Proceedings of the 2023 Mississippi Water Resources Conference

Year: 2023 Authors: Nelson A.

In the Mississippi Delta region, tailwater recovery (TWR) systems are an important best management practice to address both water quality and quantity issues. TWRs are surface water capture and irrigation reuse systems, using a combination of a ditch to capture surface water, an on-farm storage (OFS) reservoir to store captured surface water, and pumps to move surface water from the ditch into the OFS reservoir and to irrigate nearby fields. To determine if TWR systems are an effective way to reduce groundwater use, a ditch-only TWR system in Sunflower County, MS has been equipped with velocity and flow meters, auto-samplers, level loggers, and rain gauges. The objective of this long-term study is to determine a fully measured water budget for a closed TWR system. This is the first year of the study and an analysis of select storm events will be discussed.