Projects and Grants per year
Grants and Contracts Details
Description
Contributions of animal waste have a large impact on water quality, however little work has been done
quantifying animal manure contributions, particularly domestic canine phosphorus (P) contributions, in urban
areas. The issues of environmental pollution and potential damage to vegetation due to dog waste are known.
These issues are often addressed by city planners relative to dog parks, but the potential contributions to water
pollution are often ignored. Canine fecal P concentration is higher than typical values reported for feedlot
cattle, broiler chickens and swine produced in concentrated animal feeding operations. This is of particular
relevance to Kentucky, as the Commonwealth ranks third in the nation for the number of dog owners per
household, 45.9%. The average dog owner has 1.6 dogs, making the number of Kentucky canines in excess of
1.44 million, approximately one-third of Kentucky’s human population. It is estimated that 40% of dog
owners do not pick up after their dogs in a residential landscape. Since the majority of households are
concentrated in communities with municipal separate storm sewer systems (MS4s), nutrient contributions
from canine contributions are of particular relevance to these 104 regulated Kentucky communities within 32
counties that have 65% of Kentucky’s population.
Recently modeled P dynamics in Minneapolis – Saint Paul, Minnesota metropolitan area and identified canine
manure, as the leading contributor to phosphorus (P) impairments in nearby watersheds. This conclusion was
based on the assumption that all P runoff from lawns was attributable to canine waste since Minnesota bans
the use of P fertilizer in urban areas. Because Kentucky does not have any fertilizer regulations, it is likely
that both fertilizer and canine feces are a contributor to P in stormwater runoff.
In Lexington, there are approximately 100,000 dogs. If each dog produces an average of 275 lbs. of waste per
year, this would be approximately 14,000 tons of dog waste produced annually. If only 60% is sent to the
landfill and 40% remains on our lawns and impervious surfaces then Lexington watersheds have an annual
input of almost 6000 tons of dog waste.
We propose to quantify the amount of P in domestic canine manure and then evaluate the potential P runoff in
turfgrass, typical of urban landscapes treated with canine manure. The work will be conducted on Bluegrass
(P-rich soils) where the greatest number of Commonwealth citizens reside and where the majority of MS4
regulated communities are located.
Status | Finished |
---|---|
Effective start/end date | 6/18/18 → 6/17/19 |
Funding
- US Geological Survey
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Projects
- 1 Finished
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104B State Water Resources Research Institute Program 2016 - 2021
Ormsbee, L. (PI), Atwood, D. (CoI), D'Angelo, E. (CoI), Erhardt, A. (CoI), Evans, S. (CoI), Ford, W. (CoI), Fox, J. (CoI), Parris, T. (CoI), Unrine, J. (CoI), Zhu, J. (CoI), Pennell, K. (Former PI), Agouridis, C. (Former CoI), Brion, G. (Former CoI), Cagle, L. (Former CoI), Edwards, D. (Former CoI), Fryar, A. (Former CoI), Lee, B. (Former CoI), Matocha, C. (Former CoI), Munshaw, G. (Former CoI), Price, S. (Former CoI), Salmeron Cortasa, M. (Former CoI), Wang, Y. (Former CoI), Wei, Y. (Former CoI), Wendroth, O. (Former CoI) & Yost, S. (Former CoI)
3/1/16 → 12/31/21
Project: Research project