Agriculture and the Environment

Recent federal, state, and local studies on water quality have cited agriculture as the nation's greatest source of nonpoint pollution--that is, pollution that cannot be traced to a specific point of origin. Agriculture contributes more than half the pollutants entering the nation's rivers and lakes. The threat to water quality posed by nonpoint sources of pollution has renewed interest in watershed-based approaches to reducing such pollution. This report (1) determines the number, the purposes, the locations, and the funding of federal watershed projects that address pollution caused by agricultural production and (2) provides information on the lessons learned from innovative or successful watershed projects.

GAO found that: (1) the watershed projects ranged from 5 acres to 150 million acres and involved both surface water and groundwater resources; (2) the watershed projects have received an estimated $514 million in federal funds since 1995; (3) all nine watershed participants stressed the need for flexibility in the kinds of financial and technical assistance provided by federal agencies; (4) the watershed participants were able to adopt local approaches to watershed management, since the watersheds had different characteristics; and (5) project participants at the local level emphasized that the keys to reducing agricultural pollution are to build citizen cooperation through education, involve stakeholders in developing project goals, and tailor project strategies.