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Underground Injection Control Program — A provision of the Safe Drinking Water Act mandates the 

 development of an EPA-approved underground injection control (UIC) program for each state, U.S. 

 possession, or territory. The purpose of the program is to prevent contamination of underground sources 

 of drinking water by injection wells, classified into five categories by the EPA. Class V wells include 

 agricultural drainage wells, which may pose a high potential for ground water contamination. Agricultural 

 drainage wells may receive field drainage from precipitation and floodwaters, irrigation return flow, and 

 animal yard, feedlot, or dry runoff. Potential contaminants include suspended solids, pesticides, nutrients, 

 salts, organics, metals, and microbes including pathogens. Current EPA regulations authorize Class V 

 wells to operate by rule if: (1) their existence was reported to the states or EPA within the specified time; 

 and (2) they do not contaminate an underground source of drinking water to the extent that it would 

 violate a maximum contaminant level (MCL) or otherwise endanger public health. 



New York City Watershed Program 



A situation which has received a great deal of attention is the efforts which the farm community, New' 

 York City, local government, and New York State have taken to preserve water quality in the New York 

 City Watershed area. This successful effort is based upon the prospective voluntary adoption of best 

 management practices to control nonpoint source pollution by the more than 550 dairy farmers in the New 

 York City Watershed area. Let me briefly outline the successful voluntary program. 



Farming has been practiced in the New York City Watershed area of Delaware, Schoharie, Sullivan, and 

 Greene counties since long before New York City came to rely on the watershed for most of its water 

 supply. The City has preserved its water quality in the midst of agricultural production for decades. 

 Efforts to improve farming practices, especially through the adoption of soil and water conservation 

 techniques, with the leadership of the Soil Conservation Service delivered through the local Soil and 

 Water Conservation Districts and the Agricultural Stabilization and Conservation Service, have allowed 

 farmers to maintain the economic viability of their farms by keeping their topsoil on the land. This 

 voluntary, locally based effort by farmers has a proven record of success, not just in New York State but 

 in most parts of the United States. 



Agriculture in the Watershed has been changing. The pressures of the economics of dairy farming have 

 led to larger herds of dairy cows, intensification of land use for crop production, and greater 

 concentrations of animal waste. New measures, based upon the proven path of voluntary and locally 

 based approaches, need to be implemented to cope with the increased requirements for drinking water 

 protection and raw water quality maintenance in the New York City Watershed area. The Whole Farm 

 Planning Approach Program is being implemented to meet the needs of formers in the watershed, as well 

 as the metropolitan-area urban public, which is dependent upon this surface water supply. This approach 

 was the result of a lot of hard work by all who were concerned about long-term protection of the City's 

 water quality, while maintaining the agricultural economy of the area. 



In mid-1990, New York City circulated draft mandatory restrictive agricultural land use regulations in 

 order to meet their goal of drinking water source protection without resorting to a costly filtration system. 

 Uniform and inflexible regulations were seen as unworkable and undesirable by the local agricultural 

 community due to their negative impact upon the farm economy of the region. 



In December 1990, the New York City Department of Environmental Protection and the New York State 

 Department of Agriculture and Markets cooperated in convening an Ad Hoc Task Force on Agriculture 

 and New York City Watershed Regulations. This group was composed of local farmers, local 

 agricultural, environmental and government organizations, state representatives, and technical advisors. 

 The Task Force was comprised of a Policy Group and a Technical Support Group. Members of the 



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