Vol. 2, No. 3 Contents
Headline Back Issues
Summer 1998
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Farms (cont'd) "Farmers really are concerned," said Wendy Omvlee, Secretary Manager of the New Brunswick Agriculture Environ-mental Council in Fredericton. "A lot of them want to be good responsible citizens and they find out what they've been doing for the past 20 or 30 years may not be good and [guidelines and regulations] can be overwhelming sometimes."
"These days there's two things that really speak against that. One is that the farmer is out there living on the land on which he is growing his crops. You don't find too many people willing to jeopardize his family's or his own health. And secondly, these days at the cost of the chemical controls, anybody who applies more than necessary or more often than is necessary isn't going to be in business very long." Effects on water bodies varies "We don't know exactly the entire extent [to which agriculture affects coastal waters], but it does appear to be important in some areas," said Jan Smith, Director of the Massachusetts Bays Program, an EPA-funded National Estuaries Program. Given significant urban development in Massachusetts, "I would say urban runoff is of perhaps the greatest concern," acknowledged Vicky Boundy, Coastal Resources Coordinator for Eight Towns and the Bay, a Massachusetts Bays Program local committee on the Upper North Shore. "However," she added, "Farms certainly have an impact on the water quality, despite their many benefits and contributions to the economy." But others assert that if land now used for agriculture were urbanized, it would be a source of much more runoff and pollution. By the time they reach the ocean by way of a river, pollutants originating on farms may be diluted to negligible amounts, said John Sowles, Director of the Maine Department of Environmental Protection's Marine Program. But the pollution can cause problems for the river itself. Most of Maine's agricultural activity takes place in the state's northern counties, where it has more of an influence on lakes and rivers than on coastal waters, he noted.
In New Brunswick and Nova Scotia, very little land in the Atlantic region is farmed - only five percent and eight percent respectively. Yet, in Nova Scotia's Annapolis River Valley, farming is believed to have a direct impact on the Bay of Fundy. Pollution, erosion prevalent EPA encourages the use of "closed-loop" manure storage systems that keep manure in leak-proof facilities until it has aged and can be used as fertilizer. But often, manure is stored in a pile somewhere on the farm - a more affordable method for many farmers. If the pile sits directly on the ground instead of on a concrete pad that is built to control runoff, it can contaminate groundwater and surface waters, and is the main element that links agriculture and water pollution.
Although water testing may show especially high levels of bacteria at a cattle crossing or near a manure pile, the pollution source is difficult to confirm when it is discovered downstream, which is why it is referred to as nonpoint source pollution. Soil erosion is a related issue that affects water quality and a farm's productivity. Animals grazing on stream banks or in fields eat and trample the vegetation that helps keep soil in place. Water that runs off of a farm can pick up loads of soil, depositing the nutrient-laden sediment into nearby waters, contributing yet more to excess algae growth, filling in areas in rivers and streams where fish rest and feed, and blocking light needed by aquatic plants. Gritty sediment is also abrasive to fish gills, according to Jeff Schloss, an aquatic biologist at the University of New Hampshire's Cooperative Extension, who described sediment as the "most intrusive pollutant in New England." Schloss trains watershed stewardship groups to work with farmers to identify and correct water pollution problems. The use of buffers - vegetation planted to filter and trap runoff, absorb nutrients, and trap sediments - is one of the most important issues to evaluate on a farm, he said. In the US, the National Conservation Buffer Council, a private nonprofit organization "dedicated to the promotion of agricultural conservation practices" is encouraging farmers to help create two million miles/3.2 million kilometers of conservation buffers by the year 2002, noting that federal funds are available to help. Other factors to evaluate on a farm, according to Schloss, are drainage; livestock pens; methods used to keep thirsty animals from roaming into wetlands, streams, or other sensitive areas; manure management; and the collection and treatment of wastewater generated in dairy farm milking operations. Piecing together funds As once-rural areas of New England become increasingly urbanized, agricultural field staff anticipate federal funding in those regions will shrink even more, reducing money that pays for raw materials, contractors, and staff in offices where farmers go for technical advice. "It's easy to say that things need to be changed but sometimes the economics and things that need to be done don't always add up," said Omvlee. In Canada, agricultural officials say there is very little federal funding for pollution control projects on farms in the Maritimes, though the provinces and other organizations such as the Eastern Habitat Joint Venture have some small-scale funding programs in place. New Brunswick has a new cost-sharing program, funded by the province's Environmental Trust Fund, that addresses manure storage. The Eastern Canada Soil and Water Conservation Center in Grand Falls, New Brunswick also provides some funding for pollution control projects on farms, according to John-Louis Daigle, the center's Director. US farmers and agricultural officials hope the Clean Water Action Plan proposed in February by US President Bill Clinton will make more money available for agricultural water pollution control. It proposes doubling current funding to help states implement nonpoint source programs on a watershed basis, and proposes adding $100 million to the Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP), an agricultural financial assistance program. Betty Herrick said she wants to fix pollution problems on her dairy farm in Rowley, Massachusetts. Chemicals that keep pipelines clean in the milk room now drain into the Mill River, as does runoff from her pastures. "It is not a very pleasant situation," said Herrick, although she pointed out that the farm did install a fence to keep its cows out of the river. During four years of conversations with conservation officials, Herrick was not able to get the funding and technical assistance her farm needs to eliminate pollution problems. Finally, in August, funds from EQIP and Massachusetts Coastal Zone Management (MCZM) became available for work that will begin this year, according to Andrea Cooper of MCZM's North Shore office. "It's very different from working with an industry or municipality where there's really the potential for them to have the resources to put measures into place," said Rosinoff. Many farmers, he said, are "barely surviving. We're trying to be reasonable and go after the ones causing most of the big problems." Under Clinton's proposed Clean Water Action Plan, the EPA plans to focus on reducing water pollution caused by feedlots, especially large ones. "We're looking to potentially bring a lot of these feed lot operations into compliance with national water quality standards," Rosinoff said. Agencies working in the field
Given that so little of the province is farmable, one of the biggest difficulties its farmers face is manure storage, said Moerman. "Often farmers don't have enough land to apply manure in an environmentally safe way," he observed. The province is encouraging farmers to divert wastewater from manure storage areas to artificially constructed wetlands that filter and clean the water, which can then be deposited onto fields, ditches, or streams. In Maine, Massachusetts, and New Hampshire, state agencies and staff from federal agencies work with farmers on watershed protection measures. The staff in district offices of the US Department of Agriculture's (USDA) Natural Resource Conservation Service (NRCS) and Cooperative Extension Service help US farmers with technical assistance and by applying for grants to help them address pollution issues such as nutrient management. A law passed in Maine last March makes it mandatory for farms that have 300 or more cattle - or a comparable amount of other livestock - to have a nutrient management plan, said Norm Marcotte, Nonpoint Source Program Coordinator for Maine's Department of Environmental Protection Bureau of Land and Water Quality. He described Maine farmers as "very responsive" to water pollution concerns. The New Hampshire Department of Environmental Services (DES) has used funds received by the state under the Federal Clean Water Act to address agriculture-related water pollution problems in the Great Bay watershed. On one dairy farm on the Squamscott River, several projects are being undertaken by a combination of state and federal agencies and organizations working with the farm owner to address water pollution, said DES Aquatic Biologist Steve Landry. One project is construction of a concrete feedlot for dairy cows that are currently pastured on the banks of a tidal estuary. Help from grassroots groups "We've also been doing educational outreach to groups of horse owners. In most cases, the larger stables and farms are more aware of the runoff issues than the smaller backyard operations. People who keep one or two horses and a manure pile in their backyard down by the stream tend to be less aware of the impact they're having," Leahy explained. Cuvilly, an educational farm on Massachusetts' North Shore, is very aware of such issues and recently received a grant from the Eight Towns and the Bay Committee and the Massachusetts Bays Program to improve its manure handling system, said Silke Fuchshofen, Cuvilly's agricultural consultant. The farm constructed an asphalt pad for manure storage with a curb to contain runoff, and also created a composting site. Both of these will be used in educational demonstrations on organic gardening, she said. The Nova Scotia Organic Growers Association (NSOGA) in Margaretsville has developed educational programs for organic and conventional farmers, and has promoted methods that help prevent water pollution, according to Janet Wallace, Coordinator. While NSOGA works mainly with organic farmers, Wallace said increasing numbers of conventional farmers are taking an interest in the group's programs. "The agricultural community here, at least in our watershed, is very cooperative," said Steve Hawboldt, Program Director of the Clean Annapolis River Project (CARP), based in Annapolis River, Nova Scotia. The group works with interested farmers on issues such as stream bank reforestation, erosion control, controlled animal access, and constructed wetlands for agricultural runoff, providing referrals for technical and financial assistance. But CARP leaves it to the farmers to persuade their peers to undertake water pollution control projects. "If you get three or four farmers on a road involved, it isn't very long before that three or four leans on the fifth one," Hawboldt said. The Sheepscot Valley Conservation Association in midcoast Maine is seeking funding to work with farmers on pollution control projects on the Sheepscot River, according to Watershed Outreach Coordinator Jeff Reardon. The Sheepscot is one of seven rivers identified under the state's Atlantic Salmon Conservation Plan as providing important salmon habitat. Data on progress lagging "Lots of things have happened on the agricultural landscape that are good news for water quality that have not been recognized," agreed Tom Van Arsdall, Vice President of Environmental Policy for the National Council of Farm Cooperatives in Washington, DC. "Most of the water quality data we have doesn't reflect that progress yet because a lot of that data haven't been recorded yet," he concurred. Arsdall said progress is also being made in less quantifiable areas. "What's fascinating to me is the increasing approach, instead of confrontation between farmers and their downstream neighbors, of partnerships," he said. But, he said, farmers do have another incentive to address water pollution aside from friendly neighbor-relations. "If these problems go unaddressed, regulation is an option, and regulations rarely mesh with a farmer trying to stay in business." |
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Educating the public about farming practices, such as use of insecticides, is also necessary, according to farm advocates. "What many urbanites think is that the farmers are out engaging in recreational spraying when they have nothing else to do," said Allan Noe, water and biotechnology program spokesman for the Washington, DC-based American Crop Protection Association.
Maine considers its lakes most vulnerable to agricultural pollution, but measures in place to protect them benefit rivers as well, he said. And, Sowles pointed out, "Rivers, streams, and lakes are directly linked to the health of the overall Gulf ecosystem in that they are spawning, nursery, and energy processing centers for so much of the Gulf's life."
Along with nutrients and bacteria found in manure, runoff from agricultural land can also collect nutrients from fertilizers, and toxic substances from pesticides and herbicides that have been applied to croplands without using soil and water conservation practices. Nutrients that enter nearby rivers and streams can cause algae overgrowth that robs the water of oxygen needed by other organisms. Bacteria and toxic substances can pollute wildlife habitat, and result in fish
advisories, shellfish bed closures, and beach closures.
In Canada, provincial farmers' federations and departments of agriculture help farmers put those conservation measures into place. "We have a very strong environment act, and farmers are covered by it just as much as anybody else," said Dennis Moerman of the Nova Scotia Department of Agriculture and Marketing's Resource Stewardship Branch. He said the province requires farmers who purchase or use agricultural pesticides to undergo training and become certified by the Nova Scotia Department of Environment. But generally, according to Moerman, the province emphasizes voluntary compliance "rather than heavy handed enforcement."