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Land application of poultry litter as fertilizer may lead to impaired surface and ground water quality. An experiment was conducted at Crossville, AL to study the effects of alum [Al2(SO4)3·14H2O] treatment of broiler litter on the yield and nutrient uptake of tall fescue (Festuca arundinaceae) and the nutrient content of runoff water exited from treated plots. Alum was used at the rate of 0, 545 and 1090. kg per 1464 m² (12 m × 122 m) of the poultry house. The low rate is the one recommended by Natural Resource Conservation Service (NRCS) in Alabama. Soil samples were collected from the research plots at the beginning of the experiment and at the end of each growing season from 0-7.5, 7.6-15, and 16-30 cm depth. Runoff samples were collected from each plot after each rainfall event that caused runoff. Alum treatments had no effect on tall fescue dry matter yield, and the herbage nutrient concentrations were within acceptable limits. We observed significant reductions in the runoff concentrations of NH4-N (28.6 mg L-1 for untreated litter vs. 15.0 mg L-1 for alum-treated litter), total P (11.5 mg L-1 vs. 5.1 mg L-1), soluble reactive P(10.4 mg L-1 vs. 4.7 mg L-1), and particulate P(1.9 mg L-1 vs. 0.8 mg L-1). This practice should receive serious consideration as a method of reducing the adverse environmental impact of broiler chicken production when the litter is applied to pasture land. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]