By Keith Whitcomb Jr. Staff Writer
Vermont, along with the rest of New England, can now apply for millions of dollars more in federal funding for water quality improvement projects.
About $360 million is available nationwide through the United States Department of Agriculture’s Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) said Ryan Patch, deputy director of the Vermont Agency of Agriculture, Food and Markets’ Water Quality Division.
Prior to a recent decision made by the USDA, Vermont and any state or entity not in a designated Critical Conservation Area, was not able to access about half of that funding, said Patch.
“What the bottom line is here is that it’s a great opportunity for the state of Vermont to apply for funding to implement conservation practices in Vermont to improve water quality,” said Patch.
The USDA’s Regional Conservation Partnership Program was created by the federal 2014 Farm Bill and was renewed in the 2018 Farm Bill. In 2015, Vermont was awarded $16 million from the program, which it put toward a little over half a dozen projects.
“It can help leverage and enhance USDA and NRCS programming, and local partners can implement and administer projects and move funds to improve any of their resources concerns that NRCS focuses on, from agricultural water quality, to forestry, to wildlife habitat as the big three examples,” said Patch.
The grant applications are competitive, said Patch. So when Vermont applies it’s competing for funds with every other state. Being in a Critical Conservation Area, he said, boosts Vermont’s chances.
He said some of the conservation areas are quite large, namely the one around the Mississippi River basin, but a great deal of funding is accessible for those inside them.
Speaking from an agricultural water quality perspective, Vermont would seek to extend existing programs that aren’t currently funded.
“We have good existing partnerships with the USDA for their regular Environmental Quality Incentive Program, and it’s a funding pool to implement water quality projects on farms and we partner with them to leverage, cost-share and maximize implantation by farmers,” said Patch.
He said those in forestry, wetlands and wildlife habitat arenas could also apply for these funds and would likely be interested in doing so.
The deadline for applications is Nov. 4, and it takes about six months to know whether an award was received, said Patch. Add the time needed to implement a program and it might be another year before the results of the decision are seen.
Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., praised the designation in a statement last week.
“Every Vermonter knows that investments in our ‘great’ Lake Champlain and other watersheds will help secure these irreplaceable resources for generations to come,” he said.
“We created this program in the Farm Bill out of a recognition that conservation requires all of us working together, and that success hinges on both the public and the private sector. This significant step will help expand that work to a regional scale, giving Vermont, with partners across New England, access to even more federal resources for this important work.”
As your daily newspaper, we are committed to providing you with important local news coverage for Sullivan County and the surrounding areas.