Awards issued prior to january 20, 2025, were funded under previous administrations and may not reflect the priorities and policies of the current administration.** changing precipitation patterns and…

Awards issued prior to january 20, 2025, were funded under previous administrations and may not reflect the priorities and policies of the current administration.** changing precipitation patterns and population growth are putting unprecedented stress on freshwater supply, posing formidable challenges to the sustainability of irrigation agriculture. Treated wastewater (recycled water) is one of several nontraditional water sources that may be used to augment agricultural irrigation. However, recycled water irrigation introduces numerous chemicals of environmental concern (cecs) into agroecosystems. The potential accumulation of cecs in food represents a significant hurdle to the broader adoption of this practice. Research to date has stopped at surveying occurrence of cecs in plants, while risk-mitigation strategies are urgently needed to truly advance nontraditional water use in agriculture. In response to the program area water quantity and quality (A1411), this research is focused on novel strategies to minimize CEC accumulation in edible plant tissues. Through a comprehensive field-plot study, we will demonstrate that CEC accumulation in fruiting row crops (e.g., tomato, pepper, cucumber, melon, bean) is limited. We will further evaluate CEC accumulation in fruit trees (e.g., apple, peach, citrus, avocado) that are common in arid and semi-arid regions to test the hypothesis that CEC accumulation in tree fruits is low. Study findings will allow the pairing of specific crop types with recycled water use to minimize CEC accumulation. We will also explore the use of irrigation alternation, i.e., recycled water irrigation early in the season, followed by conventional freshwater irrigation, to achieve further reductions in CEC accumulation. The project contributes to sustainable U.S. Agriculture by offering several safe reuse practices of nonconventional water to strengthen water security in agriculture.