Sand County Foundation, Iowa Soybean Association, and Agriculture's Clean Water Alliance helped to sponsor the installation of a subsurface bioreactor near Webster City, Iowa on June 11. This monitored trial will be the second in a series of installations intended to measure the bioreactor's effectiveness in reducing the amount of nitrogen draining into the Des Moines River watershed from agricultural land.
A bioreactor is an underground trench filled with a carbon source (commonly wood chips), through which tile water is allowed to flow. The carbon source provides material within which microorganisms can colonize. Using the wood chips as a food source, the microorganisms break down the nitrate and expel the nitrate as a gas.
The systems are easy to construct, relatively inexpensive, take little or no land out of production and are believed to require little maintenance. There are no adverse effects on crop production, and they can be designed to not restrict drainage.
Early research has found that a bioreactor can remove around 25 to 35 percent of nitrate in tile line water. This is the second in a series of tile line bioreactor installations in the Des Moines and Raccoon River watersheds.
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