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Sustainable Agricultural Land Management

Sustainable Agricultural Land Management

Week 3
Lecture 1: TMDLs and Agriculture
University of Florida

Hello everyone, if you recall from the last time we visited, we talked about water quality, water quality standards, and total maximum daily loads, the regulations that pertain to managing water quality in this country. And we left off wanting to transition a Little bit more into how this applies to agriculture. So that's what I want to cover today. I want to talk a lot about TMDLs and agriculture.

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Agriculture involvement in TMDLs

Agriculture comes under non-point source EPA 319 CWA helps states deal with non-points Some states have additional assistance. Florida added to the program for agriculture with funds for development of BMPs (tax on fertilizer containing N)

University of Florida

Agriculture, as you recall, comes under the non-point source pollution category. And recall that we mentioned that under the Clean Water Act, there are, there is an amendment to it that deals with, that help states with non-point source. Pollution and we want to talk a little bit about where agriculture comes into that. Now some states have additional resources, specifically funds and technical information that they use to help agricultural essentially adopt best management practices.

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Voluntary/Non-voluntary regulations
Point sources are dealt with by permitting, nonvoluntary regulations Non-point sources in Florida, for example agriculture are handled with a voluntary program based on BMPs References on this topic

University of Florida

When we talk about these non-point sources, recall that the BMPs that agriculture is going to be asked to adopt are voluntary in nature. And so that's how we deal with agriculture in this particular state and I've given you some references on this issue about non-voluntary versus regulatory approaches to controlling water pollution. This area is, has some controversy to it. And I've provided a few references that you might want to take a look at.

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State legislation
1999 Florida Watershed Restoration Act, to enact the TMDL program of EPA Olexa, http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/topic _series_handbook_of_florid a_water_regulation

Please note that all links are available on the Week 3 course page.
University of Florida

We won't cover the issues pertaining to those in this particular lecture. In Florida, we have state, legislation, as most states do. To implement the, rules and regulations, from the clean water act. I've given you a handout here. Or a, a reference for how Florida, deals with this. Our, Florida watershed restoration act, is our legislation that implements the TMDL program from EPA.

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Florida Watershed Restoration Act

FDEP - Florida Department of Environmental Protection
List waters for which TMDLs are needed Develop assessment methodology Pollutant reduction goals

FDACS - Florida Department of Agr and Consumer Serv. (BMPs for agriculture) is the lead agency
University of Florida

The Florida Department of Environmental Protection is responsible for then carrying this out. So, if you recall back from our previous lecture, we talked about listing those water bodies, assessing those water bodies and then setting pollution reduction goals, especially through a base management action plan and that's where agriculture comes in as part of this process. The Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services, however, is the organization, the agency in this state, that works closely with agriculture. To tell them, inform them about best management practices and work through that process of getting them to adopt BMP's and helping them implement BMP's.

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The 1999 Florida Watershed Restoration Act directs that FDACS identify and adopt by rule, BMPs for agricultural nonpoint sources of pollution. The Act also requires that the Florida Department of Environmental Protection (FDEP) verify that these BMPs are effective.

University of Florida

The 1999 Florida Watershed Restoration Act directs DEP to check and to make sure, or insure, that these BMP's are, in fact, working. So they are, that's the agency that makes sure, or verifies, that the BMP's are effective. Then those BMPs deemed to be effective in protecting water quality are the ones that the Department of Agriculture would work with growers to help them adopt.

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What are BMPs?

By definition, BMPs are a practice or combination of practices determined by the coordinating agencies, based on research, field testing, and expert review, to be the most effective and practicable onlocation means, including economic and technological considerations, for improving water quality in agricultural and urban discharges.

University of Florida

So we've mentioned this term BMP many times so far. The definition, or the approach that Florida uses, defines BMPs as I've shown you here on this slide. Essentially a practice or a combination of practices that have been worked on over the years through research and have been proven by research to be effective in protecting the water quality. So, for example, a fertilizer management strategy that a farmer might use to grow. Corn or vegetable crops, for example, that has been proven through research to protect the water quality.

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BMPs
BMPs must be: technically feasible, economically viable, socially acceptable, and based on sound science. BMPs are often implemented as a BMP treatment train

University of Florida

Bmp's must be technically feasible. They must be economically viable, socially acceptable, and based on sound science. So that boils down the definition. And you can see that the definition embodies what we've come to know through this course, as what we might call the triple bottom line. Some of these BMP's are put together as a treatment train, so there might be several individual practices that might work very effectively if they're hooked together in a process, maybe some kind of a process of managing nutrients and water all the way through the season during[NOISE] excuse me, during the cropping season that would be put together in a, in a treatment train.

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Agricultural BMPs
By law, agricultural producers who voluntarily implement these BMPs, which have been verified effective and adopted by rule, will receive a presumption of compliance with state water quality standards. They will also be eligible for cost-sharing money to implement selected BMPs once eligible practices are identified.

University of Florida

So, if a farmer adopts the best management practice, if we have a TMDL for a water body and a basal management action plan and agriculture is part of that watershed Then those farmers are going to be asked to adopt best management practices, and the farmer would say well, what do I get in return? What a farmer gets in return, is the presumption of compliance with State Order quality standards So if a farmer signs on, institutes, and adopts, and practices best management practices then they are presumed to not be a source of non-point, pollution. And they get that compliance. And that's a legal that's a legal, process that the farmer can take advantage of. Also, if they, agree to adopt best management practices. That's puts them in a position to take advantage of, several, support or, Cost-sharing processes to institute these best management practices. And we'll talk a little bit about that. Because remember, part of the definition of a BMP, that it be economically viable for the, for the farmer.

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FDACS has a series of BMP manuals for the major agricultural activities in Florida.
BMP manuals have been developed for the following agricultural activities in Florida: Ridge Citrus Fertilizer Facilities Indian River Citrus Aquaculture Peace River Citrus South Florida Nurseries Gulf Coast Citrus Vegetable and Agronomic Crops Leather Leaf Ferns Agricultural Water Conservation Silviculture (forestry) Equine Operations Cow/Calf Ranches

UF involvement- the science and the writing

University of Florida

The the state of Florida has a whole cadre of best management practice manuals. These are guidebooks that have been written for specific agricultural enterprises. You see the list here. So for example, citrus, the nursery industry. Vegetables and agronomic row crops. Letter leaf ferns, that's one of the older ones in this State. So there are several of these that cover most of our agricultural enterprises in this state. So, if you're a farmer You probably have access to an adopted best management practice book. So these books have been adopted by law in this state and have the information in them, if adopted and practiced by the farmer will get them this compliance, this waiver of compliance. The process to develop these books, goes something like this. There have been a, there has been a lot of research over the years done by many scientists, not only in this state but, but in many places around this country, that before we knew as just plain good crop management practices. Good nutrient management, soil testing, so forth for example. And now today those, that same research can be called on to bring to bear on best management practices. So that older research can be used to help develop these best management practice manuals. And the University of Florida, for example, has been in the front of pulling that information together. And embody in it in these best management practice manuals.

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How does a landowner get involved?

Submits Letter of Intent to FDACS Develops their BMP plan using the BMP manual Submits BMP plan to FDACS for review Approved or recommendations made to modify Once approved, must keep records of management activities!!! (quality assurance) Cant just sign-up and forget!

University of Florida

So, how does a landowner, a farmer who is voluntarily interested in getting involved in, in this process? Well, 1st of all, they alert the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services FDACS that they want to adopt best management practices and get that waiver. So they submit a letter of intent. They go through the, the BMP manual. And decide what BMPs are appropriate. And apply to them in their farming situation. And they submit a plan. This plan can then be approved. And the farmer then would implement the plan. And obviously, the farmer would not just sign the notification of intent, and forget it. There are people. There, there are people in the FDACS at the University of Florida. And also private consultants that can help these farmers. Follow through and adopt these BMPs on their farm.

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Farmer assistance
University Cooperative Extension Service FDACS BMP Implementation Teams NRCS various programs, e.g., Mobile Irrigation Labs Private consultants

University of Florida

Farmers have a lot of assistance as I just said, the cooperative extension service, the implement, what we call the implementation teams, are people that are scattered around the state of Florida that are very familiar with the BMP manuals and the legal process to adopting BMPs and signing the notification of intent. And they can help farmers. NRCS which we learned about this is an arm of USDA, also has various programs to assist farmers, particularly in irrigation management and conservation practices. So, for example, what we call mobile irrigation labs. We'll go out on, on the farm and help farmers retrofit or adopt best management practices with regard to irrigation management. And there are also private consultants that work with these farmers every day that are familiar with this process and they can help the farmers adopt and get used to these best management practices.

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BMPs
What if they are too expensive? Recall the definition of a BMP. Financial and technical assistance-several sources The CWA, section 319 State and Federal agencies have funds for Share-cost
University of Florida

Because for some farmers, these best management practices are going to be a little bit different than their standard operating procedures on their farms. So there's a learning curve that everyone has to get over. The BMP's now, what if they too expensive? If a farmer says, well that particular practice sounds good, but it's going to cost a lot of money. Well, recall back the definition of a best management practice. They have to be practical and they have to be economically viable for that, that farmer, or else they will not, more than likely, will not get adopted. This is a voluntary process, so the farmer has a decision to make about this. To encourage the farmer to get past that hurdle, of economics, there are, financial assistance packages out there from several sources. 1 would be from the clean water act itself, through the 319 A program. There's dollars that are provided to the states to help farmers adopt best management practices so those funds can be used to help farmers. There's also funds from state agencies, for example the state of Florida receives a small amount of money from every ton of fertilizer containing nitrogen and phosphorus in this state, those funds can be plowed back into research and education programs to help farmers adopt BMPs. And federal agencies like NRCS has funds that they can use to help farmers adopt BMPs.

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Example of an NRCS Conservation Program to assist farmers and ranchers in meeting environmental challenges on their land. (NRCS is an important partner in implementing BMPs) Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP): Voluntary conservation program that promotes agricultural production and environmental quality as compatible national goals. Farmers and ranchers receive financial and technical assistance to implement conservation practices (structural and management) on eligible agricultural land.

University of Florida

Here's a good example of how the federal government would help a farmer. This is the environmental quality incentives programs (EQIP) Farmers, through this process, can sign up to adopt certain conservation practices on their farm - I'll show you a few of these - and they can be share cost with the federal government. So, through the EQIP program the federal government will provide a portion of the cost to construct or implement a best management practice on that farm. And that helps the farmers take some of the shock out of some of the expense associated with getting these BMPs, some of them at least, adopted on farms.

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EQIP environmental programs for agriculture

Irrigation system efficiency retrofits

Poultry manure storage facilities

University of Florida

Here's a couple of examples of how EQIP has been worked over the last few years here in Florida. The top one deals with irrigation systems. Some of the center pivot irrigation systems, as technology develops and we have technology that we can add to the center pivot systems. That is more efficient in water application. For example, changing from overhead impact sprinklers on these pivots to drop nozzles which place the water closer to the crop and reduces evaporation and water loss. That can be cost shared to do that retro-fit. The bottom picture shows you a barn, a manure storage barn. Heretofore, the poultry industry in this state, most, when poultry houses were cleaned out in between flocks, the manure. Was usually, typically piled up outdoors where it's exposed to the weather. Especially to rainfall and perhaps runoff or leaching. So constructing a barn in which the poultry manure can be piled and composted makes a lot of sense to protect that poultry and those nutrients associated with it, from the weather. So, in the bottom picture you see a barn that has been costs shared on many of our poultry farms in this state, In fact, many of our most of our poultry farms now have gone through this process and updated the technology that they have to protect and compost poultry manure.

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NRCS CONSERVATION PRACTICES

Conservation practices are practices that NRCS has developed to help landowners improve the management of the land resources and in the process protect our land and water resources from further degradation. Some examples of NRCS conservation practices are listed below.
Contour Farming Contour Buffer Strips Filter Strips Strip Cropping Grassed Waterways Riparian Buffers Nutrient Management Irrigation Water Management Wetland Restoration Constructed Wetlands

Details of these and other practices can be found on the following web page: http://www.nrcs.usda.gov/technical/Standards/nhcp.h tml
(located on the Week 3 course page)
University of Florida

There are a lot of other kind if conservation practices that NRCS encourages. And can cost share from time to time. And if you look at the website there you can see and get a description of some of these. Now, some of these conservation practices we'll come back to a little bit later on in the course.

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Agricultural BMPs
Why is agriculture involved in the BMP process? To voluntarily adopt practices that are protective of the environment Do their part to reduce pollution due to agricultural operations

University of Florida

So why is agriculture involved in the BMP process? Well, honestly, they want to voluntarily. Get involved in this process to adopt practices that we all know are protective of the environment. Farmers want to do their fair share of this whole process. They want to do their part to reduce pollution due to their agricultural operations at all, if, if at all possible. And science based practical economical BMP's everyone recognizes would be a good thing to do.

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Regulation and the Triple Bottom Line

University of Florida

And I want to just remind us about the triple bottom line, because I think it plays in here very, very much. Economics, the environment and social aspects.

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Environmental questions
Water quality Water availability Impacts on natural resources Long-term sustainability of the environment for future generations to use

University of Florida

So, farmers have economic questions that they want to address. And most of those pertain to the cost of implementing these best management practices. We want farmers to be profitable, and so we want this whole process to be as economically possible for them as possible, or else some of these BMPs that we know are good, may not get adopted. There's environmental questions associated with this whole process as well. We know that BMPs are effective for protecting water quality, and water quantity. And we want positive impacts on our natural resources. And we want long term sustainability of our agriculture land. There possibly could be some other, more economical uses of that land that society has determined would not be in that best interest. And so we want farms to stay as a major part of the land use in, in many areas in this state. And so the long term sustainability of agriculture is very important and BMPs and adopting BMPs. Helps maintain that long term sustainability.

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Social questions
Part of the triple-bottom line approach What does society want? Rural vs. urban? Food production

University of Florida

And the third leg of the triple bottom line, the social issues is very important. Society needs to ask what do we went from as, as a major part of the land use in a particular region, rural or urban? And we're also very concerned about food production. As we mentioned earlier in the beginning of the course about the importance of increasing food production. Agriculture has a lot of stress on it to increase food production. But, it also has stress on it to make sure that we do that with a mind towards protecting the environment. Those are tall orders and best management practices play a role in allowing farmers to achieve Both of those goals.

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Take homes
Total maximum daily load is the amount of a pollutant a water body can assimilate and still meet it designated use. Agriculture plays its part in maintaining water quality by adopting best management practices. Best management practices are practical, cost-effective to adopt, effective at protecting water quality, and based on science where possible. Financial assistance and technical guidance are available to farmers for adopting BMPs. The triple bottom line undergirds BMPs in Florida.

University of Florida

So the take home lessons from this particular part of the course, we've learned that total maximum daily loads, the definition of a total maximum daily load, being an amount of a pollutant in the water body can assimilate and still meet its designated use. And we recognize that water bodies are very important to us and they have, can have, many designated uses. And we need to understand the designated use for a particular water body, and the water quality criteria that maintain that designated use. And then once we've made those decisions, if that water body is not quite where it needs to be. Then, the state is required to come up with a plan to deal with that and maybe restore that water body and it's designated use. That means that everyone associated with that water body must do their fair share. And agriculture plays it's role in achieving that goal by adopting best management practices. And best management practices are defined as practical cost-effective practices for farmers to adopt, that are protective of the water quality and based on science, at least to the degree that we have done enough science. This is an area that continues to need more investment and research. For the farmer financial assistance and technical assistance is available through many sources: state, federal and local and especially through the university system, to provide information to farmers to help them learn how to adopt and get through the process of adopting and maintaining these best management practices. And finally, the triple bottom line under girds. This whole process of BMPs in this state.

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Credits
Office of Agricultural Water Policy. OAWP Logo. Digital image. Office of Agricultural Water Policy. Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services, n.d. Web. 10 Jan. 2013. Natural Resources Conservation Service. NRCS Logo. Digital image. Natural Resources Conservation Service. USDA, n.d. Web. 10 Jan. 2013.

University of Florida