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Northeast-Midwest Institute Releases Report on Conservation Effectiveness in Watersheds in the Upper Mississippi River Basin
A new report by the Northeast-Midwest Institute assesses the implementation of a federally funded conservation program, with a particular concentration on its potential to improve water quality, focusing on a set of locations across the Upper Mississippi River Basin. This study will prove to be a valuable guide for forging a more robust conservation regime in the region and the rest of the United States.
The report analyzes the implementation of the Regional Conservation Partnership Program (RCPP) in six watersheds in the Upper Mississippi River Basin: Middle Cedar River in Iowa; Upper Macoupin Creek and Otter Lake in Illinois; the State of Minnesota with a special emphasis on Middle Cannon River; and Baraboo River and Oconomowoc River in Wisconsin. An assessment of these six projects confirms the vital role of federal funding in initiating or strengthening these collaborations across various sectors from state and local governments to educational institutions, agri-businesses, and environmental organizations.
Highlighting the study's findings are the results of watershed modeling of projected changes in phosphorus, nitrogen, and sediment in the future after incorporating impacts due to climate change. Using the EPA-designed Hydrologic and Water Quality System (HAWQS), the report found that the contaminants evaluated in the study - phosphorus, nitrogen, and sediment - are projected to increase consistently in certain watersheds, while others show an oscillating pattern. The RCPP projects evaluated in this report show statistically significant but low-impact reductions in contaminant pollution across the watersheds. RCPP projects, as currently implemented, generally reduce pollution from phosphorus, nitrogen, and sediment by approximately 3-6% across the watershed. A 10-fold expansion of the current conservation adoption in the watersheds will result in a 17-27% reduction, while full implementation of conservation on all available farmland will bring a 55-66% reduction in contaminant loading.
The Mississippi River Basin is the largest watershed in the United States, draining approximately 40% of the land area in the lower 48 states. Agriculture is the dominant industry in the Basin, impacting land-use and water quality. Heavy use of fertilizers and manure on agricultural fields has substantially contributed to high levels of nitrogen and phosphorus across the Basin, resulting in algal blooms, contaminated drinking water, and "dead zones" in open waters. A focus on addressing the problem at the source has led the federal government to invest significantly in conservation programs through farmer education, outreach, and cost sharing of practices that aim to improve soil health and water quality. RCPP is designed to bring together upstream farmers and downstream stakeholders such as cities, water and wastewater utilities, and other watershed preservation groups.
The RCPP projects studied in this report employed a variety of conservation practices, although a few dominated. Planting cover crops during the off-season is an especially popular practice, even though it is less effective than other edge-of-field practices such as filter strips and bioreactors. Filter strips, nutrient management, and strip till/no till are other commonly employed conservation practices. Water quality monitoring is an important element of RCPP projects, and one that sets it apart from other historical conservation efforts. The inclusion of downstream stakeholders elevated the role of monitoring as well as its scope. However, the lack of a standardized water quality monitoring protocol resulted in instances where sparse monitoring frequency provided no meaningful data.
Each RCPP project also contains one or more unique elements that make the project stand apart and mark it for success. Examples of such elements include leveraging RCPP funding with state regulatory programs or local industry support, implementing outreach initiatives to involve non-traditional farmers, formulating a comprehensive water monitoring program, and focusing on improving each farm rather than just improving the watershed as a whole.
The Farm Bill has been an effective vehicle for undertaking critical conservation efforts by bringing together stakeholders with varying interests. However, the funding allocated for conservation is not enough to meet the scale and severity of the water quality challenge facing the Mississippi River Basin and the nation at large. Additional funding for source water protection in the 2018 Farm Bill was an important step toward enhancing conservation efforts, but this study identifies several policy lacunae that need to be addressed at the federal, state, and local levels to ensure productive lands and high quality water in the region that feeds and powers America for many years to come.
This study also gives rise to a number of further policy implications, applicable from the federal to the local levels. The implications include the necessity of prioritizing high-efficiency practices, including financial support for monitoring standards in future RCPP projects, minimizing restrictions on monetary transfers between various conservation funds, giving preference to long-term viability in the assessment of future RCPP projects, and incorporating the role of climate change in all the NRCS-administered conservation programs, among others.
The full press release is available here, and the study itself is here.
For more information, please contact Eric Heath, Senior Policy Counsel for the Mississippi River Basin Program at the Northeast-Midwest Institute.
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Upcoming Briefing: Climate Change Impacts on the Great Lakes
Please Join the Environmental Law & Policy Center and the Northeast-Midwest Institute for a Congressional briefing on the impacts climate change is having on the Great Lakes and the region.
Tuesday, July 9, 2019
Congressional Visitor Center
SVC 208
10:00 a.m. - 11:00 a.m.
Speakers:
- Donald Wuebbles, Harry E. Preble Professor of Atmospheric Science, the University of Illinois School of Earth, Society, and Environment
- Dana Infante, Associate Professor, Department of Fisheries and Wildlife, Michigan State University
- Ashish Sharma, Climatologist, Illinois State Water Survey (ISWS)
- Howard Learner, President and Executive Director, the Environmental Law & Policy Center
- Donald Wuebbles, Harry E. Preble Professor of Atmospheric Science, the University of Illinois School of Earth, Society, and Environment
- Dana Infante, Associate Professor, Department of Fisheries and Wildlife, Michigan State University
- Ashish Sharma, Illinois Research Climatologist, Illinois State Water Survey (ISWS), Prairie Research Institute, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
- Howard Learner, President and Executive Director, the Environmental Law & Policy Center
Climate change is causing significant and far-reaching impacts on the Great Lakes and the Great Lakes region. In recent years, our planet has experienced some of the warmest temperatures ever recorded, record-breaking weather extremes, powerful storms, tragic flooding from rising sea levels and associated storm surge, huge wildfires, and continued melting of glaciers and polar sea ice. The accelerating pattern of changes in the earth's climate is affecting the Great Lakes.
In March, the Environmental Law & Policy Center released a report, authored by 18 leading scientists and experts from Midwest and Canadian universities and research institutions, drawing on the array of existing research to assess how the shifting global climate impacts the unique Great Lakes region. Please join us for an in-depth conversation about the known climate science in our region and public policies that could help curb climate change's adverse impacts on the Great Lakes.
For more information, please contact Matthew McKenna, Director of the Great Lakes Washington Program at the Northeast-Midwest Institute.
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EPA Finds "Typo" in its Carbon Rule
On June 19th, the EPA released its Affordable Clean Energy (ACE) rule that indicated Alaska, Hawaii, and U.S. territories would be excluded when accounting for the cost of climate change to the American economy. The text originally stated the estimates "account for the direct impacts of climate change that are anticipated to occur within the contiguous 48 states." The language indicated that displaced Alaskan villages and flooded Hawaiian coastal infrastructure had not been factored into the total effects of climate change within the United States.
E&E News reported that experts at 13 federal agencies estimated that more than $19 billion in Hawaiian infrastructure was at risk of flooding damage due to sea level rise.
Additionally, Puerto Rico's government has estimated it will cost almost $140 billion to recover from Hurricane Maria. Climate instability will only increase in these areas due to climate change.
This rule is one of many examples of the divergent approach to environmental regulation between the current and former administrations. According to the E&E news report, the Obama Administration's last social cost of carbon estimate calculated damages at $42 per ton of CO2 in 2020 and eventually $70 by 2050. The Trump administration social cost of carbon is now estimated at $1 per ton of CO2.
The sentence has been corrected by the EPA and now states: "The SC-CO2 estimates used in the RIA account of the direct impacts of climate change that are anticipated to occur within the United States.
For more information, please contact Matthew McKenna, Director of the Great Lakes Washington Program at the Northeast-Midwest Institute.
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G-20 Summit Side Meeting Between U.S. and China Leads to Temporary Trade Truce
The G-20 Summit held this past weekend in Osaka, Japan produced some promising trade news for American businesses and consumers. Last Saturday, both President Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping announced that they had agreed to resume trade talks amidst an escalating trade war. As a result, both sides will delay the imposition of new tariffs for the time being.
This comes as welcome news to businesses on both sides of the Pacific; the Trump Administration had been planning new tariffs on an additional $300 billion in goods while China had continued its boycott of American agricultural goods and threatened further retaliatory tariffs against the US. As an element of the partial reconciliation, China has
promised to increase its purchases of American agricultural products - although no specific details were disclosed - and the Trump Administration will allow US technology companies to sell certain items to Huawei, a Chinese technology company that has been blacklisted in the US due to national security concerns.
The thawing of trade relations is, however, no guarantee of an ultimate resolution. A story in China Daily, often a mouthpiece for Beijing's officials, warned that the sides have persistent areas of disagreement. The article claimed that "
fundamental differences reside" and that reconciling these differences will be difficult when the two sides have not reached an agreement "even on the conceptual level." Failure to bridge this divide may mean the tariffs stay in place for the foreseeable future and even the imposition of additional tariffs. Though this is not ideal for either China or the US, the Trump Administration's
insistence that China ends subsidies to companies that compete with American businesses is likely an unacceptable demand to the Chinese leadership.
For more information, please contact Eric Heath, Senior Policy Counsel for the Mississippi River Basin Program at the Northeast-Midwest Institute.
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Energy and Environment Provisions Passed as National Defense Authorization Act Amendments
The Senate last week passed the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), the annual authorizing bill for the majority of U.S. military spending. The NDAA's "must-pass" status makes it an ideal legislative vehicle for various legislative proposals with a tangible nexus to defense spending that might not otherwise receive a vote in Congress.
Environment and Public Works Chairman John Barrasso (R-Wyo.) and Senator Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I) used the NDAA as an opportunity to move some of their environmental legislative priorities.
Barrasso stated, "I think it's a very good, bipartisan piece of legislation that you don't see a lot of around here." According to E&E News, highlights from the amendments that were ultimately integrated into the NDAA include:
- Language tasking the EPA with setting drinking water limits for the chemicals
- A provision giving the military about three years to stop procuring PFAS-containing firefighting foam
- A provision to require PFAS testing during military firefighter routine physicals.
- $10 million to continue PFAS-related health research
- An authorization of $3.3 billion to help with disaster recovery at Navy, Air Force and Army National Guard installations in Nebraska, North Carolina, and Florida
- A requirement for the Department of Defense to prepare bases for extreme weather
For more information, please contact Eric Heath, Senior Policy Counsel for the Mississippi River Basin Program at the Northeast-Midwest Institute.
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This Week in Washington
In the Senate:
The Senate is on recess this week.
In the House:
The House is on recess this week.
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NEMWI: Strengthening the Region that Sustains the Nation
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