Sustainable Phosphorus and Manure Management

Manure is one of the important phosphorus flows across the landscape. Though strongly associated with phosphorus overloading in U.S. waterbodies, manure is also a nutrient-rich, organic fertilizer that is used extensively to build soil health. How can we manage it more effectively to capture its benefits while mitigating its adverse water quality impacts?

In this webinar, four experts will discuss topics including: the role of P in animal nutrition, feed formulation and digestibility, manure processing and utilization to improve farm-level and regional P management, research to improve P use in animal production and catalog manure sources across the landscape.

Date: August 12, 2025

Time: 11:00 AM MST 

Monitoring Phosphorus in the Environment

How do we know how much phosphorus is leaving the land and moving through our waterbodies? There are, in fact, a variety of methods for tracking phosphorus flows, involving both direct and indirect measurements.

In this webinar, we hear from experts describe how “on-the-ground” and remote sensing measurements are collected and packaged for use by the phosphorus community. We’ll also hear about major gaps in monitoring coverage and ways to fill them.

P from Pee: Urine Diversion and Resource Recovery

Most of the phosphorus you eat and drink ends up in your urine, which is also rich in nitrogen and, of course, water. Various technologies have been developed to keep urine separate from other wastes so these water and nutrient resources can be more readily reused beneficially and locally.

In this webinar, we’ll dive into urine! We’ll look at some of the technologies for urine diversion and resource recovery, some ongoing projects that connect these resources to farms, and some of the safety and regulatory issues involved. We’ll be joined by Abe Noe-Hays from the Rich Earth Institute, Dr. Treavor Boyer from Arizona State University, Madeline DuBois from The Land Institute, and Mathew Lippincott from University of Michigan. As always, we’ll invite your questions.

H2Ohio’s Phosphorus Efforts

Lake Erie has long been a waterbody of high interest to the P sustainability community because of its history of massive and damaging harmful algal blooms. In 2019, the state of Ohio launched its H2Ohio program to focus on improving water quality across Ohio, including on Lake Erie and its Maumee River tributary. Thus far, the program has allocated hundreds of millions of dollars to phosphorus reduction projects, such as wetlands restoration, ag tech innovation, and septic system maintenance.

In this webinar, we’ll be hearing from a panel of speakers involved in the H2Ohio work. David Emerman of Ohio EPA will set the stage by talking about the program, especially its technology assessment and piloting work and its wetlands projects. He’ll be joined by one of the technology providers, Dave White of Ecosystem Services Exchange who will speak about their Automated Drainage Water Management System, and Bryan Stubbs from the Cleveland Water Alliance, who will describe their innovation fund, technology test beds, and water quality sensor networks. As always, we’ll leave plenty of time for audience questions.