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Best Management Practices To Minimize Nitrate Leaching For Irrigated Potatoes, Robert W. Hill, Ahmad Y. Ranjha

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Nitrate nitrogen (N03-N) leaching is becoming an alarming threat to ground water in many areas in the U.S. In one study in North Carolina, over 9000 domestic wells were sampled for nitrate. Over 3 percent (288 wells) contained N03-N at levels exceeding the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) safe drinking water standard of 10 mgIL (Jennings, et aI., 1991). Ground water quality concerns in central Nebraska surfaced in the mid 1950s when scientists observed increasing N03-N concentrations in the ground water of some river valleys (Olson et aI., 1962). In Utah also, excessive N03-N contamination has been found in private wells. …