FC’s Role with the ACWA (Agriculture's Clean Water
Alliance)
FC’s
sole purpose is to serve the farmers who own our cooperative. Part of that
service is to help ensure the sustainability of agriculture as a way of
providing food, fuel and fiber for the growing world. Success demands that we
continue our proud tradition of leaving our land and water in better shape for
future generations. FC is committed to assisting its farmer members in this
mission.
FC
is a founding member of Agriculture’s Clean Water Alliance (ACWA) - a nonprofit
organization created in 1999 by 13 Ag retailers with the common goal of keeping
products intended to help crops thrive - like fertilizer and chemicals - out of
local and downstream waters.
Despite
the fact that all ACWA members are direct competitors, we work together toward
our dual mission to help farmers improve agronomic performance in the field
while supporting environmental performance beyond the field’s edge. The
organization’s extensive water monitoring network is unique in that it is almost
completely funded by the private Ag-industry for the benefit of both public and
private stakeholders.
More
than $1 million has been spent monitoring water since the project began. Though
monitoring remains ACWA’s cornerstone, the organization has branched out to
nutrient-reducing efforts like funding tile-line bioreactors to filter out
contaminants and encouraging farmers to embrace conservation practices to
reduce runoff.
ACWA
Chairman Harry Ahrenholtz says water quality is improving. “To be sure, ACWA
has made significant contributions to the clean water effort through its
ongoing work,” says Ahrenholtz.
A few of ACWA’s successes:
--
ACWA funded the first successful real-time, in-stream nitrate analyzer in Iowa
in the Raccoon River near Van Meter.
--- Since the ACWA began, the sediment load in the
Raccoon River has dropped, suggesting conservation practices like no-till and
grass waterways are working.
What is the Iowa Nutrient Reduction Strategy?
ACWA members have put their full support behind the
Iowa Nutrient Reduction Strategy, which relies on voluntary efforts rather than
top-down regulation, along with greater adoption and implementation of proven,
farm-based efforts including those developed by the alliance.
Iowa Nutrient Reduction Strategy is a science and
technology-based framework to assess and reduce nutrients to Iowa waters and
ultimately, to the Gulf of Mexico. It is designed to direct efforts to reduce
nutrients in surface water from both point and nonpoint sources in a
scientific, reasonable and cost effective manner.
Working together, the Iowa Department of
Agriculture and Land Stewardship, the Iowa Department of Natural Resources, and
the Iowa State University College of Agriculture and Life Sciences developed
this strategy. The focus is on a pragmatic approach for reducing nutrient loads
discharged from the state’s largest wastewater treatment plants, in combination
with targeted practices designed to reduce loads from nonpoint sources such as
farm fields.
The Iowa Nutrient Reduction Strategy is the
first-of-its-kind framework for reducing nutrient loads discharged from the
state’s largest wastewater treatment facilities, in combination with targeted
practices to reduce loads from non-point sources, including agriculture. The
plan establishes a goal of at least a 45-percent reduction each in total
riverine nitrogen and phosphorous loadings.
The Iowa Nutrient Reduction Strategy prioritizes
the top watersheds in Iowa and focuses resources to make improvements in
coordination and cooperation with landowners. Iowa State University has
developed a technical assessment of the best management practices available to
reduce nutrients, their effectiveness and implementation costs.
ACWA members believe that on-farm water quality
improvement practices already being implemented by farmers - including
bioreactors, wetlands, buffer strips, cover crops, conservation tillage and
nutrient management - will be even more fully adopted as part of the Iowa
Nutrient Reduction Strategy.
FC Member Mike Bravard is
Making a Difference
FC, as a
founding member of the ACWA, encourages members in their environmental
stewardship; supporting a sustainable model.
Producers like
FC member, Mike Bravard who farms near Jefferson, IA are working hard to take
care of the land and water that sustain their way of life. “Farmers in general
take the issues concerning the land and water around them very seriously,” said
Bravard. “The issues are complex, and those of us on the farm and in the city
are all in this together. The solutions will come from a combined effort among
all those with a vested interest.”
When approached
about installing a bioreactor on his land several years ago, Mike Bravard was
more than willing. “The bioreactor installation resulted in a significant
reduction in the nitrate levels in that watershed. Results from efforts like
this, when combined, make a significant difference,” notes Bravard.
“I believe that
farmers are doing their part and are willing to do more".
Concerted efforts will make
a difference. Farming today is about
finding new and better ways of producing more with less of a footprint. It’s
about taking care of the resources that make it possible to provide food and
fuel for our growing world,” said Bravard.”
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Bioreactors such as the one
on FC member, Mike Bravard’s land, are examples of cost-effective and voluntary
solutions for improving water quality while maintaining farm profitability. The
monitoring of bioreactors like this one has documented a 40-60% reduction in
nitrates from tile drainage before it hits the stream.
Fast Facts:
50%
-- A three-year project in
the Brushy Creek Watershed resulted in a 50 percent reduction in E. coli
bacteria measured at Dedham
30%
--- Data indicates
nitrate levels in the Raccoon River have dropped, possibly as much as 30
percent, since 2001.
For more information on
efforts being made in Iowa, go to Iowa Department of Agriculture & Land
Stewardship’s website www.cleanwateriowa.org.
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