Title: Impacts of Displaced Wind Erosion Sediments on Surface Water Quality in Eastern North Dakota

Focus Categories: Water Quality, Nitrate Contamination

Project No. ND92-05

Principal Investigator: Larry J. Cihacek - Soil Science Department, NDSU

Completion Report

Cihacek, L.J., H.C. Weiser and R. Carcoana, 1997, Impacts of Displaced Wind Erosion Sediments on Surface Water Quality in Eastern North Dakota, Rept. No. ND92-05, North Dakota Water Resources Research Institute, North Dakota State University, Fargo, 51 pages.

Other Publications

Weiser, H. 1996, Nitrate-Enriched Wind Erosion Sediment and Wetland Interaction, “M.S. Thesis,” Department of Soil Science, North Dakota State University, 65 pages.

Carcoana, R., L. Cihacek and H. Weiser, 1994, Effect of Wind Erosion Sediments on Nitrogen Levels of the Sheyenne River Near Kindred, North Dakota, in Proc. North Dakota Water Quality Symposium, B.D. Seelig, ed., March 30-31, 1994, NDSU Extension Service, pp. 196-203.

Cihacek, L.J., R. Carcoana and J. Arndt, 1994, Relationship to water quality of the spatial variability in organic carbon, total N, and NO₃^--N in wind erosion sediments deposited in a wetland margin, in Proc. North Dakota Water Quality Symposium, B.D. Seelig, ed. March 30-31, 1994, Fargo, ND, NDSU Extension Service, pp. 208-215. 

Weiser, H.C. and L.J. Cihacek, 1994, Preliminary results of a study on the fate of nitrates in wind erosion sediments and their effect on water quality, in Proc. North Dakota Water Quality Symposium, B.D. Seelig, ed., March 30-31, 1994, Fargo, ND, NDSU Extension Service, pp. 216-222.

Significant Findings

This study showed that contamination of surface waters by wind erosion sediments is minimized due to denitrification that occurs when the sediments are saturated in a wetland environment. Loss of N-15 tagged nitrate-N was almost complete within 315 days of the sediment’s entering the wetland margin.