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Virginia Farmstead Assessment System: Site Evaluation: Groundwater, Soils, &...

In Virginia, groundwater is an important source of private and public water supplies. In fact, in 60 of Virginia's 95 counties, the majority of households obtain water from private wells and springs...

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Virginia Farmstead Assessment System: Well and Spring Management

More than 40% of Virginia's population depends on wells or springs as a source of drinking water and this dependence is close to 100% in rural areas. Furthermore, approximately one-fourth of all...

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Virginia Farmstead Assessment System: Household Wastewater Treatment and...

Household wastewater contains some contaminants that degrade water quality for such uses as drinking, stock watering, food preparation and cleaning. Potential contaminants in household wastewater...

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Virginia Farmstead Assessment System: Livestock and Poultry Yard Management

Livestock and poultry yards, such as barnyards, holding areas and feedlots, and areas around production buildings are areas of concentrated animal wastes. They can be a source of nitrate and bacteria...

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Virginia Farmstead Assessment System: Livestock Manure Storage and Treatment...

Storage of livestock wastes involves accumulating manure and wastewater in an environmentally sound manner until they can be applied to land or otherwise utilized. Manure storage facilities allow...

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Virginia Farmstead Assessment System: Poultry Litter Management and Carcass...

Nearly all broiler, pullet, and breeder operations grow the birds on concrete, wooden, or earthen floors. A 2-to 6-inch layer of wood shavings, peanut hulls, or other bedding material is used as an...

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Virginia Farmstead Assessment System: Milking Center Wastewater Treatment

Wastewater from the dairy milking center includes wastes from the milking parlor (manure, feed solids, hoof dirt) and milk house (bulk tank rinse water and detergent used in cleaning). The amount of...

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Virginia Farmstead Assessment System: Silage Storage and Management

Silage can be made from corn, grain, or alfalfa, or from canning wastes, such as those resulting from sweet corn processing. The amount of leachate (silage juices) produced varies with the material...

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On-Site Sewage Treatment Alternatives

The purpose of this publication is to describe on-site technologies for treating domestic sewage where conventional means (public sewer or septic tank with drainfield) are not available. These...

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Selection and Location of Poultry and Livestock Manure Storage

If you raise dairy cows, broilers, layers, turkeys, horses, beef cattle, sheep, goats, alpacas, or swine for income or a hobby, you will have to deal with the manure they produce. The amount of manure...

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Poultry and Livestock Manure Storage: Management and Safety

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Manure Management and Environmental Stewardship

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A Summary of Agricultural Air Quality Perceptions in Virginia

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Guide to Threatened and Endangered Species on Private Lands In Virginia

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Nutrient Management for Small Farms

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Powell River Project - Reclamation of Coal Refuse Disposal Areas

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Powell River Project - Passive Treatment of Acid-Mine Drainage

Acidic mine drainage (AMD; also called “acid rock drainage” or “acid drainage”) is an environmental pollutant that impairs water resources in mining regions throughout the world. Where such treatment...

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Trees and Water

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Denitrification Management

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Mitigation of Greenhouse Gas Emissions in Agriculture

In this publication, information is presented on how to increase farm productivity while potentially reducing greenhouse gas* (GHG) contributions from agricultural production. Some of the practices may...

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Decentralized Small Community Wastewater Collection Systems

Wastewater is a significant source of carbon, sediment, nutrients, pathogens, and other potential pollutants. Reducing the quantity of these contaminants before they are discharged to either...

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Effectiveness of Temporary Stream Crossing Closure Techniques Forest...

Protection of water quality is a critical component of forest harvesting operations. Virginia’s silvicultural water quality law (§10.1-1181.1 through 10.1-1181.7) prohibits excessive sedimentation of...

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Household Water Quality in Floyd County, Virginia

 In March 2013, residents from Floyd County participated in a drinking water testing clinic sponsored by the local Virginia Cooperative Extension (VCE) office and the Virginia Household Water Quality...

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Virginia Master Naturalist, American Naturalists

Jared Diamond (2005), in his book, “Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed,” defines landscape amnesia as one of the primary mechanisms for the decline and ultimate collapse of societies....

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Nitrogen and Sulfur Leaching Potential in Virginia

Early summer often means locally heavy and sporadic rainfall as thunderstorms deliver intense rains, and 2015 appears to be no different with many areas in eastern Virginia receiving 3+ inches of rain...

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The Nutrient Value of Straw

The mature and dried stem, leaves, and chaff remaining after barley and wheat are harvested is known as straw. Many farmers around Virginia harvest straw by baling in small bales, large round bales, or...

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IMPACT: Virginia Household Water Quality Program

One in five Virginians, or nearly 1.7 million people, rely on private water supplies such as wells, springs, and cisterns for their household water. In the U.S., municipal systems are regulated under...

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Communicating Climate Change to Agricultural Audiences

The objectives of this publication are (1) to outline some climate-related challenges facing agriculture, (2) to address challenges in communicating climate change issues, and (3) to propose best...

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Factors When Considering an Agricultural Drainage System

Drainage of excess soil water is essential to sustainable agronomic production on many soils in the Mid-Atlantic region. Drainage can improve crop yields, reduce year-to-year yield variability, and...

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