
Measuring and Extracting Nitrates in Soil:
Considering Innovative Solutions While Defining Agriculture's Needs
Companies represented included Taylor Farms, Wilbur-Ellis, Rio Farms, Tanimura & Antle, Driscoll's, Rose Royal Radicchio, Ocean Mist Farms, Duda Fresh Farms, Gills Onions, Paraiso Vineyards, Crop Production Services, John Deere Water, AMEC Geomatrix, BioVantage and APT Water, Inc. Other participants included the Grower-Shipper Association, the Monterey County Farm Bureau, Hartnell College, Cal State University Monterey Bay, the University of California at Davis, and the Monterey County Water Resources Agency.
In reviewing a selct number of commercial applications during the session, participants sought to identify the needs of the agricultural industry around the issues of nitrates in the soil, especially in irrigation waters and tile waters. Beyond assessing the viability of these particular solutions, participants critiqued existing solutions and defined their "wish list" for improved products and technologies to deploy on their farms.
Additionally, the session addressed how to best support future collaboration between the agricultural and technology sectors.
Participants created a "wish list" for the day around solutions to nitrate issues and continued to define nitrate-oriented problems. They discussed needs and concerns around current and potential solutions. They identified the need to find out the rate(s) of nitrate penetration of soils and the need to establish baseline data and to find out the speed and direction of the travel of legacy as well as new nitrates in the soils.
Questions that came up for them included, "How do we protect potable water?" "How do we prevent surface water contamination by nitrates?" "How do we implement bio-denitrification solutions on which types of soils?" Click here for notes from the session.

Murray Einarson of AMEC Geomatrix, Ron Yokota of Tanimura & Antle and Joel Wiley of Wilbur-Ellis listen to Dale Huss of Ocean Mist Farms explore bio-denitrification of water.

Murray Einarson, Ron Yokota, Dale Huss, Joel Wiley, Bob Martin and Marc Los Huertos listen to a presentation by John Deere Water.

Sammy Duda and Richard Smith hear Dr. Zahi Kanaan-Atalla's comments on new thinking around fertilizer and water usage.

Terry Appleby of APT Water, Inc., Dennis Donahue of Rose Royal Radicchio and Abby Taylor-Silva of Grower-Shipper Association discuss water solutions.
