AWWA Advisory - June 2026

The Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) on Thursday issued a memo from its national office to NRCS state conservationists to identify and submit high-priority areas for local source water protection for fiscal year 2027.

Those interested in submitting are encouraged to engage with their NRCS state conservationists as soon as possible and well in advance of the Aug. 28 deadline for the conservationists to make their submissions.

As part of the 2018 Farm Bill and its subsequent extensions, NRCS is required to identify priority source water areas by working with stakeholders (including water systems) to identify areas where implementation of agricultural conservation practices would help to protect sources of drinking water. Agricultural producers in those areas can be eligible for higher payment rates to implement conservation practices that enhance source water protection if the practice both addresses water quality or quantity concerns and is implemented within a high-priority source water area.

The memo is directed at NRCS state staff, but its issuance is a key opportunity for water systems to engage with NRCS to help identify and prioritize areas where agricultural production (farming, ranching, and non-commercial forestry) may contribute to source water protection challenges related to water quality or quantity. NRCS lists a series of requirements in the memo that the state offices follow in crafting their responses. However, the most important item is to help identify the areas (by HUC12 watershed), the type of resource (ground water or surface water), and the types of concerns (nutrients, sediment, agrichemicals, animal waste, etc.) that could be addressed by prioritizing those areas.

All utilities with sources that have any influence from agricultural areas are encouraged to engage by suggesting priority source water areas (and/or revisions to existing ones) and can do so by:

This outreach is also an opportunity to engage with the NRCS state conservationist or designee about how conservation dollars have been deployed to assist with source water protection in their state to date. When the Farm Bill was reauthorized in 2018, it added the requirement that at least 10% (a floor, not a ceiling) of NRCS conservation dollars for most programs be allocated to source water protection. NRCS publishes national aggregate statistics, but few states have published information about how the funding has been used for this purpose locally. We encourage reporting any significant findings to Adam Carpenter, AWWA’s senior manager of environmental policy.

Additional AWWA and partner resources that may be helpful include the following:

Because NRCS state offices must provide revisions to NRCS headquarters by Aug. 28, those interested in engaging are encouraged to do so as soon as possible as state level processes and deadlines will vary.

Adam Carpenter is available to answer any questions.