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 aaron.meyer@mrwa.com 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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