Big Spring: Anatomy of Environmental Cooperation, January 13, 1994

(1994) Big Spring: Anatomy of Environmental Cooperation, January 13, 1994. Natural Resources, Department of

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Abstract

The 1980s would be the decade for evolving a strategy which did for groundwater what had already been done for surface water quality and drinking water supplies. Unlike surface water supplies, the remediation of groundwater is considered to be an almost impossible task. The last great unregulated area of contamination of the environment is nonpoint source agricultural contamination, much of which comes off the country's 2.2 million farms. Historically, education and incentives, along with disincentives associated with government support programs, have been used to push farmers in the direction of less environmentally-damaging practices. That effort has been largely focused on restricting soil erosion. After over half a century of concerted effort, soil erosion continues to be an enormous problem for the farm sector. It was generally conceded that part of the farm policy encouraged damaging practices. Thus it was reasonable to speculate on how effective could be an educational program on groundwater protection, unless basic changes are also made in farm policy. Independent of this evolution of thought by persons within the agricultural community, public attitude became less tolerant of farm subsidies. It was an ideal climate in which to introduce the novel notion that/armers, like other polluters, should pay.