Confined animal feeding operations (CAFOs) produce large volumes of waste that can have serious water quality impacts. Berea College operates a swine production facility, whose waste lagoon overflows have negatively impacted water quality in a nearby stock watering pond. We collected soil samples from 100 georeferenced points in two small watersheds, one that receives lagoon overflow and an adjacent control watershed that receives no swine waste inputs. Field-moist soils were analyzed for inorganic N (ammonium and nitrate) in 1 M KCl extracts, using the indophenol blue method for ammonium and cadmium reduction for nitrate. The data were analyzed using ArcGIS software (ESRI International). Water samples from the degraded stock watering pond and a nearby unaffected pond were also analyzed for ammonium- and nitrate-N. Soils in the drainage path of the affected watershed had significantly higher soil ammonium-N (P = 0.038) and total inorganic N (ammonium + nitrate) (P = 0.003) than adjacent upland samples; and higher ammonium-N (P = 0.026) and total inorganic N (P = 0.008) than in the control watershed’s drainage path. All inorganic N parameters in the control drain path were not significantly different from upland samples (P > 0.05). Water from the degraded pond had higher levels of ammonium-N than the unaffected pond, but there was no significant difference in nitrate-N levels. Farm managers now avoid lagoon overflows by pumping waste onto a pasture outside the pond’s watershed. We are monitoring the receiving soils to document changes and avoid excess N loading in the application area.

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