Soil Health Application Development

Using information gleaned from MFAI’s work to optimize the use of the federally-funded Wisconsin State Revolving Loan Fund (SRF), we learned about the disparity between the cost of removing phosphorus from wastewater through treatment plants (between $500-$1,500 per pound of phosphorus) versus the cost of preventing phosphorus from entering waterways, through agricultural nonpoint source projects ($25-$75/lb P) and soil health practices.

In order to communicate that data, we worked with a contractor to develop an application to embed in our website that allows farmers and technical service providers to enter data they may have from a cost-share funded conservation project (cost, phosphorus loss reductions, proximity to waterway, etc) to compare how much it costs society to fund their phosphorus reductions versus a nearby municipal wastewater treatment plant. There is the option for people to explore a sample scenario if they don’t have their own data to use. The application then allows people to generate images to use as social media posts to share their results with their community. The application is expected to be released in early November, 2024. =