Environmental Progress - Summer 1998

Historic Pact Targets Illinois River

Program seeks voluntary retirement of environmentally sensitive farmland acres

On March 30, Illinois Gov. Jim Edgar and Dan Glickman, the U.S. secretary of agriculture, signed an historic agreement to cut sedimentation and reduce pollution affecting the Illinois River. When fully imple-mented, the Illinois River Water-shed Conservation Reserve Enhancement Program (CREP), will channel nearly $450 million into the program, with a $100 million Illinois commitment matching up to $350 million in federal funds For the initial enrollment of 100,000 acres, the cost is estimated at $250 million, with a $48 million Illinois commitment matching $202 million in federal funding.

Dan Glickman, U.S. secretary of agriculture, left, and Gov. Jim Edgar following the signing.

"We're putting our money where our rhetoric has been," Gov. Edgar told a standing-room-only crowd at the Gateway Building on the Peoria riverfront for the signing. "A half-billion dollars in 15 years, this is meaningful."

The funds will be used to pay farmers who agree to take erodible, environmentally sensitive land out of production for up to 15 years, an effort that could impact an estimated 232,000 acres by 2002. Goals of the plan include cutting sedimentation into the river and its tributaries by 20 percent, reducing nitrogen and phosphorus loading from farm chemicals by 10 percent, increasing populations of waterfowl and shorebirds by 15 percent and increasing native fish and mussel populations by 10 percent.

Initially, the Illinois CREP agreement seeks to voluntarily retire up to 100,000 acres of environmentally sensitive cropland along the mainstem of the Illinois River and its tributaries. Part or all of the 29 counties in the upper Illinois River basin where sedimentation is the most critical will be involved. Plans also call for restoration of key wetlands and improvement of wildlife habitat throughout the watershed.

"The economy and the environment can work together. The two must go hand-in-hand if we are to have a sustainable future," Glickman said.

Also taking part in the bi-partisan event were U.S. Sens. Carol Moseley-Braun and Dick Durbin, U.S. Rep. Ray LaHood, representatives of agricultural and environmental organizations and the Illinois EPA.