NRCS Customer, EQIP Refresh San Joaquin River

Mickey Saso enjoys watching the channels of water flow onto his Wingsetter Ranch, even though he can see little below the rippling surface.

Mickey Saso looks over one of the sloughs on his Wingsetter Ranch property adjoining the San Joaquin River east of Newman. Image courtesy of the Modesto Bee.

"It's usually brown, because of all the topsoil it's collected before it reaches my land," said Saso, whose ranch is below thousands of acres of farmland. "No way to tell what else is in it."

It's been that way for a decade, Saso said, since he acquired the 150 acres as his retirement home and recreational refuge.

What has changed, however, is the quality of the water as it leaves Saso's land and flows toward the San Joaquin River.

It's clear, with insects skimming over the surface and tiny fish swimming underneath. Birds flutter above, alternately drinking and eating water bugs.

"The water undergoes an incredible transformation while moving across Mickey's land," said Michael McElhiney, a conservationist with the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Natural Resources Conservation Service.

Wingsetter Ranch is a piece of an extensive effort to cleanse the San Joaquin River, which runs heavy with a polluted potion of topsoil, pesticides and minerals.

It's also an often-cited example of the Environmental Quality Incentives Program, which offers funding and technical expertise to projects that provide significant environmental benefits.

The USDA oversees EQIP and has committed $1.08 billion through 117,625 contracts since it was created in the 1996 Farm Bill.

The program pays up to 75 percent of the expenses for certain environmental practices. EQIP allocated $4.9 million to Northern San Joaquin Valley farmers and ranchers in 2003.

McElhiney said 104 of the 400 projects submitted in Stanislaus County were approved last year, and they received $1.8 million, an average of $17,307 apiece.

He said 500 projects were submitted for 2004, and a local group of USDA officials, farmers, ranchers, farm advisers and others from ag agencies will decide which receive money.

Program popular with growers

EQIP funding has been growing annually, and the proposed federal budget for 2004-05 boosts spending to $1 billion. That's up from $975 million in 2004 and $691 million in 2003.

"It's an expanding program because it's popular with growers and produces real results," Mc-Elhiney said. "These projects address environmental priorities."

They often receive favorable reviews from environmental groups that stress the need to improve water and air quality.

"Wingsetter Ranch and other wetlands are the basis of the food chain," said Atwater's Dennis Baker, a state and national board member for Ducks Unlimited. "Wetlands are homes to huge numbers of not just birds, but mammals and reptiles, too."

The same environmental practices that produce homes for animals can clean the water. "A lot of people underestimate the cleaning power of wetlands, perhaps because they don't realize the ability of plants to pull pollutants from the water," Baker said. "It's amazing what nature can do with a little help."

SJ River needs the help

The San Joaquin River, which cuts through Merced, Stanislaus and San Joaquin counties as it flows to the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta, can use all the help it can get.

There are stretches so polluted by pesticides and sediment that they're unsafe for fishing, swimming and drinking, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency noted in its list of impaired waterways.

It's an issue for all Californians because the pollution contaminates drinking water supplies, according to Clean Farms Clean Water, a group of environmental organizations.

Wildlife also suffers when rivers grow heavy with sediment.

"Many fish have adapted to specific water-quality levels," said Renee Sharp, a senior analyst with the Environmental Working Group. "Fish down in the valley aren't as sensitive, but they are still adapted to a particular sediment load. When that level increases, you're messing with their biology."

The results can include a decline in reproduction, shorter life spans and a dwindling food supply, because the sediment also affects bugs and smaller fish that are part of the food chain.

EQIP's goal is to clean the water before it reaches the San Joaquin and other rivers.

"Certainly, smaller projects provide benefit, not only by cleaning water but as demonstration projects for others to come see," said Kathy Viatella, an economist who analyzes Farm Bill conservation programs for the group Environmental Defense.

"A series of small projects strung together along a river corridor can have a significant impact on water quality and wildlife."

Public-private partnerships

Saso said his project has consumed more than $500,000 -- EQIP funded a fraction of it, with the remainder coming from his pocket and partnerships with private and public groups -- but he's quick to say he's an exception.

"I'd hate to scare people into thinking they're all this big," Saso said. "I put together a lot of small projects to make a big one. Smaller steps can be implemented at a reasonable cost."

The key to Saso's system is that he slows the water flow as it reaches his property.

Routing water from farms

Much of the chocolate-colored water is runoff from farms growing tomatoes, peppers and other crops. As gravity pulls the water down furrows, it collects fine topsoil and pesticide particles.

Small creeks and decades-old culverts direct some water Saso's way, though much of it is routed to his ranch through a 3,000-foot pipe system.

"Irrigation water was draining right into the river, so we put in a switch box to direct it to us," said Saso, who was in the convenience and gasoline business before settling on his ranch. "Now it's clean when it hits the river."

That's because Saso has carved meandering streams, dug shallow ponds and developed silt traps -- part of a water system that has a large lake as its centerpiece -- to slow the flow.

As the water slows, sediment and other particles tumble to the bottom. Silt is removed once a year and used to reinforce levees and bolster the topsoil, the foundation for native grasses and shrubs that support animals in the water, on land and in the air.

Many of those plants also suck nitrogen, salts and other material from the water, using the nutrients to assist in their growth.

There is also a blending of safflower, barley and other grains to provide food for quail, ducks and other birds that fly over or live in dozens of nesting boxes.

"One of the wonderful things about cleaning up the river, beyond improving the quality of our drinking water, is that it cleans up other parts of the ecosystem," Sharp noted. "Fish, small animals and even soil microorganisms can rebound. People are often surprised when they realize how much of an impact water-quality projects can have on wildlife."

Saso said the land was used to grow vegetables and graze cattle before his arrival, and the ag runoff looked the same when it departed as when it arrived.

"The water comes from 3,000 to 4,000 acres of farmland, and gravity brings it through us on the way to the river," Saso said. "I had two choices. I could leave it alone and condone the environmental damage, or I could clean it up and improve the environment. Since I live here and enjoy having my friends out to visit, it was a pretty simple decision."

Story and images courtesy of the Modesto Bee.