OUTDOOR CORNER: LET'S ALL DRINK TO PUTTING AN END TO WATER POLLUTION

If you ask people what they think is the number one environmental problem occurring today, survey after survey would show that water pollution is number one.

If water pollution is a problem then what is the cause? Is it industrial waste or sewage treatment plants, or could it be something else? The nation's number one water quality problem is nonpoint source pollution.

Nonpoint source (NPS) pollution, unlike pollution from industrial and sewage treatment plants, comes from many different sources. NPS pollution occurs when rainfall, snowmelt, or irrigation runs over land or through the ground, picks up pollutants, and deposits them into rivers, lakes, or ground water.

NPS pollution is widespread, because it can come from activities anywhere in the watershed of a lake or stream. These pollutants come from agriculture, forestry, mining, septic systems, urban runoff and construction. NPS pollution also includes adverse changes to the vegetation, shape, and flow of streams and other aquatic systems. Nonpoint source pollution is the main reason that approximately 40 percent of the nation's rivers lakes, and estuaries are not clean enough to meet basic uses such as fishing or swimming.

The latest National Water Quality Inventory indicates that agriculture is the leading source of pollution to rivers and lakes, and also a major contributor to ground water contamination and wetlands degradation. Agricultural activities that cause NPS pollution include confined animal facilities, grazing, plowing, pesticide spraying, irrigation and fertilizing. The major agricultural NPS pollutants that result from these activities are sediment, nutrients, pathogens, pesticides and salts. However agricultural impacts on surface water and ground water can be minimized by certain land management activities.

Government programs are available to help people design and pay for management approaches to control NPS pollution. One program that can help is the Conservation Reserve Program.

The Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) is a United States Department of Agriculture program that is administered by the Farm Services Agency. This popular program pays willing landowners an annual rental payment to retire agriculture land and maintain vegetative cover for 10 or 15 years.

Within the Conservation Reserve Program there is a continuous sign-up for buffer strips. This program allows you to establish certain buffers on cropland and marginal pasture land. You can enroll the land in the CRP at any time, without having to go through the process of submitting a competitive offer.

Buffers are strips of land in permanent vegetation along field borders. Buffers strips slow water runoff, trap sediment and pollutants, and enhance water infiltration in the buffer itself.

Buffer strips will trap fertilizers, pesticides, bacteria, pathogens and heavy metals, minimizing the chances of these potential pollutants reaching surface water and ground water sources. They also protect livestock from harsh weather and offer habitat for wildlife. Riparian (streamside) buffers, filter strips, grassed waterways, field windbreaks, shelter belts, shallow water areas for wildlife and living snow fences are all examples of conservation buffers.

To be eligible for CRP, you must have owned the land for at least one year. Cropland is eligible if it was planted or considered planted to an agricultural commodity in two of the last five crop years. The land does not have to be highly erodible. Marginal pasture that is suitable for use as a riparian buffer is also eligible. Marginal pasture includes any land along streams or rivers that is grazed, whether previously seeded to grass or not.

Annual rental payments are based on the productivity of the soil and the average cash rental rate for comparable land in the county. A 20 percent incentive is added to the annual rental rate for field windbreaks, grassed waterways, filter strips and riparian buffers. A $5.00 per acre annual maintenance rate is also available.

For example, in Cape Girardeau County, the average rental rate for riparian buffers is $70.00. Add 20% ($14.00) for the riparian buffer practice and $5.00 for maintenance to equal $89.00 per acre annual rent. Contracts are 10 to 15 years in length depending on the approved practice.

Cost-share up to 50 percent is available for site preparation, temporary cover until permanent cover is established, grading or shaping, seeds, trees or shrubs, plastic mulch and fencing. Additional cost share is available to provide an alternative watering source for livestock if the watering source was a stream.

As you can see there are financial incentives available to reduce agriculture NPS pollutants which in turn will improve the water quality in streams, lakes and our ground water. For more information on CRP or the importance of establishing buffer strips, contact your local Farm Services Agency, Natural Resources Conservation Service, or the Missouri Department of Conservation.

Brad Pobst is a fisheries management biologist with the Missouri Department of Conservation.