What is the Coos and Coquille Area Agricultural Water Quality Management Plan?
Each watershed in Oregon is currently responsible for participating in the creation and implementation of an Agricultural Water Quality Management Plan (AgWQM Plan) for that particular watershed or group of watersheds. The Coos and Coquille AgWQM Plan is meant to provide the local agricultural community with an educational background and guidelines for improving water quality and salmon habitat in response to a number of federal water quality measures. Fortunately, what makes this Plan different is that it is being developed at the grass roots level - by and for the people that it affects. Local Advisory Committees (LACs), selected from within each watershed, hold monthly meetings where they collaborate to develop watershed-based AgWQM Plans. All LAC meetings were open to the public.
The Coos and Coquille area LAC met monthly in Coquille for over four years to develop this AgWQM Plan, which was finally adopted in March of 2002 . The twelve-member LAC is made up of local producers of dairy, cattle, sheep, cranberries, shellfish, organic growers, and woodland owners. The Coos SWCD serves as the Local Management Agency for the Plan and the LAC. The Oregon Department of Agriculture's Water Quality Planner, Tim Stevenson, assisted with Plan development.
What's in our Plan?
The body of the Plan consists of seven management areas directly related to local agriculture and water quality. The topics include management of: sediment, nutrient, pesticide, riparian management and establishment, livestock and pasture, ditch and tidegate, and irrigation. In each of these sections Positive Management Practices are listed along with conditions that may lead to possible water quality problems. Unacceptable conditions for each topic area are then listed followed by a rule.
The AgWQM Plan will be reviewed by the LAC every two years for nessessary updates. Look for fact sheets on the Coos and Coquille AgWQM Plan at feed stores in Coos County, the Coos SWCD office and the OSU Extension office.
What to do now...
The lag time between Plan adoption (March 2002) and three years from then, when the Coos and Coquille AgWQM rules become effective, is a time for landowners to become more familiar with the plan and to make changes in management practices if necessary. It is a time to attend informational workshops related to the plan, seek technical assistance, and explore grant opportunities. The Coos Soil and Water Conservation District (SWCD) is available, free of charge, and totally non-regulatory, to provide technical assistance and alternatives to remedy a water quality problem in response to an informal complaint. The District's Watershed Technical Specialist is also working on a long list of individual farm plans, which may also be helpful to landowners for protecting water quality. Outlined below are some ways to stay in tune and in the saddle with the Coos and Coquille AgWQM Plan.
§ Contact Coos SWCD with questions regarding Coos and Coquille AgWQM plan and rules, or farm planning.
§ Oregon Watershed Enhancement Board
small grants are available through SWCDs for projects that improve watershed health, i.e. help comply with the plan and rules.
§ Read the Coos and Coquille AgWQM Plan and rules at Coos County public libraries or on-line at the Oregon Department of Agriculture's Water Quality Program website.
