Great Lakes, Clean Water: Realizing the Promise of USDA Conservation Programs
The Soil and Water Conservation Society (SWCS) is undertaking a project—funded by The Joyce Foundation—to engage the clean water community in an effort to improve the performance of the conservation title of the farm bill as a means of improving water quality in the Great Lakes region. We plan to achieve four objectives: (1) to help the clean water community in the Great Lakes region understand and harness the potential for using federal farm conservation programs to reduce nonpoint-source water pollution loadings from agricultural land; (2) to produce an agenda for administrative changes in the short term that, if implemented, could immediately improve the performance of U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) conservation programs; (3) to design a “clean water conservation program” to guide long term reform and redesign of USDA conservation programs, and (4) to encourage and help the clean water community to become engaged, actively and effectively, in seeking to improve the clean water performance of USDA conservation programs.
Why Agriculture?
A third of the land within the Great Lakes Basin is in an agricultural use. Sediment, nutrients, pesticides, and pathogens from this cropland and grazing land are leading causes of impairments in streams, lakes, and other water bodies on the 303(d) lists of Great Lakes States. For example, an estimated 600 million tons of topsoil erode from cropland in the Great Lakes States each year; the resulting sedimentation degrades water quality and aquatic habitat, limits the uses of water resources, and results in significant infrastructure costs, including harbor dredging. Agricultural also is a primary source of pollution in several of the Areas of Concern (AOC) identified by the International Joint Commission, especially in the southern half of the basin around Lakes Michigan, Erie, and Ontario.
Why the Conservation Title of the Farm Bill?
The Great Lakes Basin Program has provided about $6.2 million since 1991 for more than 217 projects aimed at the control and remediation of soil-erosion-related problems on land in agricultural, urban, and forestry uses. In marked contrast to that level of investment, federal farm conservation program spending in the eight Great Lakes states during the current fiscal year alone is $570 million—nearly 100 times the Great Lakes Basin Program expenditure over the past ten years. Harnessing that investment more effectively would spur progress toward clean water and healthy watersheds in the region.
Project Plan and Approach
Our project plan is designed to achieve our objectives through direct engagement with the Great Lakes clean water community:
- Educate the members of water-oriented nonprofit organizations and local public entities in the region about the potential for federal farm bill programs to address agricultural sources of pollution.
- Engage members of those nonprofit organizations and local public entities in a focused discussion leading to
- Specific recommendations for immediate changes in how existing federal farm bill programs could be delivered more effectively to reduce polluted runoff.
- A blueprint for new programs and approaches that would meet regional goals for pollution control in agricultural landscapes.
- Help the members of those nonprofit organizations and local public entities create a framework for how they might become engaged in administrative reform of current programs and might educate those policymakers who will shape the debate over the conservation provisions in the forthcoming farm bill debate.
We propose to hold four day-and-one-half-long roundtables in the eight Great Lakes States, one encompassing New York and Pennsylvania, a second encompassing Michigan and Ohio, a third encompassing Indiana and Illinois, and a fourth encompassing Minnesota and Wisconsin. These roundtables would involve a limited number of participants—up to 15 representatives each— to obtain more focused feedback, with greater levels of intensity and specificity, regarding recommendations for redirection and reform of USDA conservation programs.
As an adjunct to each of these four roundtables, SWCS will invite to each session a limited number of observers from federal and state natural resource conservation agencies (Environmental Protection Agency, Natural Resources Conservation Service, state water quality agencies, state soil conservation agencies, etc.). Those individuals will be asked to listen to the discussion and offer reaction to the outcomes in a debriefing session with SWCS staff following the conclusion of each roundtable.
Each roundtable discussion will be recorded and summarized by SWCS staff. SWCS will then use the information to (a) design an agenda for improving the clean water performance of USDA conservation programs that could be achieved within the scope of current program rules and regulations and (b) create a blueprint for new programs and approaches that would be needed to meet regional clean water goals.
