NSAC Archives for the 'Clean Water Act' Category
New NRCS National Water Quality Initiative Targets Impaired Watersheds
Thursday, May 10th, 2012
On Tuesday, May 8, USDA Secretary Tom Vilsack announced that the Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) has launched a new National Water Quality Initiative with $33 million in FY2012 Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP) funding. The Initiative is targeted at improving water quality in small watersheds impaired by agricultural use that are listed on a Read the Rest…
President’s Proposed EPA Budget and Agriculture
Friday, February 17th, 2012
President Obama’s FY2013 EPA budget proposal targets nutrient pollution, sedimentation and loss of shoreline vegetation as major water quality concerns, with a focus on agriculture as a major contributor to water degradation. To address this problem, the proposal directs USDA and EPA to increase their coordination using Clean Water Act Section 319 nonpoint source grants Read the Rest…
EPA Releases Water Pollution Data Tool
Tuesday, January 31st, 2012
The EPA has just released the Discharge Monitoring Report (DMR) Pollutant Loading Tool, an online database system that allows users to track polluters included in the database. Under the Clean Water Act, facilities with National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) permits report discharge data to the EPA. The EPA has pooled and classified some of this Read the Rest…
New Regulatory Certainty Program Announced in Minnesota
Wednesday, January 18th, 2012
On Tuesday, January 17, Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack, Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Lisa Jackson, Minnesota Governor Mark Dayton, and USDA’s Chief of the Natural Resources Conservation Service Dave White met in Minnesota to announce a new partnership between the State, USDA, and EPA. Through the partnership, producers would receive immunity, also known as Read the Rest…
EPA Releases Farm, Ranch & Rural Advisory Committee Recommendations
Thursday, January 12th, 2012
The EPA has released a Report from its Farm, Ranch & Rural Advisory Committee that was presented to EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson in December 2011. The Committee, as reconstituted under the Obama Administration, held its first meeting in September 2010. Administrator Jackson charged the Committee at the meeting with preparing recommendations regarding water quality issues Read the Rest…
EPA Extends Comment Period for Proposed CAFO Reporting Rule
Wednesday, December 21st, 2011
On Monday, December 19, the EPA announced that it is extending the comment period on a proposed rule with requirements for Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations (CAFOs) to report specific information about the their operations to the agency. Comments are now due January 19, 2012. EPA has issued a fact sheet with information on submitting comments. Read the Rest…
NRCS Updates Nutrient Management Standard
Monday, December 19th, 2011
Last week, USDA’s Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) released an updated version of its nutrient management standard, also known as conservation practice standard 590 (CPS 590). NRCS practice standards delineate the steps that a producer may or must take in order to receive payments for a particular conservation practice under NRCS conservation programs. According to Read the Rest…
Government Funding Bill Wrap Up and EPA Appropriations
Friday, December 16th, 2011
On Thursday, December 15, members of a House and Senate Conference Committee passed a nine-bill appropriations package, H.R. 2055, to fund most government functions through the end of fiscal year (FY) 2012. The House then voted, 296-121, on Friday afternoon to pass the funding package. The nearly 2,300 page package was scheduled to go to the Senate for Read the Rest…
New Gulf Coast Conservation Initiative
Tuesday, December 6th, 2011
On Monday, December 5, USDA announced the creation of the Gulf of Mexico Initiative (GoMI), through which the agency will distribute up to $50 million in financial assistance over three years to improve ecosystem health in the Gulf Coast. GoMI will pull its funds from six Natural Resources Conservation Serive (NRCS) programs — Environmental Quality Read the Rest…
“Dirty Water” Amendment to FY2012 Energy and Water Appropriations Bill
Friday, November 18th, 2011
On Thursday, the National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition joined over 170 organizations on a letter to Senators urging that they vote against a “dirty water” amendment to the FY2012 appropriations bill for water and energy development. The letter is being circulated by the Clean Water Network. The dirty water measure, sponsored by Senators John Barrasso (R-WY) Read the Rest…
