Version 5 - Draft 2/9/12

SHORT LIST OF BEST NEAR-TERM OPPORTUNITIES FOR PARTNERSHIPS BETWEEN USDA & SOURCE WATER COLLABORATIVE

Partnership Opportunity / Description / Potential Impact on Source Water Protection / Additional Considerations
NRCS – General Engagement with State Conservationists
(Federal employees who direct State Technical Committees and have discretion to fund specific state projects with USDA conservation funds) / SWC “How To” Guide for effectively engaging State Conservationists & State Technical Committees in source water protection initiatives.
Meeting with State Conservationists & joining State Technical Committees can be effective in gaining funding for ag practices that protect specific source waters.
SWC members need to be equipped with understanding of USDA programs and how to work effectively with key leaders at the state and local level. / Installation & implementation of agricultural practices that protect drinking water sources (stream buffers, fencing to keep livestock out of water sources, land taken out of production in water-sensitive areas). / Significant opportunity to expand successful approaches in some areas (North Carolina source water protection program; Salmon Falls Watershed in Maine/New Hampshire).
NRCS – Consultation on Implementation of FY2012 National Water Quality Initiative / State conservationists directed to spend minimum of 5% of their EQIP funds on CWA Section 303(d)-listed waters, in 1 to 3 watersheds. NRCS developing additional guidance. / Increase in agriculture conservation practices that protect water in targeted areas. / If focus remains solely on impaired waters, will need to identify areas where impaired waters impact drinking water supplies.
Relatively few 303(d) listed waters are impaired drinking water sources. Some contaminants that impair drinking water sources have no ambient water quality standard (e.g., for Cryptospordium); some impaired drinking water sources may not typically show up on 303(d) lists.
Could identify important waters to recommend to state conservationists by consulting state source water assessment maps, 303(d) lists, and other sources (e.g., NPDAT – epa.gov/nutrientpollution/npdat)
NRCS – Development and Implementation of
State 590 Nutrient Management Conservation Practice Standards, based on new federal 590 standard / Producers receiving funds for developing and implementing nutrient management plans or to install animal waste storage structures must comply with NRCS 590 conservation practice standard.
590 standard focuses on field-level nutrient application practices & establishes criteria that are intended to minimize nutrient entry into surface water/groundwater.
New standard requires that growers, enrolled in USDA programs, calculate application rates on crop nutrient requirements and on assessment of risk that nutrients will be transported off-site to local surface and ground water.
NRCS must get state water agencies’ concurrence on:
1) "specific conditions where nitrogen leaching is not a risk to water quality, including drinking water";
2) "specific conditions where the risk of phosphorus loss is low"; and
3) “adequate treatment level and specific conditions for winter application of manure". Otherwise manure applications to frozen/snow-covered and saturated soils are precluded (e.g., it could be argued that no well head protection area should fall into a low risk category for nitrogen contamination.) / Increase the use of conservation practices that minimize nutrient loadings to water / State NRCS (Conservationist & Technical Committee) must develop their own state-specific standard by January 2013. Opportunity for SWC members to engage with State Conservationists and State Technical Committees as state-specific standard is developed.