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For Immediate Release
February 2, 2018
Contact:Laura T. Anderson, Public Affairs
Phone: (601)965-5205 ext. 144
Email: laura.t.anderson@ms.usda.gov
USDA-NRCS Accepting Applications for
Upper Pascagoula Water Quality Enhancement Project (UPWQEP)
Jackson, Miss. – The United States
Department of Agriculture/Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) is
providing financial assistance through the Upper Pascagoula Water Quality
Enhancement Project (UPWQEP). In accordance with the Oil Pollution Act of
1990 (OPA), the Deepwater Horizon (DWH) Oil Spill: Programmatic Damage
Assessment and Restoration Plan (PDARP) and Final Programmatic Environmental
Impact Statement (PEIS), and the Trustee Council Standard Operating Procedures
for Implementation of the Natural Resource Restoration for the DWH Oil Spill,
The Mississippi Trustee Implementation Group approved the UPWQE project for
funding.
USDA-NRCS,
Mississippi Department of Environmental Quality (MDEQ), and the Environmental
Protection Agency are the implementing Trustees for the project. NRCS will lead
the project implementation component of the project, and MDEQ and EPA will facilitate
the water quality monitoring component of the project.
The purpose of
the UPWQEP is to provide water quality improvement through the development and
implementation of conservation plans and practices. These conservation practices will reduce
nutrient and sediment runoff into coastal waters.
The project will
be implemented in the Chunky-Okatibbee watersheds. The following counties are eligible: Clarke, Jasper, Kemper, Lauderdale, Neshoba,
and Newton.
To qualify for
this project, an applicant must have control of land and be in compliance with
the highly erodible land and wetland conservation compliance provisions. Priority will be assigned based upon the
location within the watershed prioritization zone, core practices, and
proximity of conservation practices to impaired waterbodies.
Applications
for all NRCS financial assistance programs are accepted on a continuous basis
with specific sign-up deadlines being established to rank, contract and fund
qualified tracts of land. The deadline to sign-up to be considered in the EQIP
first ranking period is March 1, 2018.
Applicants can sign up at their
local NRCS office. For more information, visit the NRCS website: http://www.nrcs.usda.gov/wps/portal/nrcs/site/ms/home/
. To locate the nearest NRCS
office visit http://offices.sc.egov.usda.gov/locator/app.
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