Water certification program has more questions than answers
By Janet Kubat Willette
jkubat@agrinews.com
Date Modified: 02/02/2012 9:13 AM
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Minnesota's Agricultural Water Quality Certification Program has people talking.
"Minnesota farmers are great stewards of the land and that is why it is a perfect fit for us to work with the USDA and EPA on this new program regarding conservation practices," said Doug Peterson, state Farmers Union president. "Farmers will have buy-in and ownership of this program and will be counted on to offer technical advice to the EPA and USDA regarding conservation practices on the landscape of Minnesota."
"As it stands now, this proposal is very vague," said Steve Morse, executive director of the Minnesota Environmental Partnership. "It does
not provide the certainty that we need that our waters will become clean and healthy."
"This is a 'the devil's in the details' situation," said Warren Formo, executive director of the Minnesota Agricultural Water Resource Center. "An effective certification program needs to recognize the vast diversity of farmers while incorporating new advances in technology, geology, weather and other factors."
"While a voluntary, producer-led certification program has potential to help demonstrate farmers' commitment to conservation, we have more questions than answers at this point and will be waiting for further clarification and explanation from the parties about this agreement," said Lawrence Sukalski, Fairmont farmer and MAWRC chairman.
"We've got to have more information," said Kevin Paap, president of Minnesota Farm Bureau Federation.
It's up to the parties to the Memorandum of Understanding to begin providing those details. The agreement signed Jan. 17 is just the beginning of the nation's first water quality certification program.
Yet, the agreement itself has been in the works for months. Conversations began back in October, said Matt Wohlman, assistant commissioner of the
Minnesota Department of Agriculture. The MOU signed last week is the final product of those conversations. It outlines the vision and principles on
how to approach water quality in the future.
The MOU states that the agencies agree to:
• Support a Minnesota Agricultural Water Quality Certification Program to accelerate on-farm adoption of recommended management practices on
agricultural lands.
• Establish a Technical Advisory Committee to work to develop and implement, in consultation with stakeholders, a certification program that will support state water quality standards and goals.
• Work to initiate development of a program designed to provide certainty to producers that their attainment and maintenance of certification meets water quality goals and standards of the state and where applicable maintains consistency with federal water quality goals.
• Coordinate and prioritize state and federal resources and funding to the extent state and federal appropriations are available, to support the development and implementation of the certification program, including technical assistance and cost share to participants for on-farm recommended management practices.
The next step will be forming the Technical Advisory Committee. It will be overseen jointly by the Minnesota Department of Agriculture, Minnesota Pollution Control Agency, Minnesota Department of Natural Resources and the Board of Water and Soil Resources, said John Jaschke, executive director of the Minnesota Board of Water and Soil Resources.
The diverse committee will include farming and environmental interests, Jaschke said.
People with a scientific background will be sought, Wohlman added. Members will need to understand technical processes to make sure they build a
program that not only improves water quality, but also is workable for farmers.
The timetable is tight, with the first meeting of the Technical Advisory Committee set to happen before corn goes into the ground this spring, Wohlman said.
Their task won't be easy.
This is a great opportunity for Minnesota to lead and a great opportunity to shape the certification program going forward, Wohlman said. But, it will
be an uphill battle where people will have to think outside the box to make it work.
NRCS Chief Dave White applauded Gov. Mark Dayton and the state agencies for taking on the task of creating the Agricultural Water Quality Certification Program.
"The easier thing to do is nothing," White said.
Instead, Dayton and state agency leaders have stepped forward to bring together production agriculture, clean water and a healthy environment in one certification process.
A lot of eyes will be on Minnesota as this moves forward, White said.
"I think what Minnesota does can be the template for Maine to Hawaii," he said.
The goal is to accelerate adoption of voluntary conservation. Farmers will be expected to contribute dollars, but the federal government has also pledged to financially support the effort.
"I've made a personal commitment that we will have extra resources," White said.
The money for the program will come out of farm bill accounts held in Washington for special projects. The money will be funneled through existing conservation programs to make more financing available.
But program financing won't be enough to accelerate conservation, there will also need to be more boots on the ground, White said. Those boots will be jobs for Minnesotans.
Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack acknowledged that Minnesota farmers are already practicing conservation. In the Upper
Mississippi River Basin, 95 percent of producers are already participating in one form or another of voluntary conservation.
The goal of the certification program is to bring together conservation efforts that farmers have been doing in a comprehensive plan, Jaschke
said. Farmers will undergo a certification process, something akin to what dairy farmers do with the Minnesota Milk Producers Association's
Environmental Quality Assurance Program or the pork producers' Pork Quality Assurance.
When farmers have met all the requirements outlined in the program, they will be certified and not required to meet additional water quality requirements during the length of their certification. The length of the certification hasn't been determined.
"I think Minnesota farmers in the past few years have come and have said, 'Look, I understand water quality is important'," Wohlman said. "They want
to be recognized for the good work they are doing. They also have fear."
The certification is an attempt to address that fear. Farm Bureau doesn't have fear, per se, but they do have questions about how the certification will play out.
President Paap is concerned about who will be appointed to the Technical Advisory Committee. Farm Bureau wants people who have a science-based
background on the committee rather than people who have an agenda, he said.
In addtion, federal and state agencies need to recognize farmers are doing a lot of conservation on their own, with or without government funding, he said.
Farming is a lot like being a parent, Paap said. Farmers do the best they can with the resources they have and are always trying to do better.
Farmers are using technology today they didn't have five years ago to protect air, soil and water quality while increasing agricultural production.