The NYC Watershed Agricultural Program

The NYC Watershed Agricultural Program

The NYC-funded NYC Watershed Agricultural Program (WAP) was developed jointly by New York City and the farm community in order to avoid the need for regulatory controls on agricultural operations in the watershed. The program is based on voluntary farmer participation in the development and implementation of whole farms plans and is a key element of EPA's Filtration Avoidance Determination. Whole farm plans identify management practices to be implemented on the farm which protect water quality, while maintaining farming as a preferred land use in the watershed. The Watershed Agricultural Council (WAC), which manages the program, fosters partnership between interested parties including: watershed farmers, watershed agribusiness, New York City, and State, Federal, and County agencies.
Whole farms are developed by Planning and Implementation Teams, which consist of the farmer of the farm for which the plan is being developed and staff from the following agencies: Cornell Cooperative Extension, Natural Resource Conservation Service, and the Soil and Water Conservation District. Potential risks to the water supply are identified and addressed through careful structural planning to reduce or avoid the transport of agricultural runoff into farm streams. As part of the Whole Farm Plan, Best Management Practices (BMPs) are selected and implemented using a multiple barrier approach starting with the source (i.e., barnyard water) and moving to crop fields and the stream corridor.

The Watershed Agricultural Program committed to having 85% of the watershed farms signed up for the program by October, 1997. That commitment was met. As of September 2007, 292 commercial farms (representing more than 95% of commercial farms in the watershed) are enrolled in the program and 288 of these farms have Whole Farm Plan agreements. 287 farms have commenced implementation and 234 farms have substantially implemented Whole Farm Plans. The 2007 Filtration Avoidance Determination requires, by September 30, 2010, that 90% of all active large farms in the west-of-Hudson watershed have substantially implemented Whole Farm Plans.

In 2002, the Watershed Agricultural Program expanded to include Croton Watershed farms as well as small farms which previously did not meet the program's gross farm income threshold for participation. As of September 2007, 37 whole farm plans have been approved in the Croton Watershed and whole farm plan implementation has commenced on 28 of these farms. As of September 2007, 56 small farm whole farm plans have been approved and BMP implementation has commenced on 42 of the 56 farms. The 2007 Filtration Avoidance Determination further expands the Croton Agricultural Program and the Small Farms Agricultural Program.

Research is another component of the NYC Watershed Agricultural Program. Research examples include: a monitoring study conducted by NYSDEC that demonstrated that implementing a Whole Farm Plan on a farm in the watershed resulted in dissolved P loading reductions of 53% and particulate P loading reductions of about 36%; NYCDEP's extensive routine monitoring in the Cannonsville Reservoir basin to monitor the pollutants entering the reservoir that may be attributed to agricultural practices; and Cornell Cooperative Extension’s (with funding from various sources including Delaware County and the State) continuing study on Precision Feed Management which reduces of agricultural phosphorus through intensive forage management.

The program has been successfully implemented from its initiation and as the program expands to meet the current needs, the Watershed Agricultural Council continues to discuss various program issues and initiatives that will further the progress being made in watershed protection by the agricultural community in the New York City Watershed.

The NYC Watershed Agricultural Program

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