Remarks by Mark Rey, Under Secretary for Natural Resources and Environment, U.S. Department of Agriculture

Water 2025 Conference, Denver, CO
June 6, 2003

I join Secretary Veneman in applauding Secretary Norton’s Water 2025 proposal. The proposal is an important step in helping states, tribes, local governments, and private citizens address water issues in the West.

Secretary Veneman mentioned USDA’s “portfolio” approach to helping farmers and ranchers in their effort to provide food, fiber, energy, and other agricultural goods and services, while conserving our natural resources and making a profit. This portfolio of tools allows us to help farmers and ranchers reduce their dependency on water and to minimize the losses they sustain when water is scarce.

Irrigated Agriculture

Secretary Veneman also mentioned how important irrigation is to maintaining a strong agriculture industry and I just want to expand on that a bit. The fact is, irrigation is the defining characteristic of crop production in the American West.

We must invest enough of our water resources in irrigation if we are to have good nutrition and food security for the American people.

That is why it is so important to help farmers and ranchers irrigate in ways that conserve water and protect other natural resources.

• Irrigated agriculture uses the most freshwater (90 percent) of any economic sector in the West.
• Surface-water sources -- such as streams, rivers, and lakes -- provide 68 percent of withdrawals while the remaining 32 percent are obtained from groundwater sources.
• According to the 1997 Census of Agriculture, 43 million acres of agricultural land were irrigated in the West, and these lands produced 72 percent of crop sales on only 27 percent of the total harvested crop acreage.
• High-valued orchards, berries, vegetables, and nursery crops account for almost 60 percent of the West’s total value of sales from irrigated crops on just 15 percent of the land irrigated.
• Field and forage crops account for the remaining 40 percent of sales, but occupy 71 percent of the irrigated area.

Conservation Programs

The Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP) gives farmers and ranchers financial and technical assistance to install or implement structural and management conservation practices on eligible agricultural land. The recently published final rule for EQIP established conservation of ground and surface water resources as a national program priority.
Since its authorization in 1996, about 26 percent of EQIP funds – approximately $350 million – has been committed to help producers install practices on water- conservation-related activities.

The Ground and Surface Water Conservation (GSWC) provision of the 2002 Farm Bill provides cost-share and incentive payments to producers to install practices, which result in a net savings in surface or groundwater resources.

Because of chronic water supply problems and persistent drought that has plagued the West, federal financial and technical resources are being concentrated in key western watersheds.

In 2003, seventeen states will receive $53 million to help farmers and ranchers implement technologies and practices to conserve water and mitigate the long-term impacts of drought.

The Klamath Basin Ground and Surface Water Conservation (KGSWC) Program is authorized by the 2002 Farm Bill to help agriculturists mitigate the impacts of water shortages in the Klamath Basin.

A total of $50 million was authorized for fiscal years 2002 to 2007 to support the use and installation of ground and surface water conservation practices.

The Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) allows producers to voluntarily enroll in contracts for 10 to 15 years and receive annual rental payments and cost-share assistance to establish long-term, resource-conserving covers on eligible farmland —more than 33 million acres. In many instances, this can save water.

The Conservation Reserve Enhancement Program (CREP) fosters unique state and federal partnerships with agricultural landowners and provides for voluntary agreements to meet specific state, regional, and national environmental objectives. CREP fosters unique state and federal partnerships with agricultural landowners and provides for voluntary agreements in which producers convert cropland and/or pastureland to native grasses, trees and other vegetation. Farmers can receive annual rental payments and cost-share assistance to establish long-term, resource-conserving covers on eligible land.

For example, the Oregon Conservation Reserve Enhancement Program (CREP) can assist in the restoration of water quality and habitats for nine salmon and two trout species listed under the Federal Endangered Species Act. Enrollment is on a continuous basis and includes all streams in Oregon providing habitat for the endangered salmon and trout species that cross-agricultural land. The total program cost is estimated at $250 million with the State or other non-Federal share providing 20 percent. The CREP in Oregon is authorized to enroll up to 95,000 acres of riparian buffers and filter strips, plus 5,000 acres of wetlands. Participants will be eligible for annual rental payments and cost-share.

Lastly, the Emergency Conservation Program (ECP) provides emergency funding for farmers and ranchers to carry out emergency water conservation measures. Emergency farm loans, the noninsured crop disaster assistance program, and haying and grazing of CRP lands are also available to produces.

Rural Community Assistance

In FY 2003, the Rural Utilities Service has $890 million available in Water and Waste Disposal Loans and Grants to public entities including municipalities, counties, special-purpose districts, Indian tribes, and not-for- profit corporations.

The loan funds help develop water and waste disposal (including solid waste disposal and storm drainage) systems in rural areas and towns with a population less than 10,000.

Grants may be made for up to 75 percent of eligible project costs in some cases and are designed to reduce water and waste disposal costs to a reasonable level for rural users.

USDA also offers Emergency Community Water Assistance Grants designed for rural communities with a significant decline in quantity or quality of drinking water.

In FY 2003, nearly $22 million is available for the grant program. Up to $500,000 is available when a significant decline in quantity or quality occurred with 2 years.

Up to $75,000 is available to communities that need to make emergency repairs or replace facilities in existing systems.

Research

USDA helps producers make wise decisions by providing water supply forecasts based on our SNOTEL snowpack monitoring system in the mountain West and through our SCAN system for monitoring drought conditions.

USDA also sponsors competitive research programs that consider watershed processes, water resources, managed ecosystems, soils and soil biology.

This research focuses on linkages between land use management and the quality of natural resources.

Block grants to Land Grant Universities also provide critical research on the impacts of drought on grazing management, plant productivity, soil salinity, and forage production.

Education efforts at the university level and curriculum development for grades K-12 promote water conservation and responsible use in urban and rural communities.

Partnerships

The Departments of Agriculture and Interior have worked together for decades to assist the residents of the Western States, both urban and rural.

Interior’s Bureau of Reclamation and USDA’s Natural Resources Conservation Service have had an active “Bridging the Headgate” working relationship since 1998.

This partnership has proven to be a unique federal-state-local forum for actively promoting the idea of working together for the sustainable and efficient use of western agricultural water supplies.

Just last year, Lynn Scarlett, the Assistant Secretary for Policy, Management, and Budget at Interior, and I signed a memorandum of understanding outlining several areas of collaboration between our departments related to land stewardship.

In addition, we recently announced the signing of an interagency Memorandum of Understanding with the Department of Interior to establish Interagency Drought Response Teams.

These teams will respond quickly to emerging water supply shortages and to coordinate existing programs and services in order to maximize available resources in communities in need.

We look forward to working with Secretary Norton to help achieve the goals of Water 2025. We are excited about continuing that partnership as we undertake this important initiative to do more to help the Nation cope with the serious and growing problem of water scarcity.