By Cheryl Splain, KnoxPages.com reporter
MOUNT VERNON — Rob Clendening, administrator of the Knox Soil and Water Conservation District, told the Knox County commissioners on Thursday that seepage issues at the county landfill need ongoing monitoring.
Clendening said there are several areas where surface water has infiltrated the landfill’s cap due to settlement of the fill underneath. When infiltration occurs, it creates the potential for contaminated leakage into the surrounding groundwater. “We are seeing more of these settled places where there will be pools of water,” he said.
Problem areas have been graded, smoothed and seeded. “It’s one of those things we will have to think about keeping an eye on,” he said.
Clendening told the commissioners that the Knox SWCD is wrapping up a successful construction season working with landowners to create grass waterways. Grassed waterways are graded channels designed to slow soil erosion. Construction is funded through several government programs.
Clendening said that recently, the Conservation Reserve Program has been the primary funding mechanism. There is a 24-million-acre cap in that program which is close to being reached. “We don’t know what we are going to have available for that program next year,” he said.
The district’s cover crop program is looking good, with 55,000 acres approved for payment. Clendening said that of the 55,000, about 47,000 acres will get planted with a cover crop, depending on how the harvest goes.
Last year, 35,00 acres were approved. Clendening said that if 2016 results are similar to 2015, he anticipates the cover crop program will save 37 million pounds of soil, 20,000 pounds of phosphorous and 40,000 pounds of nitrogen from going into the county’s waterways.
The Knox SWCD took the next step in promoting the record management application it developed in conjunction with the Knox County Farm Bureau. Clendening said the two organizations just signed a joint venture, formalizing a previously informal agreement. Clendening recently met with a representative from West Virginia University; WVU is interested in using the app in the Chesapeake Bay watershed. The KCFB will take the lead in marketing, “so we can get back to some other things here,” he said.
Clendening told the commissioners there is “light at the end of the tunnel” in evaluating land parcels for the Current Agricultural Use Value program. Three townships remain to be evaluated.
“Most of the agricultural land [in the county] is enrolled in it; probably some of it shouldn’t be,” he said, adding that he was surprised to discover some large tracts of land that were not enrolled.
Clendening said his office has sent out a lot of letters regarding eligibility and will probably send out a lot more next year. When looking at fallow parcels, Clendening said the “benefit of doubt” was given as to how long the parcel was fallow. CAUV allows a parcel to be unbroken for a year and up to three years in some circumstances before it must be planted again.
Clendening told the commissioners the SWCD will be buying new grain drills with a delivery date in January. The SWCD rents out the equipment to small farmers. “Use of the drills easily pays for the cost of the drills,” he said.