailto:NewsService@ars.usda.gov]
Sent: Wednesday, December 01, 2010 8:15 AM
Subject: Rain Gardens Sprouting Up Everywhere
________________________________________
ARS News Service
Agricultural Research Service, USDA
--View this report online, plus photos and related stories, at www.ars.usda.gov/is/pr
--Follow us on Twitter at http://twitter.com/ARSInformation
________________________________________
[deletions]
Rain Gardens Sprouting Up Everywhere
By Don Comis
December 1, 2010
Rain gardens are increasingly popular with homeowners and municipalities and are mandatory for many communities nationally. U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) scientists are finding ways to improve rain gardens so they not only reduce runoff, but also keep toxic metals out of storm drains.
Rain gardens are plantings in depressions that catch stormwater runoff from sidewalks, parking lots, roads and roofs. Rain gardens come in various shapes and sizes, from large basins carved by front-end loaders to small artificial streambed-like formations complete with pebbles. Rain gardens not only slow water down to give it time to soak into the ground and be used by plants, but also filter out sediment and chemical pollutants.
Plant physiologist Rich Zobel at the Agricultural Research Service (ARS) Appalachian Farming Systems Research Center (AFSRC) at Beaver, W.Va., and research associate Amir Hass, who works for West Virginia State University in Institute, W.Va., and is stationed at Beaver, are working on improving rain gardens. They are collaborating with ARS hydrologist Doug Boyer and ARS soil chemist Javier Gonzalez at Beaver, and colleagues at the ARS Southern Regional Research Center (SRRC) in New Orleans, La., and the ARS Eastern Regional Research Center (ERRC) in Wyndmoor, Pa.
ARS is USDA's principal intramural scientific research agency, and this research supports USDA's commitment to agricultural sustainability.
The scientists at the SRRC found that poultry litter biochar-activated carbons created from the charred remains of poultry litter-is a powerful pollutant magnet. It can attract heavy metals such as copper, cadmium and zinc, which are ordinarily tough to snag from wastewater.
ARS chemists Isabel Lima and Wayne Marshall (now retired) at the SRRC developed the ARS-patented method for turning agricultural bio-waste into biochar. They created the biochar by subjecting poultry litter-bedding materials such as sawdust, wood shavings and peanut shells, as well as droppings and feathers-to pyrolysis, a high-temperature process that takes place in the absence of oxygen.
Hass and colleagues are testing the poultry litter biochar as well as other farm and industrial byproducts at two demonstration rain gardens in the Beaver area, as well as at plots at a county landfill and a mineland reclamation site.
Read < http://www.ars.usda.gov/is/AR/archive/nov10/gardens1110.htm > more about this research in the November/December 2010 issue of Agricultural Research magazine.
________________________________________
USDA is an equal opportunity provider, employer and lender. To file a complaint of discrimination, write: USDA, Director, Office of Civil Rights, 1400 Independence Ave., S.W., Washington, D.C. 20250-9410 or call (800) 795-3272 (voice), or (202) 720-6382 (TDD).
________________________________________
[deletions]
ARS News Service, Information Staff, Agricultural Research Service
5601 Sunnyside Ave., Room 1-2251, Beltsville MD 20705-5128
NewsService@ars.usda.gov | www.ars.usda.gov/news
Phone (301) 504-1636 | fax (301) 504-1486
***********************************************
Enviro-News is a service of the Water Quality
Information Center at the National Agricultural
Library. The center's Web site is at
http://www.nal.usda.gov/wqic/.
The Enviro-News list facilitates information exchange.
Inclusion of an item in Enviro-News does not imply
United States Department of Agriculture(USDA) agreement,
nor does USDA attest to the accuracy or completeness of
the item. See
http://www.nal.usda.gov/wqic/environews.shtml#disclaimer
You can contact the list owner at
owner-Enviro-News@ars.usda.gov.
***********************************************
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