Underground Tile System

An underground tile system controls where water flows on a farm. Here, water flows into a tile through the ground above, fills the water control system, and flows out in the desired amount toward a water basin, such as a wetland.

Farmers in Iowa work hard to control the amount of nitrates that end up in our waterways. They do this by incorporating tiles with a water control system. This animation shows how the water control system cleans nitrates from water run off before the water gets to our waterways.

Let’s take a closer look.

A corn field sits to the left of a waterway. A blue sky has three puffy, white clouds. One cloud is on the left above a cornfield. The cornfield has eight stalks of corn with ears. Another cloud is above a hillside that slopes down to the waterway. The third cloud is above the waterway. Beneath the top layer of soil in the cornfield. Growing below the top soil layer of the cornfield are the roots of the corn. Below the roots is a pool of water. Below the water is a black pipe-like structure labeled “Tile.” On the tile are white arrows pointing to the right towards the waterway. Underground, between the cornfield and the waterway is a rectangular structure. The structure is labeled “Water Control Structure.” The bottom half of the water control structure is split vertically into two sections. The left side is filled with water. The water on the left side is spilling over into the empty section on the right. From the right side of the structure the water moves into the tile. The tile continues to run through the hill and extends just past the hill. Above this section of the tile is the label “Drainage.” The underground tile exits through the side of the hillside above the waterway. From the end of the tile, water runs out into the blue waterway.