Drain tiling is the placement of polyethylene (a type of plastic) tubing below the surface of the ground for the purpose of draining excess water from the surface or subsurface of an agricultural field (in this instance).

For the agricultural producer, some of the intended benefits are: more area to crop (less water-covered), earlier into the field to plant (dries out quicker), don't have to drive around potholes when running equipment (more economical, saves fuel and overlap), better yields with less crops "drowning out", and tiling can be a tool to minimize crop losses due to increased salinity (high amount of "salts" in the soils due to other farming practices and high water tables). These benefits are not always guaranteed.

What about the unintended consequences that are (in many times) passed on to neighbors, other parts of the country, or won't take place until the future? Some of these effects are: Loss of some nutrient and chemical filtration (these waters trickle through only a little soil before they are in the pipe and drained into a large lake or river), loss of wildlife habitat, loss of groundwater recharge for aquifers and those that get their water from wells, and potential contribution to increased flooding and pollution of neighbor's lands and/or rivers during spring flood season or after large rain events.

Normally, these waters would slowly seep down into the ground to recharge aquifers or would evaporate into the air. When drained, these waters reach streams or rivers in a matter of hours or days, increasing the flow of the river. Because these waters also have less filtration through the soil, they are direct routes for extra soil nutrients such as nitrates to get into rivers and lakes that serve as water supplies for towns and cities downstream.

"The traditional way to get rich is to transfer your costs to someone else." --whether to your neighbor, the taxpayer, or the generations that follow your own. -from the article "Plowed Under"

prospect.org/article/plowed-under