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EPA Water meets with state leaders on nutrient progress

The EPA’s Office of Water has been meeting with federal and state leaders this week on opportunities to advance conservation practices to reduce nutrient runoff in the Mississippi River Basin and the Great Lakes Region. Dave Ross, Assistant Administrator, tells Brownfield Ag News he and USDA Undersecretary Bill Northey held a roundtable with leaders about their progress,“State ag directors from Iowa and Illinois and Indiana, to talk about these types of pilot projects that we’re looking for. So, it’s a great relationship that we have with USDA and our state ag departments.”

Ross says Iowa is doing really good work, “I heard great examples from the state of Iowa – and we have been meeting with Iowa soybean folks – some creative financing models they’re looking at to try to find alternative sources of funding for watershed-based projects.”

Ross says Indiana is doing a great job of collaborating with local farms and NGOs, “They’re doing some really great work in developing technical resources and models that can figure out edge of —  you know, once you put in conservation practices, how do you actually help farmers take credit for that? And, so, there’s some really creative space happening out there across a variety of the states.”

Ross is very impressed with Illinois, “They’re doing a really nice job with their state nutrient strategy. In fact, I’m talking to Illinois about making sure that they’re telling their story so that other states can learn from them.”

EPA was involved in the Hypoxia Task Force meeting and the nutrient roundtable in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.

Ross and Iowa Ag Secretary Mike Naig, co-chairs of the Hypoxia Task Force, signed an MOU that renews the collaboration between the task force and Land Grant Universities in the Task Force states.