Mississippi River Water Quality and the Clean Water Act Progress, Challenges, and Opportunities (2008) / Chapter Skim
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6 Agricultural Practices and Mississippi River Water Quality
6 Agricultural Practices and Mississippi River Water Quality
Pages 165-189
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From page 165... ...
. As Chapter 2 emphasizes, the primary nonpoint pollution concerns in the Mississippi River basin are nutrients, which derive largely from fertilizers applied to crops, and sediments, which derive largely from soil erosion and are related to tillage.
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From page 166... ...
This chapter discusses agricultural production and conservation programs, including strategies for reducing sediment and nutrient loadings within the context of the Clean Water Act and through federal and state agriculture-related initiatives. It identifies and describes existent and emerging regulatory, incentive-based, and market-based approaches for reducing nonpoint inputs.
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From page 167... ...
The 1933 Farm Bill, and the subsequent 70 years of Farm Bills and other agricultural programs, have had a tremendous influence on Mississippi River basin land uses, crop types, farmer attitudes and preferences, and the structure of the agricultural sector; in turn, they have greatly affected runoff patterns and water quality across the basin and in the Mississippi River and the Gulf of Mexico. Nevertheless, Farm Bills also have contained provisions encouraging conservation practices, and the 2002 Farm Bill included an unprecedented expansion in federal support for farmers for conservation activities by introducing the Conservation Security Program and continuing the Environmental Quality Incentives Program.
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From page 168... ...
The largest of these land and water conservation programs are the Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) and the Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP)
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From page 169... ...
Introduced in the 2002 Farm Bill, the Conservation Security Program is designed to assist farmers in implementing conservation practices on a whole-farm planning basis. It is a stewardship program designed to improve environmental quality and natural resource condition in agricultural land
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From page 170... ...
The USDA sponsors significant land and water conservation programs that could help address nonpoint source water pollution in the Mississippi River basin. Participation is voluntary, but there are financial incentives to implement BMPs, as defined by the agency and local conservation districts.
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From page 171... ...
For example, the Iowa River (a Mississippi River tributary) showed improvement in total suspended solids concentrations following the 1985 Farm Bill that encouraged such practices.
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From page 172... ...
Effectively reducing nutrient impacts on Mississippi River basin water quality will require improved nutrient management strategies that balance nutrient requirements for crop production with reductions of nutrient loss from agricultural lands to surrounding watersheds.
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From page 173... ...
This has inadvertently resulted in confusion among the Corn Belt states regarding appropriate fertilizer application rates. In recent years, many scientists from the upper midwestern states have noted that rates of nitrogen application needed to reach specific corn production yield goals are relatively consistent over this broad geographic region, but there are large variations in soil and climatic conditions and in management practices.
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From page 174... ...
The NRCS efforts to implement such BMPs could influence Mississippi River water quality in a positive way and should be combined with coordination and targeting of efforts under the CRP, EQIP, and CSP programs discussed earlier.
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From page 175... ...
Nutrient management is a critical factor in agricultural production as well as in maintaining water quality, and farmers and government agencies must implement appropriate nutrient management strategies as part of a comprehensive and integrated approach to modern farming operations. Existing USDA conservation programs, especially EQIP and CSP, provide vehicles for doing just this and could be utilized more fully to help improve water quality across the Mississippi River basin and in the Gulf of Mexico.
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From page 176... ...
Achieving water quality standards and other water-related goals in the Mississippi River basin will require the identification and targeting of those subwatersheds that contribute most of the sediments and nutrients to the mainstem of the Mississippi River and its tributaries. Targeting of USDA conservation programs can encourage farmers to implement BMPs for sediment and water runoff control on lands that are the primary sources of nonpoint pollutants.
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From page 177... ...
The efforts devoted to improve water quality along the Minnesota River reveal both the complexity of the problems in assessing sediment contributions from farm fields to nearby streams and the potential for developing appropriate methods to minimize runoff of sediments and nutrients from farm fields into nearby waterways. APPROACHES FOR REDUCING NONPOINT SOURCE INPUTS FROM AGRICULTURAL LANDS Targeting and Water Quality Improvement Economists and other have argued for years that increased targeting -- or focusing efforts in conservation, agricultural practices, and other practices on specific fields and farms -- would improve effectiveness of conservation programs (Ribaudo, 1986; Wu and Boggess, 1999)
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From page 178... ...
For example, nutrient loadings to the Mississippi River are higher in the upper Mississippi River Corn Belt region than in lower portions of the river basin. The USDA could direct some EQIP and CSP funding to priority areas of the upper Mississippi River region to reduce nutrient loadings.
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From page 179... ...
Water Quality Trading In conjunction with its watershed initiative, the EPA introduced a Water Quality Trading Policy in January 2003 (USEPA, 2003f)
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From page 180... ...
Water quality trading in the Mississippi River basin would involve a large percentage of nonpoint dischargers, and air and water pollution issues fall under different statutory regimes -- current statutory and regulatory constructs often make it difficult to structure effective, marketbased trading programs (see Stephenson et al., 1999)
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From page 181... ...
Trading of the nutrient discharge credits allows point source dischargers, such as municipal wastewater treatment plants, to obtain nutrient reduction credits and thus meet their permit requirements. Credits are purchased from the agricultural nonpoint source dischargers and provide a source of income to the farmer.
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From page 182... ...
Each district has its own strategy to influence farmers within the district to reduce selenium loadings. Performance-based trading is usually easier with point sources, such as wastewater treatment plants or point source discharges from irrigation drainage tile systems, where monitoring and measurement of discharges are already required under the Clean Water Act's NPDES permit program.
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From page 183... ...
. Under this management approach, for a producer to receive commodity price supports and other USDA program benefits, the producer would have to maintain certain conservation standards.
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From page 184... ...
The fact that the Clean Water Act does not require command-and-control legislation for nonpoint sources highlights the importance and potential of the funded USDA conservation programs in helping improve water quality in the Mississippi River, its tributaries, and the Gulf of Mexico. These incentive programs gain even more importance if the USDA Conservation Compliance rules are increasingly less effective.
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From page 185... ...
POTENTIAL IMPACTS OF BIOFUELS PRODUCTION The potential for additional nonpoint source pollution from the expansion of bioenergy crop production illustrates the need for improved nonpoint source pollution control. Expanded biofuel production, especially ethanol, has the capacity to increase both sediment and nutrient loadings in the Mississippi River.
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From page 186... ...
ISA sponsors initiatives designed to help improve production and profitability, including market development for soy foods, soy biodiesel and bio-based products, and an on-farm network that helps evaluate in-field products and practices. ISA's agronomic and environmental programs address whole farm ing systems, including nutrient management and pest control in corn and soybean production, integration of livestock and manure management in crop production, tillage practices, and energy management.
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From page 187... ...
SUMMARY Runoff from agricultural lands is the primary nonpoint source of nutrients and sediments to the Mississippi River and the Gulf of Mexico. There is an inherent conflict between agricultural production and improving water quality in the Mississippi River.
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From page 188... ...
The national financial investment in and the scope of these USDA programs is large. It is imperative that these USDA conservation programs be aggressively targeted to help achieve water quality improvements in the Mississippi River and its tributaries.
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From page 189... ...
AGRICULTURAL PRACTICES AND MISSISSIPPI RIVER WATER QUALITY 189 agricultural land in the upper Mississippi River basin is likely to increase. This state of affairs provides an even stronger rationale to implement with urgency the targeted application of USDA conservation programs, to improve and expand EPA-USDA coordination for nonpoint pollution control programs, and to devise and implement other initiatives to mitigate the adverse effects of nutrients and sediments on the Mississippi River and the Gulf of Mexico.
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