THE OWNER BUILT HOME & HOESTEAD

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THE OWNER-BUILT HOMESTEAD, CHAPTER 4
WATER MANAGEMENT

A brief presentation of the Hydrologic Cycle was included in the preceding chapter. My intention was to impress the reader with an important concept: water is a function of the land. Like the land, and things which grow on the land, water too has been badly misused. We may settle in arid regions where streams flow only during cold, non-growing seasons. So we have to divert water from stream channels or impound it behind dams. Then we over-irrigate, causing nitrate leaching and the establishment of pathogenic fungi. Commercial fertilizers and poisonous sprays are then used to counteract these evils. Or we may farm the rich bottom land—but must first drain the meadows and valleys of stored water. The tile drainage systems employed lower the water table and contribute to down-stream flooding. We may cut or burn forests and native grass to graze cattle or plow the land. Then soil-depleting cultivated plants replace native vegetation: tillage practices leave the land stirred up and exposed to the ravages of wind and rain. Agriculture then becomes, for the most part, an occupation dealing with floods and drought, erosion and infertility, insects and diseased plants.

Consequently, as a function of the land, water and water management become very closely interrelated to soil and the way in which soil is used. Organisms and plant roots living in the soil remove oxygen and respire carbon dioxide. This free movement of carbon dioxide out, and oxygen into the soil is a first criterion of healthy plant growth. Standing surface water, for instance, may contribute to crop damage by impeding this action. Flooded soil encourages undesirable bacterial transformations: when soil aeration is poor, plant roots have difficulty in excreting carbon dioxide, and beneficial aerobic (airborne) microorganisms cannot function. Anerobic (waterborne) micro-organisms then take over and reduce valuable nitrates to toxic nitrite and gaseous nitrogen.