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News Release
2-22-10
TEN-YEAR STUDY REVEALS GOOD WATER QUALITY
IN MOST EASTERN PANHANDLE STREAMS
The West Virginia Department of Agriculture’s (WVDA) “Potomac Headwaters Water Quality Report” shows that water quality in the state’s Eastern Panhandle is in good condition overall, and has been relatively stable over the past 10 years. The report was compiled from more than 25,000 water samples gathered from 10 sub-watersheds between July 1998 and June 2008 and documented levels of nutrients, sediment and fecal coliform. An abbreviated version of the report is available at www.wvagriculture.org.
WVDA began its water quality testing program in 1998, shortly after seven streams in the region were placed on the state’s list of “impaired waterways” for fecal coliform contamination. “What this report shows is that – contrary to the fears of some – agricultural practices did not kill our streams,” said West Virginia Commissioner of Agriculture Gus R. Douglass.
He noted that Chesapeake Bay Program models show that agriculture has achieved 50 percent of the goals laid out for it, while urban sources of pollution currently stand at more than negative 60 percent of their goals because of continued sprawl and development.
“Voluntary agricultural conservation programs implemented in the mid-1990s have been shown to protect water quality,” Commissioner Douglass added.
Those programs focused on implementing best management practices (BMPs) such as nutrient management plans, litter and manure storage structures, relocation of livestock feeding areas, and buffers that reduce runoff from farmland.
Farmers in the Eastern Panhandle have spent millions of their own dollars on cost-share programs. Thanks to those efforts, the North Fork of the South Branch of the Potomac River was removed from the impaired streams list in 2002, one of the few such success stories in the country.
However, farmers in West Virginia’s rural panhandle counties are facing a new federal regulatory initiative from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in the form of a new total maximum daily load (TMDL) program intended to restore water quality in the Chesapeake Bay.
President Barack Obama signed an executive order in May 2009 calling for a substantial acceleration of efforts to restore the health of the Chesapeake Bay. States remain responsible for implementing pollution reduction measures, but EPA may take over state programs that do not meet deadlines or that do not result in the pollution reductions sought.
“I find it fitting that the State Seal of West Virginia features a farmer and a coal miner,” said Commissioner Douglass. “The agricultural community is about to find itself in the same position that the coal industry has been in for the past year – defending itself for producing essential goods in an efficient and dependable manner.”
Commissioner Douglass added that farmers need to continue to build upon the environmental progress that they have already made. “Farmers were the first environmental stewards. They know better than anyone that their economic well-being is tied directly to the quality of the natural resources available to them,” said Commissioner Douglass.
“My fear is that the relatively small number of farmers will be a far easier target for EPA than the rest of the nearly 17 million mostly urban residents of the watershed. As small farms are forced out of business, it will be American consumers who suffer through higher food prices and an increased dependence on foreign food producers,” he said.
The West Virginia Department of Agriculture protects plant, animal and human health through a variety of scientific, regulatory and consumer protection programs, as mandated by state law. The Commissioner of Agriculture is one of six statewide elected officials in West Virginia. For more information, visit www.wvagriculture.org.
“The Basis of All Wealth is Agriculture.”
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