GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF NORTH CAROLINA

SESSION 1995

S	1 

SENATE BILL 1347

Short Title:  Target Agriculture Cost Share Funds.	(Public)

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Sponsors: Senators Odom, Cooper, Martin of Guilford, Conder, Rand, Warren, Perdue, Plyler, and Albertson.

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Referred to:  Appropriations.

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May 27, 1996

A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
AN ACT TO INCREASE FUNDING OF THE AGRICULTURE COST SHARE PROGRAM AND TO REQUIRE THAT THE PROGRAM TARGET THE ADDITIONAL FUNDS TO FARMERS IN THE NEUSE RIVER BASIN TO REDUCE WATER QUALITY PROBLEMS FROM NONPOINT SOURCE POLLUTION.
The General Assembly of North Carolina enacts:
Section 1.  G.S. 143-215.74 reads as rewritten:
"§ 143-215.74.  Agriculture cost share program.
(a)	There is created the Agriculture Cost Share Program for Nonpoint Source Pollution Control.  The program shall be created, implemented, and supervised by the Soil and Water Conservation Commission.
(b)	The program shall be subject to the following requirements and limitations:
(1)	The purpose of the program shall be to reduce the input of agricultural nonpoint source pollution into the water courses of the State.
(2)	The program shall initially include the present 16 nutrient sensitive watershed counties and 17 additional counties.
(3)	Priority designations for inclusions in the program shall be under the authority of the Soil and Water Conservation Commission and the Commission.  The Soil and Water Conservation Commission shall retain the authority to allocate the cost share funds.
(4)	Areas shall be included in the program as the funds are appropriated and the technical assistance becomes available from the local Soil and Water Conservation District.
(5)	Funding may be provided to assist practices including nutrient management plans, forested streamside buffers, conservation tillage, diversions, filter strips, field borders, critical area plantings, sediment control structures, sod-based rotations, grassed waterways, strip-cropping, terraces, cropland conversion to permanent vegetation, grade control structures, water control structures, and animal waste managements systems and application.
(6)	State funding shall be limited to seventy-five percent (75%) of the average cost for each practice with the assisted farmer providing twenty-five percent (25%) of the cost (which may include in-kind support) with a maximum of seventy-five thousand dollars ($75,000) per year to each applicant.
(7)	Funding shall be targeted toward projects that enhance or improve water quality.  To be eligible for funds under this subdivision, a project shall be evaluated before funding is awarded as well as after the project has been completed to determine the impact on water quality.  Applicants who receive funding under this subdivision shall prepare and implement a nutrient management plan, unless the land will not be maintained in crop production.
(c)	The program shall be reviewed, prior to implementation, by the Committee created by G.S. 143-215.74B.  The Technical Review Committee shall meet quarterly to review the progress of this program.
(d)	State funds for the program shall remain available until expended for the program."
Sec. 2.  There is appropriated from the General Fund to the Department of Environment, Health, and Natural Resources, the sum of four million five hundred thousand dollars ($4,500,000) for the 1996-97 fiscal year for the Agriculture Cost Share Program to be used for projects under G.S. 143-215.74(b)(7) as set forth in Section 1 of this act, and the sum of five hundred thousand dollars ($500,000) for the 1996-97 fiscal year for technical assistance for projects under this act. 
Sec. 3.  This act is effective upon ratification and applies to any county that lies in whole or in part within the Neuse River Basin.