Agriculture Secretary Announces Water Quality and Quantity Improvement Projects

Today Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack announced the project areas that will be funded by the Department of Agriculture’s Agricultural Water Enhancement Program (AWEP) during Fiscal Year 2010.

The Department plans to spend a total of $19.7 million on 28 project areas in 10 states, including California.  All AWEP projects involve partners, such as states, local governments, agricultural and other non-governmental associations, seeking to conserve or improve the quality of water on agricultural lands.  The partner organizations applied to the AWEP program this spring.

According to the USDA, “Partner proposals were selected using a competitive process that considered several factors including statutorily defined priority areas, emphasis for water conservation activities…and assistance to farmers and ranchers to meet regulatory requirements.” 

AWEP is administered by the USDA’s Natural Resource Conservation Service (NRCS), which provides technical assistance for the projects and determines which farmers and ranchers (“producers”) may participate in the projects.  Now that the partners have been chosen, producers may apply to their local NRCS offices to be included in the projects.

Nine of the announced project areas are located in California, which is more than in any other state.  The funding for these projects is $5,896,713.

The USDA’s press release is available here.

The USDA’s AWEP website has more information about the program and its history.