By CELESTE BAUMGARTNER
Ohio Correspondent

WASHINGTON, D.C. — A new $320 million, four-year initiative that could significantly improve drinking water for people in 12 states in the Mississippi River Basin is a step closer to reality, according to the Environmental Defense Fund (EDF).

The initiative would dedicate money made available through the 2008 Farm Bill conservation programs to helping producers in those states address water quality issues, said Sara Hopper, director of agricultural policy for EDF.

The 12 participating states are Arkansas, Kentucky, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Louisiana, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Ohio, Tennessee and Wisconsin.

“We were very excited about it because it helps ensure that producers in those areas will have resources to help them solve the problems, which hopefully will help obviate the need for additional regulations down the line,” Hopper said.

Through this new initiative, the National Resources Conservation Services (NRCS) and its partners will help producers in selected watersheds in the Mississippi River Basin voluntarily implement conservation practices that avoid, control and trap nutrient runoff; improve wildlife habitat and maintain agricultural productivity.

In addition, the Cooperative Conservation Partnership Initiative (CCPI) was created to allow partners—which could be a producer association, a state or local government, a conservation district or conservation organizations— to come forward with a proposal to use these conservation program resources, Hopper said. .

The NRCS has worked with their state offices and other state agencies, with producer and conservation organizations and have identified the larger focus watershed areas. Now they are encouraging partners to bring proposals for smaller watersheds within the focus areas.

“What NRCS wants to see is proposals for smaller watersheds within the focus areas,” Hopper said. “If you get multiple producers in a small watershed all engaged the idea is that you’ll be able to show results faster and that you sprinkle the resources more broadly across a larger area.”

Studies by the National Academy of Sciences show that non-point source pollution in general that is caused not just by agriculture, but by suburban lawns, parking lot runoff, is the problem now for water quality.

“The Clean Water Act had done a good job of addressing point source pollution, but it has not been able to address non-point source pollution to date,” Hopper said.

Non-point source pollution is 80 to 90 percent of the problem in the Mississippi River Basin and a significant portion of that is caused by agriculture, she said.

“Frankly, we need to show the effectiveness of some of these incentive-based approaches or there is going to be an increasing public push to look at regulatory approaches and see if they should be part of the solution,” Hopper said.

Another concern is the estimated $5 billion for conservation programs over 10 years that was provided in the 2008 farm bill could be in danger, Hopper said.

“The Senate Agriculture Committee has in the last couple of weeks reported out a child nutrition bill reauthorizing school lunch and breakfast programs for children,” Hopper said. “It is a $4.5 billion bill and one of the ways to pay for it was to cut $2.8 billion in budget authority over 10 years from farm bill conservation programs.”

While this is not final, it is of concern. “If we want these changes that farmers can make to be supported through these voluntary incentive programs and for producers to be rewarded for taking these voluntary steps then congress needs to put its money where its mouth is on this,” Hopper said.

For more information, visit your local NRCS office or www.nrcs.usda.gov and click on the “Programs” link.