Drink the Water: NRCS and Farmers Improve Water Quality in a Public Water Supply Watershed

Local farmers in a Putnam public water supply watershed are doing their part to help improve water quality for the benefit of human health, local fisheries, and wildlife by properly storing and utilizing animal waste. This also increases recreational opportunities such as fishing, boating, and swimming.

Over the past five years, using the Environmental Quality Incentives Program, NRCS in Connecticut and partners have achieved:

• Partnering with six farms to install waste storage facilities and improve management of nutrients applied to farm fields.
• Properly storing over 19 million gallons of manure and waste water on an annual basis, and preventing it from running off fields into the Little River Watershed.
• Removing the potential for 400,000 lbs. of nitrogen and 240,000 lbs. of phosphorus from the Putnam public water supply watershed and Long Island Sound annually.
• These nutrients are utilized by crops rather than potentially polluting surface and ground water. This can also reduce the amount of commercial fertilizer used by the farms.
• Helping maintain the viability of farming in an area with very high development pressure, while improving the infrastructure of the farms for future generations by reducing both inputs and costs on fertilizer application.
• Reducing odors during nutrient application, thus promoting better relationships on the urban/rural interface.
• Infusing approximately $3 million into the local economy.

Photo: G.L. Sweetnam, www.glsweetnam.com - used with permission

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