By TIM ALEXANDER
Illinois Correspondent

URBANA, Ill. — Understanding and controlling significant erosion of agricultural soils, roadside embankments and other land areas is behind the University of Illinois Department of Agricultural and Biological Engineering’s new Storm Water Pollution and Erosion Control Research and Training Center.

The center features a 300-feet-long by 13-feet-high dirt berm with three drainable ditches that can be discharged into a small pond. The research facility, located on the University’s South Farms, will be used to study the processes of erosion and test how different vegetation, commercial products and other erosion control methods can reduce soil loss and degradation, according to Prasanta Kalita, UoI professor of agricultural engineering.

“Several erosion control products are currently being tested at the site,” said Kalita, who helps provide leadership for the Center along with the Construction Engineering Laboratory of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and UoI Associate Professor Richard Cooke.

“Over the winter months, we installed erosion control blankets to study the efficiencies of those products to control erosion caused by winter processes such as thawing snow and its associated runoff. More recently, we have been examining their effectiveness during heavy rainfall,” Kalita said.

Kalita hopes the UoI’s erosion control center can become self-sustaining by offering use of the grounds to manufacturers of soil erosion control products and others seeking independent evaluation and scientific data for their erosion control systems.
“We are getting a lot of calls from U.S. manufacturers that produce erosion control products such as blankets, hydromulches, turf reinforcement mats and soil amendments wanting to participate in our research studies and have their products evaluated,” he said.
An official with the Illinois Land Improvement Contractors Assoc. (ILICA) in Brimfield (Peoria County) is excited about the new erosion research and training facility and is looking forward to an upcoming, two-day erosion control workshop many of the organization’s members will attend.

“Because almost every land improvement contractor has to deal with erosion control in some form, we think this is going to appeal to a lot of our contractors,” said Janet Burtle-Doubet, executive director of ILICA, the organization responsible for building the earthworks at the UoI Erosion Research Center.

ILICA members will get a chance to utilize the center to offer training to its members on Aug. 18-19. ILICA members will stay at the I Hotel and Conference Center in Champaign and ride a shuttle to the UoI South Farm for training, Burtle-Doubet said.

“This workshop is driven by ILICA members’ commitment to this industry and their high standards of workmanship,” she said. “Those who disturb the soil have to know what impact that has on the environment.”

Burtle-Doubet described ILICA’s member base as a group of “small business people involved in a wide variety of land improvement activity, including members that do conservation-oriented work with the NRCS and soil and water districts improving farm grounds, waterways, terraces and sub-surface drainage to help farming have the least impact on soil erosion and deterioration of water quality.”

The educational module Kalita will utilize during training sessions held at the center such as the one scheduled by ILICA will involve an overview of storm water management and erosion control, design, installation and maintenance of erosion control products and systems, inspections, federal and state regulations and advanced studies of the science of erosion and sediment transport.
The center was established through a $450,000 grant from the Illinois Department of Transportation, whose engineers and technicians are scheduled to become the first participants to test the new training program before it is offered commercially. The U.S. Department of Defense is also anticipated to use the facility for testing of products and practices for possible use at U.S. military facilities.

“This will be a unique opportunity for a wide cross-section of disciplines to come together and get their hands dirty in the pursuit of preserving our most precious resources – soil and water,” stated Neal Barnes, ILICA board member and an independent land improvement contractor.

Those interested in further information about the Storm Water Pollution and Erosion Control Research and Training Center at the UoI’s South Farms may contact Professor Kalita directly at 217-333-0945 or via e-mail at pkalita@illinois.edu