National Water Quality Initiative (NWQI)

Updated 02/28/2013

Application Deadline: June 15, 2012

USDA’s Natural Resources Conservation Service supports the voluntary actions of farmers, ranchers and forest landowners to improve water quality. Through the water quality focused efforts, eligible producers will invest in voluntary conservation practices to help provide cleaner water for their neighbors and communities. Using funds from the Environmental Quality Incentives Program, NRCS will provide financial and technical assistance to producers for implementing conservation practices such as riparian buffers, conservation tillage, irrigation water management, soil moisture monitoring in selected watershed locations.

South Fork Palouse River Watershed Selected as NWQI Project Area

The South Fork Palouse River drains 130 square miles around the towns of Pullman and Albion in Washington and Moscow, Idaho. Grain fields and pastures dominate the area. The major land use is farming with residential, commercial, and industrial developments clustered around the towns.  Map (PDF;  237KB) of South Fork Palouse River watershed.

Although the South Fork Palouse River and its tributaries’ water quality is in jeopardy due to pollutants such as ammonia; dissolved oxygen; fecal coliform bacteria; PCBs; chlorinated pesticides; temperature; and pH, the main focus of the Water Quality Initiative will be to treat pollutants from agricultural operations, through voluntary landowner participation in conservation activities.

Assistance is available in South Fork Palouse River area to help implement the following conservation activities to improve water quality on your land:

• Direct seed
• Cover crops
• Filter strips
• Vegetative barriers
• Field borders
• And more!

Conservation Funding and Practices

NRCS conservation professionals will provide technical assistance and planning tools to determine which conservation actions will provide the best results to improve water quality on your land. To help install these conservation practices, financial assistance to share in the cost of these conservation practices is available though the Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP).

How to Apply

If you have property located in the South Fork Palouse River watershed make an appointment at your local NRCS office. You will need to establish eligibility and farm records for your land. NRCS will help you complete an application while explaining which conservation practices are available in the watershed.
 

The following document requires Adobe Reader. 
Many publications have been made available in a .PDF format.  Alternative text is not available for these publications as they cannot be depicted in a narrative format. We apologize for any inconvenience. For any accessibility issues, please contact 509.754.3023 ext. 1123.

NWQI Factsheet  (PDF;  890KB)

Contacts:

Technical Contact
Rich Edlund
District Conservationist – Palouse
(509) 924-7350, ext. 123

State Point of Contact
Jeff Harlow
Assistant State Conservationist for Programs
(509) 323- 2971

 

< Back to ... EQIP

< Back to ... Programs