SPECIAL EQIP DEMONSTRATION PROJECT TARGETS GRAND LAKE ST. MARYS
 

Contact: Christina Coulon, 614-255-2471
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Celina, OH - Congressman John Boehner (R-West Chester) and Senator Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) together with the Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) today announced that $1 million will be available through the U.S. Department of Agriculture to help improve the water quality of Ohio watersheds.

Through this program, farmers in the Chickasaw and Barnes Creek watersheds in portions of Auglaize and Mercer Counties will be eligible to participate in a special demonstration project aimed at keeping nutrients and organic material out of area water supplies. The sign-up period runs from today through March 14, 2008, with priority given to applications received by March 7, 2008.

“Grand Lake St. Marys is an important resource for the region and its clean up must be a priority,” said Brown, the first Senator from Ohio to serve on the Agriculture Committee in 40 years. “Along with Representative Boehner, I am proud that these Federal dollars will help local farmers reduce runoff in the watershed, providing cleaner water and thriving wildlife habitat.”

“I'm pleased that the Department of Agriculture recognized the importance of improving the water quality in Grand Lake St. Marys and chose to allocate funding for it,” Boehner said. “Conditions in the lake have deteriorated over the years, and Senator Brown and I worked together to present the regional merits of this project to the Agriculture Department. While it will take many years to fully address the concerns surrounding Grand Lake St. Marys, this is a step in the right direction toward improving water quality.”

The bulk of the money will be used for the creation of buffer strips along creeks running into Grand Lake St. Marys and for the planting of cover crops. The government will provide incentive payments to cover a portion of the planting costs, with the rest covered by participating farmers, who must meet eligibility requirements established by the NRCS's Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP). This program will cover a 20,000-acre project area.

Funding for this program was authorized in the 2002 Farm Bill. The Department of Agriculture's Natural Resources Conservation Service makes the final decision on how these dollars are spent.

Informational meetings will be held to help farmers apply for this EQIP demonstration project. The meetings will be held on February 29 at 1:30 p.m. at the Precious Blood Church, 35 South Maple Street, Chickasaw, Ohio 45826, and March 3 at 7:30 p.m., location to be determined.

For more information, contact Steve McDevitt in Auglaize County at 419-738-4016 or Jim Will in Mercer County at 419-586-2548.

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