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Next, Krysta Harden, CEO, National Association of Conservation Districts (NACD), noted that
<br />issues related to water and the urban -rural interface affect counties and conservation districts
<br />everywhere. NACD and WSWC share interests related to implementing the current and future Farm
<br />Bill, as well as improving the Endangered Species Act (ESA), water quality and drought response.
<br />USDA conservation, commodity and other programs faced significant cuts as the Congress tried to
<br />find money to fund supplemental emergency appropriations. Ken Peterson, Deputy Director of the
<br />Texas Rural Water Association, then addressed the National Associations Farm Bill priorities,
<br />including expanding USDA's Rural Utility Services (RUS) water and waste disposal loan and grant
<br />program. He reported over 93% of the nation's 54,000 community water systems serve less than
<br />10,000 homes, with 2.2 million rural residents live with critical water supply problems, including
<br />730,000 with no running water in their homes.
<br />Duane Smith, WSWC Vice Chair and Executive Director of the Oklahoma Water Resources
<br />Board, said the state needed $5.413 over the next 20 years to meet projected water and wastewater
<br />demands, for another 2.2M people. Moreover, people are moving from rural areas to the cities,
<br />making it more difficult to maintain and finance rural systems with a declining tax base. The state
<br />has a blind pool financing program that allows the state to issue bonds for projects that have not yet
<br />been identified, then loan the money to rural communities to finance their water needs at a reduced
<br />interest rate and substantial cost savings — some $450M over the life of the program — which means
<br />that money is available for other community needs. The Board also administers the federal Clean
<br />Water and Drinking Water State Revolving Funds (SRFs). Without such assistance, many rural
<br />Oklahoma communities may not survive.
<br />A second panel discussed current federal programs. Roger Gorke, EPA Office of Water, noted
<br />the SRFs must compete with other federal priorities for money. There is a large and growing gap
<br />between water infrastructure needs and spending. In order to otherwise try to address such needs,
<br />EPA was emphasizing four "pillars," which include better system management, water use efficiency,
<br />full cost water pricing, and watershed management.
<br />Next, Steve Chick, the Natural Resources Conservation Service's (MRCS) acting division
<br />director for financial assistance and Nebraska State Conservationist, talked about Farm Bill programs
<br />to encourage conservation of surface and ground water resources under the Environmental Quality
<br />Improvement Program (EQIP). While 60% of EQIP funding was earmarked for improving livestock
<br />management practices, including efforts to control non -point sources (NPS) water pollution from
<br />Confined Animal Feeding Operations (CAFOs), some money ($51M) was set aside specifically for
<br />water conservation and more than half had gone to western states. Overall, there were some 6950
<br />related EQIP ground water and surface water conservation program applications and 2556 contracts
<br />were awarded covering over 360,000 acres. This program had been used to improve irrigation
<br />management through the installation of center pivots, surge valves, subsurface drip systems, salt
<br />cedar control, and converting from irrigation to dryland farming. NRCS also provided technical
<br />assistance for the Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) and CRP Enhancement Program (CREP),
<br />administered by the Farm Services Agency (FSA).
<br />John Fuston, FSA, Texas Executive Director, and Juan Garcia, FSA, further addressed the CRP
<br />and CREP, which pay farmers to retire lands for conservation purposes. John reported there are over
<br />5.7M acres of irrigated land in Texas. Little irrigated land had been enrolled in the past in the CRP,
<br />given the relatively high cost of related payments, compared to dryland rates. CRP had enrolled over
<br />3.9M acres in Texas. There were 19 counties where more than 25% of eligible lands had been
<br />enrolled. John is from the Panhandle, where much of Texas' irrigated cropland is located. Pumping
<br />costs would affect the future of irrigation in the region as fuel costs had jumped 20 -30% since 2003.
<br />Juan is from the Valley (Rio Grande), which has been hard hit in the past by drought. FSA also
<br />administers an Emergency Conservation Program (ECP) for disaster assistance, and low interest
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