Learning   Portfolio

            Water is a highly important resource as it provide people with means to almost everything they use in their daily lives. Manatee County describes water as “a basic and essential need of every living creature.” (Manatee) Manatee County has made a tremendous effort to conserve its water and educating the public on how they can help. “Manatee County calls upon businesses, schools, industries, citizens and visitors to help protect our precious resource by practicing water saving measures and becoming more aware of the need to save water.” (Manatee) The county has made strides in reclaiming water, regulating irrigation methods, and educating the public about water conservation.

            Irrigation is one way that a lot of water can be wasted due to the amount of water plants need to survive. Manatee County has found that the best water irrigation method is drip irrigation. “Drip is the preferred method of irrigation because it uses the least amount of water and it targets the root of the plant.” (Manatee) The drip irrigation method is considered most efficient by Manatee County due to its use of little water and direct application to the roots. Drip Irrigation is also popular in many other areas, such as California. “Over the years as drip irrigation materials, installation equipment, and irrigation scheduling tools have evolved, [drip irrigation] has gained wider acceptance and is now being used in perennial crops as well on a limited basis.” (Ayars) Drip irrigation uses small pipes along the plants’ roots to drip water straight at the plant’s base.

            Drip irrigation presents many advantages to efficiency when it comes to water consumption. However, the energy cost is also great to power drip irrigation systems. Drip irrigation is usually powered by a diesel engine, which is costly both to the environment and those running the engine, as they must purchase fuel to power the engine. A test was conducted in Pakistan to evaluate the effectiveness of a new solar powered drip irrigation system. “It was found that solar power unit was more efficient, energy saving and economical.” (Mongat) Not only was the solar powered engine better for the environment, it proved to be the better economic choice as well. “The operational cost of the unit was also very low as compared to diesel system while the initial installation cost of solar operational system was high.” (Mongat) Although it was more efficient, the solar powered drip irrigation engine was expensive to install. Obviously, this innovation would be expensive for a small county like Manatee to replace current drip irrigation systems with, but it has the potential to pay off the cost in the long term.

            Another way Manatee County has made an effort to improve its water conservation is through a process of reclaiming water. It does this by reclaiming waste water to be used for irrigation both industrially and commercially. “The Manatee Agriculture Reuse System (MARS) has provided reclaimed water for irrigation to agriculture, golf courses, and residents.” (Manatee) This system treats waste water from the city at three separate plants in order to be reused. The system takes into account the effect on the soil and the effect on the economy. “The methodology for the first phase of the project implementation was to inventory a variety of sustainability principles and properties of sustainable systems and qualitatively asses the program according to these criteria.” (Hunsicker) By studying the agronomical factors of the reclaimed water on the soil, Manatee County was able to assess whether the water would have a positive or negative impact. “… The development of an alternative water source for agricultural irrigation seems to have sustainable characteristics.” (Hunsicker) The MARS system began being used in Manatee County some time after 2005. It has worked along with drip irrigation to help Manatee County conserve its water.