The Iowa Department of Agriculture announced a plan Monday to provide money for water quality projects in 22 counties above the Des Moines metro watershed.
The program uses funds in the Farm to Faucet water quality package approved by the legislature and recently signed into law by the governor. The plan provides cost-share payments for both new and existing cover crop users of $25 an acre and increases the maximum eligible acreage to 500 acres per farmer or landowner.
The cover crops help reduce the runoff of chemicals into the watershed which is used for drinking water by the Central Iowa Water Works. The CIWW has banned law watering for customers as the level of nitrates in the source water is high and the water treatment plant can’t keep up.
These are the counties involved:
Audubon, Boone, Buena Vista, Calhoun, Carroll, Clay, Dallas, Dickinson, Emmet, Greene, Guthrie, Hamilton, Hancock, Humboldt, Kossuth, Palo Alto, Pocahontas, Polk, Sac, Webster, Winnebago and Wright.
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