New York - Skaneateles Lake Watershed Agricultural Program, Drinking Water Supply

Since 1994, the city of Syracuse has been pursuing a policy of "filtration avoidance" to assure a healthy drinking water supply from Skaneateles Lake, one of the Finger Lakes. The city established a Skaneateles Lake Watershed Program with education, property easement acquisition, and agricultural components. Under the agricultural program, Syracuse is prepared to spend $10 million over 10 years to assist farmers to protect the lake's water quality. In some cases relating to priority pollutants--pathogens, nutrients, and sediment--the city will bear up to 100 percent of the cost of installing best management practices.

Modeled after New York City's program to spend up to $37 million on farms in its Catskill Mountains watershed to avoid an $8 billion filtration plant, Syracuse hopes to avoid spending between $45 and $60 million for filtration. Like New York City, it has one of the few remaining unfiltered water systems in the country. Both cities opted for conservation on the land and pollution prevention, instead of filtration, to safeguard their water supplies.

Jeff Ten Eyck, Skaneateles Lake Watershed Agricultural Program Manager, says the goal is to show farmers that "we can help protect the lake and save you some money in the process. We develop a whole farm plan, one that encompasses all the Federal, state, and local programs, so the farmers have just one plan that incorporates and meets everybody's needs." A farm plan is designed to put barriers in the way of pathogens by controlling barnyard runoff, keeping livestock out of streams and waterways, and providing alternative cattle water supplies. A five-tiered approach, a sort of risk assessment, enables the Watershed Agricultural Program to devote the greatest attention to those farms that pose the greatest threat to water quality. This process began in the summer of 1996. First, a questionnaire identifies potential problems regarding the impacts of individual farm activities on water quality. Second, worksheets are prepared to verify whether water quality improvements can be obtained. Third, "we have a three person team descend on the farm--an engineer, an economist, and an agronomist--who sit down with the landowner and go over what the worksheets showed, see where we can improve on water quality, and develop a whole farm plan and make recommendations." The fourth and fifth tiers involve implementation and evaluation of the plan so modifications can be made throughout the process, if needed.

By 1998, 20 farm plans had been completed, 17 of them implemented with some conservation practices installed and payments made. Of the 55 farms in the entire Skaneateles basin, according to Ten Eyck, 86 percent--and over 95 percent of the agricultural land--are in the Watershed Agricultural Program.

Ten Eyck says an important lesson from years of experience with farm planning is that economic issues must be on a par with environmental goals. "One of the first steps is for the team and the farmer jointly to identify the mission, vision, and business objectives, so that environmental objectives are in tune with business objectives. If they are not, the environmental things won't happen. Also, when we're out in the field, we make sure the farmers are part of our team. After all, they've been working the land, have been on it longer, and know it better than we do." He says that "landowner buy-in is critical--even more important than the 100 percent cost sharing." Lee Macbeth, Coordinator for the Watershed Program, echoes this, "it's just as important for our other programs, especially considering that they are all voluntary."

Like many other watershed-scale projects, the Skaneateles Lake Watershed Agricultural Program depends on many partners. The Onondaga Soil and Water Conservation District (SWCD) administers the program. SWCD and Cornell Cooperative Extension (CCE) staff from Cayuga, Cortland, and Onondaga counties, along with the Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS), provide technical assistance to program participants. The Finger Lakes Land Trust is under contract to conduct the easement program and CCE manages the water quality education effort. The Fish and Wildlife Service works with NRCS to deliver the Wildlife Habitat Incentives Program to interested landowners. The Environmental Protection Agency has provided Clean Water Act funding and the Farm Service Agency provides funds for best management practices. New York State funds for planning and implementation come through its Agricultural Nonpoint Source Pollution Control and Abatement Program.

The NRCS State Conservationist for New York, Richard D. Swenson, believes the many players involved in the Watershed Agricultural Program are critical to its success. "My hope," he says, "is that the Syracuse and New York City watershed efforts will demonstrate that pollution prevention is smart money. This also should prove that agriculture can deliver the amenities--healthy water and clean air, wildlife habitat and biological diversity, and scenic beauty--that the public demands and deserves. Success in this kind of project also should convince city dwellers and suburbanites of the non-commodity benefits agriculture provides--benefits they should help underwrite."

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