An Uneasy but Important Coexistence for Agriculture in Our Watersheds

By Kirsten Workman

Most of the Finger Lakes watersheds’ primary land use is farmland. We enjoy this working landscape for the beauty, utility, habitat, recreation and food it provides us all. However, this also means that agriculture can be a significant source of nutrient loading into our lakes - alongside forests and wetlands, stormwater runoff, septic systems, municipal wastewater treatment plants and others. Farmers and their technical service providers do not take that responsibility lightly. Agriculture in New York has engaged in ongoing and significant efforts for decades to protect water quality for this very reason.

Nutrient runoff and algae are complex problems and as such, have complex solutions. The science surrounding water quality and algae blooms is complicated and evolving. Lakes whose water quality meets the guidelines for Total Phosphorus (P) set by New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (NYSDEC) and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency are experiencing algae blooms. Climate change that drives warmer water temperatures and increased precipitation and storm intensities makes our work harder. Farmers are solution-minded folks, and when they implement a change, they want to see results. No one is more frustrated than farmers when they see all their hard work to protect water quality potentially unrealized in the presence of algae blooms in their own watersheds.

It is important, however, to recognize that amid these challenges is also a lot of success. Since passage of the federal Clean Water Act and New York’s Environmental Conservation Law in 1972, we have seen huge progress when it comes to agricultural water quality best management practices. Most of the Finger Lakes benefit from at least one Clean Water Plan (some have more than one). New York has some of the most robust environmental management and permitting programs for agriculture in the country. Not only do we benefit from the resources and technical expertise of the USDA’s Natural Resource Conservation Service, Cornell Cooperative Extension and local Soil and Water Conservation District staff, but we also have New York State Department of Agriculture and Markets Agricultural Environmental Management program that provides a framework for on the ground implementation of practices and the funding to support it. Additionally, NYSDEC Division of Water staff and county and local watershed inspectors work hard to ensure compliance with our water quality laws and permits like our CAFO permit. Research by Cornell’s Nutrient Management Spear Program shows that work is paying off.  New York dairy farms have a noticeable reduction of P balances. 

Farmers who conducted Nutrient Mass Balance assessments reduced their P balances per hundredweight (cwt) of milk from 0.11 lbs. of P/cwt from 2005 to 2007 to 0.07 lbs. of P/cwt from 2017 to 2019. This shows tremendous improvement in P use efficiency while the P balance per acre stayed below the feasible balance of 12 pounds of P/acre established for New York. And a recent state level analysis of 2017 P balances for harvested cropland in NY, shows a balance of nine lbs. of P/square acre, suggesting that our manure and fertilizer applications statewide are well-matched with the P needs of our crops. These are just two examples of how we quantify whether P management is in balance with farm production and environmental protection.

The recently released Total Maximum Daily Load (TMDL) for Phosphorus in Cayuga Lake lays out the sources of phosphorus loading and targeted reductions in that lake. It also quantifies some of the reductions in loading we have already accomplished since the calculation of those numbers which were based on 2013 conditions. The TMDL targets a 30 percent reduction in P loading to the lake, which will certainly require continued work. However, it estimates that we have already gotten a third of the way there with projects that were implemented between 2013 and 20223. This accounting did not have estimated reductions for all projects and only included those projects and practices funded through New York’s Ag Nonpoint Source and Water Quality Implementation programs. It did not include projects funded through USDA’s Natural Resource Conservation Service or the vast efforts that farmers invested in without state or federal funding.

And Cayuga Lake watershed farmers are not unique in their progress. Many watersheds throughout New York have wide adoption of the same practices designed to reduce erosion and nutrient runoff from our farmsteads and fields.    

And farmers are not done! They continue to work with federal, state and local programs and on their own to implement the best practices that make sense for the watershed and their farms. They know there is more work to do and are actively pursuing all the tools in our collective toolbox. The key will be keeping all the tools available and adjusting as we learn to use new ones. But they are up for the continued challenge – as clean water is a key tenant of a successful and sustainable farm. 

While water quality protection is challenging and complex, New York farmers and their service providers have their sleeves rolled up and are ready to keep working alongside all of us to continuously improve and realize success through partnership and hard work.