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E3dsting and Proposed Legislation 



Expanding Existing Legislative Mandates 



• There are a number of legislative mandates already in place regarding agricultural 

 impacts on water quality. In addition to current Clean Water Act provisions 

 (particularly Sec. 208 and Sec. 319), there are mandates in the 1990 Food, Agriculture, 

 Conservation and Trade Act (FACTA) and the Coastal Zone Management Act of 1972 

 (CZMA) and Coastal Zone Act Reauthorization Amendments of 1990 (CZARA). 

 Additional legislative mandates should specifically identify and build on existing 

 mandates to minimize confusing and possibly contradictory directives and to enhance 

 ongoing federal and state programs in a logical and systematic manner. 



Policy Considerations 



• Voluntary, incentive-based research, education, technical and financial assistance 

 programs have proven to be the most cost effective and efficient way to protect water 

 from sediment, pesticides, nutrients and other agricultural pollutants. Voluntary 

 programs and pollution prevention are much less expensive than regulatory programs 

 and pollution clean-up (Contant, et. al, 1993). In general, voluntary approaches have 

 been very effective in correcting problems and preventing resource deterioration. 

 However, there is significant interest in the development of broader regulatory 

 mechanisms to catch "bad actors" and to ensure that all producers are subject to the 

 same standards of environmental stewardship. 



• As Congress works on the scope of regulatory programs targeted to agriculture, it is 

 strongly recommended that regulations be carefully targeted only to those specific 

 environments that are at risk and only to those producers and landowners that refuse to 

 adequately cooperate in voluntary efforts in those areas where water quality problems 

 have been identified. It is suggested that a "tiered and targeted" approach be used in 

 dealing with agriculture-related pollution problems. Program design within watershed 

 units should be geared to the levels of contamination and risk within the watershed 

 units. Contamination determinations should be based on clearly defined standards and 

 adequate monitoring and analyses. If contamination is low, then a totally voluntary 

 approach should be applied. As contamination and risk of contamination increase 

 within watershed units, the stringency of required activities also would increase 

 accordingly. Program efforts within a watershed should be based on clear detection 

 from careful monitoring, but when attributed to agriculmre, there should also be clear 

 linkages established with specific agricultural practices being conducted in the 

 watershed. Broad-based monitoring will be required to provide sufficient data to 

 appropriately target programs. Trends in pollution amounts and "trigger levels" would 

 be used to select management requirements for individual or groups of producers 

 within the watersheds. 



• Many agricultural producers are not causing problems for surface or ground water. 

 Hence, it is undesirable to treat all agricultural producers the same without regard to 



March 23, 1994 



