Mike Aucott, Ph.D.*
The use of feedback processes, or results-based management, to monitor and manage important systems has become increasingly important in recent years, largely due to the increased capacity for information access and handling made possible by the wide availability of computerized data management mechanisms. Results or outcome-based management, based on a focus on an adapt-plan-do-check-adapt, etc. cycle, is becoming increasingly important in many fields. This approach has much in common with the materials accounting approach common to industrial ecology and pollution prevention, in that it is based on a quantitative understanding of key fluxes of materials or energy. In these approaches, the slogan “what gets measured gets managed” applies. To avoid unnecessary expenditure of time and energy in the measurement aspect of the cycle, it is important to select appropriate parameters to measure, or indicators.
The NJ Department of Environmental Protection (Department), with the involvement of the NJ Center for Environmental Indicators, is working to develop and improve a number of indicators. Many of these are, and can increasingly be, used to help manage systems important to the environment and agriculture. A focus on nutrients and pesticides reveals a wide variety of indicators, potential indicators, and related research and monitoring efforts.
I will try to apply a holistic, materials accounting perspective to the key nutrients nitrogen and phosphorus and to the pesticides most commonly used in agriculture and also by other pesticide users including golf courses and landscapers. This view will look first at why these substances are important from an environmental perspective, and then identify a number of measuring and tracking efforts underway to get a clearer picture of ambient concentrations, effects, and use quantities of these substances.
Excess nitrogen and phosphorus can cause eutrophication and degradation of water bodies. Nitrate, in ground and surface water, if above critical concentrations, can also cause human health and perhaps ecosystem impacts. Relatively high levels of nitrate in shallow groundwater, as reported through a sampling network being developed by the NJ Geological Survey, are generally, although not always, associated with agricultural land uses. More information being gathered as to types of suburban and agricultural landscapes will provide needed detail and perspective. Statewide fluxes of nitrogen from use of fertilizers are comparable to what is present in POTW effluent and of the same order of magnitude as what falls in precipitation. Some portions of a statewide materials accounting of nitrogen are still unclear. Similar issues exist for phosphorus, although no evidence of human health impacts at ambient concentrations has been noted, and precipitation quantities of total phosphorus are relatively small.
Pesticides if improperly applied can be dangerous, especially to applicators and farm workers. Releases of some pesticides to the ambient environment have been, and may continue to be, problematic. A number of monitoring efforts are underway to gauge concentrations and trends of certain pesticides in ground and surface waters, precipitation, and other environmental median and biota. Also, the Department has developed an ongoing survey and extensive database of quantities of a wide variety of pesticides used in agriculture, landscaping, golf courses, mosquito control, and rights-of-way. Efforts are being made to better characterize uses of pesticides by homeowners. These data can be useful in a variety of ways, such as tracking the increasing adoption of best management practices such as integrated pest management.
Other indicators relevant to the environment and agriculture exist and more are being developed and improved, some through cooperative programs involving the Departments of Environmental Protection and Agriculture and Cook College and the NJ Center for Environmental Indicators.
Key areas of focus for future indicator development include water supply and use, land use and preservation, and the distribution and populations of number of plant and animal species.
* Environmental Indicators Scientist
NJDEP Division
of Science, Research & Technology
PO Box 409,
Trenton, NJ 08625-0409
609-984-6070