The Agricultural Drainage Management Coalition: "Save Our Precious Resources from Going Down the Drain"
Promoting the Use of New Water Drainage Methods
Why would farmers replace or retrofit existing systems with managed drainage?
• Many farmers’ drainage systems are incomplete, under-sized, or falling apart and need replacing or improving.
• Unmanaged drainage systems drain more water than is required or beneficial for healthy crop production.
• Using DWM control structures during the growing season, farmers in many areas can increase or protect their crop yields while helping improve water quality by retaining more water in their fields rather than automatically draining them.
• Using DWM control structures during the fall and winter months, farmers can stop or reduce the flow of subsurface water, thereby raising the water table level in the field. By retaining water, farmers would also retain nutrients. Right before spring planting, farmers would raise the panels within the control structures that are withholding the water to drain the field. This will lower the water table for trafficability.
• During the fall and winter months, DWM control structures may facilitate the creation of wet spots in low lying areas that could provide critical wildlife habitat.
• DWM could be a major part of a solution if the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and state environmental agencies, through the Total Maximum Daily Load program, begin requiring major reductions in non-point source pollutants in impaired watersheds.
How do farmers pay for replacing existing systems with managed drainage?
• USDA's farmland conservation programs could pay for a significant amount of the cost of installing or replacing new drainage water management systems. For instance, the Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP), which is funded at about $1 billion per year, could cover 50 to 60 percent of landowners' costs. USDA could also make managed drainage an eligible practice under the Conservation Reserve Enhancement Program (CREP) and the Continuous Sign-up Program which would pay 50 to 90 percent of installation costs. NRCS’ conservation technical assistance funding could also pay for helping producers design the right systems for their land.
• Water utilities, through their national association, the American Water Works Association and others, have already expressed an interest in participating in this initiative and possibly providing monetary or in-kind contributions to install or monitor these systems in source drinking watersheds for demonstration purposes.
• Through targeted research, the Agricultural Research Service (ARS) and the CSREES can estimate the amount of nutrient reduction occurring in different regions as a result of installing this new technology. These estimates could ultimately result in producers earning “credits” that they could sell under a state or regional trading system. USDA and EPA have placed a priority on helping states develop these trading programs. In fact, they have chosen Ohio's Greater Miami watershed as their site for the first water quality trading pilot program, giving the drainage and agricultural industries a very significant opportunity to influence its outcome.
• Individual farmers may have some out-of-pocket expense, but they may ultimately be compensated through increased yields.
If drainage water management is so beneficial, what is USDA doing about educating producers about it?
• ARS, CSREES (the Extension Service), and the Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) have created the Agricultural Drainage Management Systems Task Force (ADMS Task Force) to develop a national effort to educate agricultural producers and landowners about this practice through deployment of DWM initially in eight states: IL, IA, OH, MN, WI, MI, MO and IN. The task force is providing NRCS, the Farm Service Agency and others the technical information they need to make DWM eligible for cost-sharing assistance under USDA's farmland conservation programs.
How can industries and organizations help promote this practice?
• A number of companies and organizations have joined together to form the Agricultural Drainage Management Coalition (ADMC). It has begun laying the groundwork with the ADMS Task Force and interested parties to make managed drainage eligible for federal cost-sharing in order to install it in OH, IL, IN, IA, and MN. ADMC encourages other members to join the coalition to help fund and promote this effort.
• Therefore, in order to ensure that DWM becomes an adequately funded, nationally focused water quality improvement initiative, a coalition of industries and organizations should continue to fund a multi-faceted strategy that includes:
1) Federal Outreach:
NRCS: The coalition should enlist the support of the national NRCS leadership for this initiative by granting more EQIP dollars to the participating states and/or encouraging states to make DWM a high priority practice on EQIP score sheets. At the state level, the coalition and its supporters, such as the selected state farm groups, can help recruit the support of state NRCS leaders and the state technical committee members who make the decisions on how their state’s EQIP dollars are spent. Without NRCS support at the local and state level, EQIP dollars will go to other practices.
Farm Service Agency: The coalition should enlist the support of the Farm Service Agency leaders. ADMC should examine ways to make DWM eligible under FSA's Conservation Reserve Enhancement Program and the Continuous Sign-up Program.
ARS: The coalition should also seek support from national ARS officials to fund research and monitoring of selected state projects to understand the how DWM works in concert with other practices, such as livestock production.
EPA: EPA has already been briefed about this initiative and its response was overwhelmingly positive. EPA could help raise the profile of this initiative by possibly making its funding for voluntary conservation initiatives available for local projects. Moreover, the coalition could participate in the creation of NRCS/EPA's first water quality trading program in Ohio.
2) Farm Group Outreach: The coalition, working with ADMS and other stakeholders, must educate selected state farm leaders about the ability of DWM to help farmers deal with water quality, water conservation and production issues. These farm leaders can help identify farmers who would be willing to install and operate this system as part of the national effort to demonstrate the efficacy and affordability of managed drainage. Overall, farm associations could contribute in many ways to the coalition's efforts.
3) Industry Outreach: The coalition's members must educate their respective industries, such as agricultural input dealers, and land improvement contractors and water utility managers, about the efficacy of DWM. Also the coalition can approach companies in these industries to ask for financial support for the coalitions’ work.
4) State Outreach: In the selected states, the coalition must educate state environmental and agricultural agencies, as well as local conservation and drainage district personnel, about the benefits of drainage water management. Proceeding the education phase, the coalition’s representatives could meet with the governor or other senior state officials to request funding for projects or research. (The dozen or more state-federal Conservation Reserve Enhancement Program agreements provide the precedent for taking this action.)
5) Conservation Group Outreach: The coalition can solicit the support of major environmental groups which have conservation and marketing funding to devote to projects like this.
6) CSREES (Extension Service): The coalition must coordinate with the agricultural extension agents and land grant universities because of their research and monitoring capabilities as well as their daily interaction with the research community, ARS, farmers and NRCS.
7) Congressional Outreach: The coalition will need to solicit the support of certain Members of Congress to help secure funding for monitoring. Members of Congress can also be instrumental in promoting this practice to their constituents.
8) Media Outreach: The coalition has already been successful in getting articles published about managed drainage, such as recent Farm Journal and The Furrow articles. The Conservation Technology Information Center's Conservation Partners publication for November-December, 2003, also featured an article on the benefits of managed drainage. Agricultural magazines and other publications, especially industry and non-profit publications, will be very important avenues in educating the public.
How much money is in EQIP and the Conservation Reserve Program for the next decade to help install this and other complementary practices?
• For Fiscal Year (FY) 2004, EQIP is authorized by a mandatory account for $1 billion. For FY05 and 06, the authorization increases to $1.2 billion per year. In FY07 through FY11, the amount is $1.3 billion per year. However, the program may be reduced by Congress to meet budget requirements. Five of the target states presently receive about 10 percent of total EQIP funding. Crop production practices and structures are entitled to 40 percent of the total national EQIP dollars, with the remaining 60 percent going to livestock practices and structures. Therefore, among the six states, approximately $48 to $52 million per year (in prospective dollars) should be available for crop production conservation purposes, such as drainage water management.
• Under the Conservation Reserve Enhancement Program (CREP) and the Continuous Sign-up Program, the Secretary of Agriculture has authority to enroll acreage to be devoted to certain conservation practices for which the landowners would be compensated. Drainage water management is a complementary practice to the other eligible conservation practices, such as buffer strips. State funding can also contribute towards compensating landowners for their participation. In total, the federal government contributes about $250 million per year towards CREP and Continuous Sign-up.
• At least 8 million acres are ideally suited for managed drainage. The average cost is about $500 per acre. Therefore, if every acre is enrolled, which is not likely, the total cost (federal, state, and private sources) could be about $4 billion over the next 10 to 20 years, with the federal government potentially contributing at least half if the coalition's initiative is successful.
Will the public obtain significant benefits for the money expended on drainage water management?
• The ADMC commissioned an analysis of the private and public benefits and costs associated with installing and maintaining drainage water management’s control structure technology. The complete analysis and executive summary were authored by Mr. Steven C. Griffin of CVision Corp of West Des Moines, Iowa, and analyzed both the retro-fit of existing systems and new system installation. Drafts of this analysis were reviewed by members of the ADMS Task Force and their comments were submitted for consideration prior to publishing. The study concludes that the total private and public net annual benefits could easily exceed $600 million dollars per year at only fifty percent participation by landowners. Therefore, the ADMC feels very confident that drainage water management will deliver a number of benefits to the nation as long as these systems are maintained and managed properly.
How much progress can be made in deploying projects in select states?
• In 2006 ADMC was awarded the largest Conservation Innovation Grant(CIG) in the United States to do a three year demonstration of Drainage Water Management. ADMC is currenly monitoring 20 demonstration sites in five states. Click here for progress on State Resources
How can my company or organization be a part of this coalition?
• If your company or organization wants to join or would like more information about ADMC,
Please contact:
Leonard Binstock, Executive Director
Phone: (507) 451-0073
Cell: (507) 456-8872
Fax: (507) 451-3714
lbinstock@admcoalition.com