ANALYZING THE INFLUENCE OF PRECIPITATION ON BUFFER ZONE TILE DRAIN SYSTEMS IN CENTRAL ILLINOIS

Anthropogenic contamination of water stemming from chemical pollution that is involved with maintenance and harvesting practices on Midwestern farms impacts water quality. During the entirety of winter and early spring months, rainfalls’ route through the ground avoids crops absorbing high volumes of water that instead fall on cover crops. During these months, the remnants of the harvested crops and additional maintenance of the soil will leave chemicals and pollutants in the soil to be drained out with precipitation. These cover crops require fractions of the water needed for corn, thus providing dynamic quantities of data regarding the hydro process in the future corn field. Hudson, a city just north of Illinois State University, was the sight for the two tile drains that included our instruments for data recording. Precipitation during non-growing season introduces data that correlates the rainfall and both the water flow rate and depth of a tile drain in a buffer zone. Using instruments designed for water telemetry and sampling, throughout 16 months, water quality and development were recorded. Specifically, in intervals of 15 minutes, data regarding volumetric flow rate, depth, and rainfall was recorded and archived. The fluctuations of the depth in the tile drain box changes the pressure of a pressure transducer that activates an auto sampling instrument to retrieve a water sample. Due to this relationship,depth of the water is recorded. Along with the automated data recording, manual biweekly water drainage data recordings and water samples were both taken. Data gaps during the winter months because of frozen instruments leading to data storage and water samples also occurred on rare occasions. Volumetric flow rates mostly ranged from 0 to 2 cubic feet per second through the tile drain. Noticeable higher rates came through during storm events. With the data from these buffer tile sites, interpretations about rainfall and hydro process will become clearer.