Farms or New Developments?

http://www.cbf.org/site/News2?abbr=bw&page=NewsArticle&id=13405

 

 

"Which Fights Pollution Better: Farms or New Developments?

Tuesday, Jan. 24, 2006, By: Lee Epstein

 

A CBF member justifiably asks, 'If farms represent such a huge contributor to overall Bay pollution, why try to save them?'

 

Great Question from a CBF Member:

Since agriculture is a major source of the Bay watershed’s water pollution, isn’t the conversion of active farmland to urban development a good thing?  Acre for acre, doesn’t farming produce more of this harmful pollution than might new suburbs?

 

Inspired Answer: No, not really.

 

Well-managed farmland, woodlots, and other “working” lands comprise an important and fast-declining component of the Chesapeake Bay watershed and landscape.  Rural open space provides lots of natural habitat, and its woods and open fields can be effective natural filters for water.  Open and working land is also an economic and cultural asset, providing food and fiber and helping to define a sense of place.  We’re losing these lands at a fast clip throughout the watershed.  According to satellite data from the U.S. Geological Survey, impervious surfaces in the Chesapeake Bay watershed increased by more than 40 percent just during the 1990s—while accommodating only an 8 percent growth in population.  This consumption of farmland by (mostly) unmanaged suburban sprawl is a real problem for the Bay.

 

One cannot simply make an acre-to-acre comparison of farmland and new suburban development in order to determine water quality impact.  (Even if one did, according to the Chesapeake Bay Program,  taking into account both point and nonpoint sources, urban/suburban development delivers almost twice as much nitrogen to the Bay as does agriculture -- and urban land uses are expanding at a furious pace, while farm uses are shrinking.)

 

Five Reasons in Favor of Farmland

? First, an acre of residential development almost never occurs “alone.”  Accompanying it are the many additional acres of supporting development and impervious surfaces more and bigger roads, shopping centers and big box stores, schools, police and fire stations, churches that increase the pollution running off the land.

? Second, an acre of suburban sprawl permanently displaces an acre of the working landscape.  Farming can always revert to forest, and often does.  Urban/suburban land only gets “more” urban over time, and it is very expensive to treat its stormwater runoff compared to the much less expensive ways that farms can reduce these pollutants.

? Third, much of the forested land in the Bay watershed occurs on farms, and farmland often lies fallow or is managed in grass meadow at any given time with very low pollution running off it.

? Fourth, urbanization displaces natural habitats, whereas these habitats are often found on farmland: forest patches, meandering streams, wetlands.  And developed land speeds up and heats local streams, erodes their banks, and changes the groundwater regime.  Hardened suburban areas pour water furiously into nearby waterways, sending sediment and pollution into larger receiving waters that are increasingly stressed.  Sediment and erosion control practices are usually lax, and stormwater management the way it’s currently designed and practiced doesn’t reduce nitrogen and phosphorus runoff enough.

? Fifth, increased air pollution from cars and trucks, and to supply power, is a regular by-product of sprawling urban change accounting for a quarter to a third of the nitrogen loads in the Bay.   Air pollution means water pollution.  Rainwater runoff from impervious streets, parking lots and rooftops not only carries toxics and the nitrogen from lawns and construction sites, but also the “dry” and “wet”-fall of air pollution from tailpipes and smokestacks.

 

What’s CBF Doing About All This?

 

For one thing, increasing the pace of agricultural and rural land preservation is an important CBF objective.  We’re trying to make sure that localities, states and the federal government dedicate sufficient funds for easements to help farmers permanently keep their land in farming.  It’s also important that state and local governments authorize and employ the right regulatory tools.  Current farmland that is zoned to accommodate one house per two, three, or five acres, or “strip commercial” development along roads, won’t withstand the pressure to develop sprawl for long.  So, extremely low density zoning is important, and might be accompanied by such local tools as Transfer (or Purchase) of Development Rights in order to provide added equity for farmers.  At the same time, much of the new growth can shift to existing towns, cities and villages, strengthening their economies and communities.

 

We’ve also joined forces with the business and development communities in the greater Washington, DC and Richmond metropolitan areas to promote good, “smart growth” development projects on the ground.  Starting in Washington about three years ago, CBF allied itself with the Urban Land Institute, the Metropolitan Washington Builder’s Council, the Coalition for Smarter Growth, and the Greater Washington Board of Trade to form the Smart Growth Alliance.

 

Among its several programs is one that judges proposed development projects submitted by developers against a tough set of criteria.  If the Alliance’s jury deems the project to have sufficiently met the criteria, the plan is given the Alliance’s smart growth stamp of recognition and a helpful political push.  To date, 31 smart growth projects have so far been endorsed.  A similar alliance and program is nearly ready to launch in the greater Richmond area.

 

Of course, the other good to come out of these alliances is that in working together, these strange bedfellows are actually finding much common ground in the absolute necessity of preserving important open space forever."

 

Thanks to Susan Arday for sending this article.

J.Deaver

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Click here to read about Delaware's FARM PRESERVATION PROGRAM

 

http://www.state.de.us/deptagri/aglands/lndpres.shtml