With a record amount of funding, the Department of Agriculture and Markets announced $25 million has been allocated to farmers to protect water quality.
“I think the big news is that we’re celebrating 30 years of the [State’s Agricultural Nonpoint Source Pollution Abatement and Control Program],” said New York Agricultural Commissioner Richard Ball.
Funding for the Ag Nonpoint program comes from both the Environmental Protection Fund and, for the first time, the Clean Water, Clean Air and Green Jobs Environmental Bond Act.
“By tapping into our Bond Act funding, we are now able to expand our reach and support even more on-farm projects across the state through our Ag Nonpoint program,” Gov. Kathy Hochul said in a press release.
The program funds conservation measures such as cover crops, nutrient management, manure storage, buffers and other practices that protect the water supply. There were 50 projects awarded across 25 counties. Van Patten Farms in Cortland County was the recipient of one grant.
“The grant that we got is amazing for us, it’s going to be used on a 1.4-million-gallon manure pit,” said Lynn Van Patten, one of the co-owners of the farm.
Van Patten farms dates back to 1809, and Lynn is the seventh generation of the family. It initially began as a dairy farm, but now they raise heifers and farm about 820 acres.
“[The manure pit] is going to allow us to not spread every day when we shouldn’t be spreading and put the manure down when we need it, and use it as a fertilizer,” Van Patten said.
Input costs, including fertilizer, have risen for New York farmers, so this will help reduce the need to purchase commercial fertilizers as well.
“It seems like everything is steadily increasing in costs, so we have to be smarter about how we manage our farm now,” Van Patten said.
The farm sits on two aquifers that supply water to a few different municipalities, so Van Patten said it is even more important to protect the water near them.
“The aquifer on the south side is only eight or 12 feet down, so you have to think that if you abuse the land, everything you’re putting on the land is going to eventually be in our drinking water,” he said.
Amanda Barber, district manager for the Cortland Soil and Water District, emphasized the importance of protecting water in this region.
“We have an EPA-designated sole-source aquifer here. Water flows south in and through the aquifer to the Chesapeake Bay watershed, the largest estuary in the United States, and then water flows north to the Finger Lakes, so we’re in a pretty important place here in Cortland County to be impacting water quality,” Barber said.
