Environmental Defense Praises National Research Council Report on Need for USDA Conservation Programs to Improve Mississippi River Water Quality

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact:

Sean Crowley – 202-572-3331 or scrowley@environmentaldefense.org

Sharyn Stein – 202-572-3396 or sstein@environmentaldefense.org

(Washington, DC – October 16) Environmental Defense praised a new report released today by the National Research Council that concludes it is “imperative” that “USDA conservation programs be widely and aggressively applied to help achieve water quality improvement in the Mississippi River and its tributaries.”

The study states that numerous cities and millions of inhabitants along the river, which runs through or borders 10 states (Arkansas, Illinois, Iowa, Kentucky, Louisiana, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Tennessee and Wisconsin), use the Mississippi as a source of drinking water.

The report, “Mississippi River Water Quality and the Clean Water Act: Progress, Challenges, and Opportunities,” sponsored by the McKnight Foundation based in Minneapolis, notes that “agriculture contributes the major portion of nutrients and sediments delivered to the Mississippi River.” As a result, it says “reductions in pollutant loadings, especially nutrients, from the agricultural sector, are crucial to improving Mississippi River water quality.” (See report news release, report brief and full report at http://www.nationalacademies.org/morenews/20071016.html).

“This report shows why Congress must significantly increase funding for USDA conservation programs to improve water quality and to achieve other conservation goals, such as providing clean air, wildlife habitat and combating urban sprawl,” said Sara Hopper, an attorney for Environmental Defense and a former staff member of the Senate Agriculture Committee.

The funding increase is necessary because currently two out of three farmers who apply for assistance through USDA conservation programs are rejected due to insufficient funding. Increasing conservation funding in the 2007 farm bill also would ensure that more states and regions get a fairer share of Farm Bill spending because all farmers can be eligible for conservation funding, regardless of what they grow, how much they grow or where their farm is located. By contrast, crop subsidies primarily benefit growers of five row crops: corn, cotton, rice, soybean and wheat. As a result, over 50 percent of all Farm Bill spending flows to just seven states.

Recent public opinion polls conducted September 18-21 by Zogby International for Environmental Defense in Colorado, New York, Oregon, Virginia and Washington state found that more than three out of four (76% to 85%) of poll respondents in each state agreed that their U.S. senators should support shifting money from farm subsidies to conservation programs. If that reform effort succeeded, more than six out of 10 (62% to 77%) of the poll respondents in each state said they would have a more favorable opinion of Congress.

The complete poll results are available at www.environmentaldefense.org/farms.