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1 Soil and Water Quality: New Problems, New Solutions
Pages 21-34

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From page 21...
... The search for solutions to these different but related problems has dominated debate over agricultural policy. SOIL AND WATER QUALITY PROBLEMS Soil and water quality problems caused by agricultural production practices are receiving increased national attention and are now perceived by society as environmental problems comparable to other national environmental problems such as air quality and the release of toxic pollutants from industrial sources.
From page 22...
... In some areas, toxic trace elements in irrigation drainage water have caused serious damage to fish, wildlife, and aquatic ecosystems. Soil Quality Renewed concern about soil erosion led to major new initiatives in the 1985 Food Security Act (PL 99-198; also known as the 1985 farm bill)
From page 23...
... Conservation Compliance Program Sodbuster Program Swampbuster Program Agricultural Conservation Program Conservation Technical Assistance Great Plains Conservation Program Small Watershed Program Resource Conservation and Development Program Rural Clean Water Program Extension Requires that producers who produce agricultural commodities on highly erodible cropland implement approved erosion control plans by January 1, 1995, or lose eligibility for USDA agricultural program benefits. Requires that producers who convert highly erodible land to cropland for the production of agricultural commodities do so under an approved erosion control plan or forfeit eligibility for USDA agricultural program benefits.
From page 24...
... Financial assistance is provided to states to prepare assessment reports and to implement watershed improvements and lake restoration activities. Provides for cooperation between EPA and other federal agencies to reduce nonpoint source pollution in specified regional areas such as the Chesapeake Bay Program, the Colorado River Salinity Control Program, the Gulf of Mexico Program, and the Land and Water 201 Program in the Tennessee Valley region.
From page 25...
... The effect of soil degradation on carbon dioxide emissions is also receiving greater attention (Lal and Pierce, 1991~. Water Qutility Even as the 1985 Food Security Act was being debated, policymakers began to recognize that the intensification of agricultural production that gained speed in the 1970s was leading to a new set of environmental problems.
From page 26...
... Nitrates, pesticides, salts, and trace elements were increasingly reported in the nation's lakes, rivers, and groundwater bodies. These new concerns for the broader environmental effects of agricultural production led to increased attention to agriculture as a source of nonpoint source pollution problems in the 1987 amendments to the Federal Water Pollution Control Act (PL 100-4)
From page 27...
... . In the western United States, the pollution of surface waters with salts in waters drained from irrigated agricultural lands has become both a national and an international problem (National Research Council, 1989a)
From page 28...
... Provides for long-term protection of environmentally sensitive lands or to reduce water pollution by offering long-term or permanent easements to producers who retire lands already enrolled in the Conservation Reserve Program, in the Water Bank Program, or lands in riparian areas, critical wildlife habitats, or other environmentally sensitive areas that, if cropped, would prevent a producer from complying with state of federal environmental goals.
From page 29...
... / Nutrients l 59o/o Pathogens 9o/o PathO9ens Tox~cs 1 / Cal::, [~_ ~ ........ 1 of_ Sediment 22% ~ Acidity 7o/o Physical habitation alteration 9o/o l \ demand \3o/o I Acidity 4o/o Physical habitation alteration 4o/o FIGURE 1-3 Sources and types of nonpoint source pollution in affected U.S.
From page 30...
... The effects of sediment, pesticide, nutrient, salt, and trace element loads on aquatic ecosystems may, in the long term, prove to be more important than their potential effects on human health. In surface water and groundwater, levels of these pollutants that are below human health standards may still be high enough to damage ecosystems.
From page 31...
... Worries about the potential for trade-offs between protecting soil versus water, protecting surface water versus groundwater, and reducing loadings of nitrates versus loadings of pesticides have also confounded the policy making process. The multiplicities of potential objectives and best management practices suggested to address those objectives have also made the choice of policies seem complicated.
From page 32...
... Many policies and programs are also based on the assumption of a "typical" producer. SOIL CONSERVATION IN COON CREEK, WISCONSIN In the early 1930s the Coon Creek Basin in southwestern Wisconsin was designated the first Soil Erosion Control Demonstration Area in the United States.
From page 33...
... Beef cattle farms are often small-scale, part-time farm operations with only a few head of cattle, whereas poultry enterprises tend to resemble vertically integrated industries ("vertically integrated" refers to an industry in which a single company provides the control) (Reimund and Gale, 1992~.
From page 34...
... The 1985 Food Security Act, the 1987 amendments to the Federal Water Pollution Control Act, the 1990 Coastal Zone Act Reauthorization Amendments, and the 1990 Food, Agriculture, Conservation and Trade Act produced a combination of new programs and mandates that can be used to address soil and water quality problems. Accelerated research has improved understanding of the physical, chemical, and biological processes that determine how agricultural systems affect soil and water quality.


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