columns Money! Money! Money!
Aaron Meyer, MRWA Source Water Protection Specialist
Are you a public water supplier who is worried about elevated nitrates or potential impacts from agricultural lands on yourwater supply? I have some good news for you. MRWA and Minnesota Department of Health (MDH) staff have worked close-ly with the Natural Resource Conservation Service (NRCS) and developed a program designed to provide incentives for farm-ers to entice them to implement nitrogen best management practices. These practices will be implemented in vulnerable well-head protection areas across the state.
In the following paragraphs, I will explain the highlights of theprogram; however, I would strongly encourage all public watersuppliers to talk with your local NRCS staff regarding this pro-
gram and ask them to help you promote this program within your wellhead protection area. Typically, NRCS staff are famil-iar with these farmers and are willing to call and talk to them about program options, etc.
The Source Water Protection Environmental Quality Incentive Program Initiative is a special program designed to providefinancial incentives to farmers to encourage them to try new management techniques and best management practices whichcan improve water quality.
Funding Allocations: The NRCS has allocated $250,000 towards this Initiative for 2014 and hopes to provide more funds inthe future.
“I have some good news for you.”
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Eligible Wellhead Protection Areas: The highest priority of the Initiative is to target efforts in the vulnerable wellhead protection areaswhich have been determined to have high or very high vulnerable areas and the watersheds contributing runoff to these areas. See mapon page 20 for eligible areas.
If funds are still available and landowner interest exists projects will be funded within the priority areas for the surface water intakesfor St. Cloud, St. Paul and Minneapolis.
Eligible Best Management Practices: Above is a list of eligible practices which a farmer can receive incentives to install. It is a statewideprogram so not all of the practices will be appropri-ate for all areas of Minnesota. If a farmer is interest-ed your local NRCS office will take the applicationand work with the farmer to select the most appro-priate practices for his farm. We have also created ascoring and ranking system which will ensure thebest practices will be funded first. The scoring andranking system is designed to fund projects whichinvolve nutrient management, pest management,irrigation management, and drainage water man-agement first.
This is an excellent program and I would highlyrecommend all public water suppliers who havevulnerable wellhead protection areas contact theirlocal NRCS office and ask them to help spread theword and contact area farmers. If you would likeany assistance from MRWA do not hesitate to con-tact myself at [email protected] or 800-367-6792.
Priority Eligible Protection Areas HIGH
Wellhead Protection (WHP) Areas: Land within a Drinking Water Supply Management Area (DWSMA) boundary that has been classified as High or Very High in Vulnerability by the Minnesota Department of Health. (250 DWSMAs in 59 Counties)
MEDUIM Priority A Surface Water Protection (SWP) Area: Land within the Priority A SWP area for Minneapolis, St. Paul or St. Cloud.
LOW Priority B Surface Water Protection Area: Land within the priority B area for Minneapolis, St. Paul or St. Cloud.
Eligible Conservation Practices Conservation Cover Denitrifying Bioreactor Irrigation System,
Mgmt. Stripcropping
Conservation Crop Rotation
Drainage Water Mgmt. Karst Sinkhole Treatment
Water Well Decommissioning
Contour Buffer Strips Field Border Nutrient Mgmt. Windbreak/Shelterbelt Establishment
Contour Farming Filter Strip Residue And Tillage Management - No Till, Strip Till
Cover Crop Forage And Biomass Planting
Residue And Tillage Management- Ridge Till
Critical Area Planting Integrated Pest Mgmt. Riparian Forest Buffer
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20 MRWA TODAY w Spring 2014
St. Louis
Itasca
Cass
LakePolk
Beltrami
Aitkin
Pine
Cook
Koochiching
Otter Tail
Clay
Roseau
Marshall
Becker
Todd
Stearns
Kittson
Swift
Lyon
Pope
Morrison
Wilkin
Renville
Carlton
Martin
Hubbard
Rice
Wright
Norman
FillmoreMower
Crow Wing
Nobles
Murray
Grant
Sibley
Brown
Lake of the Woods
Clea
rwate
r
Rock
Redwood
Kandiyohi
Douglas
Jackson
Meeker
Goodhue
Winona
Isanti
Faribault
Dakota
Freeborn
Olmsted
Lincoln
Blue Earth
Scott
Stevens
Anoka
Mille
Lacs
Houston
Steele
Traverse
Dodge
Wadena
Nicollet
McLeod
Hennepin
Kanabec
Chippewa
Wabasha
Benton
Lac Qui Parle
Carver
Pennington
Big Stone
Cottonwood Waseca
Chisago
Mahnomen
Le Sueur
Yellow Medicine
Pipe
stone
Red Lake
Sherburne
Watonwan
Was
hingto
nRamsey
Source Water Protection Initiative
5
LegendDWSMA
December 5th, 2013
Maps are for graphical purposes only. They do not represent a legal survey. While every effort has been made to ensure that
these data are accurate and reliable within the limits of the current state of the art, NRCS cannot assume liability for any damages
caused by any errors or omissions in the data, nor as a result of the failure of the data to function on a particular system. NRCS makes
no warranty, expressed or implied, nor does the fact of distribution constitute such a warranty.
DWSMA(Drinking Water Supply Management Areas)
NRCS Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP)
Source Water Protection (SWP) Initiative
Data Source: MN Department of Health
1:3,000,000
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