The groundwater quality through livestock excreta survey based on “Act of the management and use of livestock excreta” was investigated by selecting sampling sites within 1 km of the farmland without considering hydrogeological units. However, these sites can be affected by various pollution sources such as chemical fertilizers and livestock excretions. Additionally, the effects of pollution sources on groundwater quality in the sites cannot be clearly distinguished from naturally occurring backgrounds. In this study, a method was developed to select the sampling sites for groundwater quality through livestock excreta survey in order to understand the effects of pollution sources especially livestock excreta. First, the concentrations of nitrate within the radius of 200 m, 300 m, 500 m and 750 m, respectively, from the farms regarded as pollution sources in hydrogeological units were compared in 2016-2017. All the nitrate concentrations at 200 - 500 m from the farms exceeded a background concentration, 13.3 mg/L. Those at 750 m and the background concentrations measured by the Ministry of Environment were comparable. Therefore, the appropriate radius was suggested as 500 m for livestock excretions survey. In this study, the areas within 500 m from the farms could be considered under the influence of livestock excretions, while those beyond 500 from the pollution sources as background in hydrogeological units. The developed method was validated by applying it to the sites selected based on both administrative divisions and watersheds for livestock excretion survey. The average densities for the developed method were 0.82 and 0.39 points/km2, respectively, which were considered as appropriate levels according to those of the European Environmental Agency.

The purposes of this study were to suggest the methodology to select prior areas in the environmental pollution survey for livestock excreta (EPSLE) as well as to elucidate the validity of the methodology. In this study, the prior areas in the EPSLE were determined by examining the number of compost facilities categorized according to the three levels of size including the basin, the sub-basin and the watershed, respectively, based on the data from “Annual Nation-wide Pollution Sources Survey (2012)”. The results suggested that the list of prior basins were Nakdong, Geum, Youngsan and Han river basins in order. Also, it was examined that the prior sub-basins in the four river basins including Nakdong, Geum, Youngsan and Han rivers were Naesung Stream, Geumgang Gongju, Juam Dam and Namhan Downstream, respectively. The prior watersheds in the sub-basins of Naesung stream, Geumgang Gongju, Juam Dam and Namhan Downstream were Seocheon Downstream, Geum Stream, Gyeombaek Suwipyo and Yanghwa Stream, respectively. The validity of the methodology used in this study was elucidated by analyzing the correlation of the number of compost facilities with the concentrations of T-N and T-P observed in the end-points of sub-basins. The results of correlation analysis showed that the concentrations of T-N and T-P increased with the number of compost facilities. Specifically, there was the stronger correlation between the number of compost facilities and the concentrations of T-N than that for T-P. Consequently, it was proved that the methodology used in this work was valid and rational for the selection of prior areas in environmental pollution survey for EPSLE.