Farmers and urban water systems can work together to improve water quality, says a white paper that presents nine examples from upstate New York to the Everglades and California. The paper was produced by U.S. Water Alliance, the National Association of Clean Water Agencies and the AGree farm policy project. Jim Moseley, co-chair of AGree, says, “There are win-win opportunities for farmers to work with water utilities to improve water quality in their watersheds….The bottom line of both farmers and utilities can benefit from collaboration.”
The three groups say water utilities can avoid having to build costly treatment plants if they “look upstream in the watershed to see if there are ways to prevent nutrients and other pollutants from being released into waterways in collaboration with agriculture and other partners.” New York City worked with upstate farmers to protect its drinking-water supply. A water-quality trading program in Ohio generates money that farmers use to add cover crops and grassed waterways to reduce nutrient runoff. In California’s Central Valley, a project to reduce nitrogen loads in the soil at a former agricultural waste disposal site provides nutrient-rich, recycled water for irrigation.