BMP Reimbursements

Solano RCD is working in partnership with the Dixon RCD, Yolo County RCD and the Yolo County Farm Bureau to offer technical support and funding for on-farm water quality and soil conservation Best Management Practices (BMPs).  The program is supported by a grant from the State Water Resources Control Board (SWRCB) and will run through early 2008.

Growers or landowner can be reimbursed for costs to install sediment traps, vegetated filter strips, cover crops and vegetated ditches.  At each site where a BMP is installed, the RCD will monitor water quality, either during a winter storm or irrigation event, in order to evaluate the effectiveness of the practice.  Projects implemented through this program will help to demonstrate the value of these Best Management Practices for improving runoff water quality. 

A sediment trap is an excavated ditch that temporarily impounds irrigation tailwater or stormwater runoff.  Sediment traps can reduce sediment in runoff water by 30-50% or more.

A filter strip is an area of vegetation that slows the flow of runoff water and filters out sediment, nutrients, and pesticides from irrigation and stormwater runoff.  Filter strips can remove 50-80% or pesticides and nutrients. 

Cover crops are non-cash crops that protect soil from erosion by rainwater, and their roots anchor soils throughout the winter.  cover crops can reduce storm runoff by more than 50% and sediment concentration in runoff water by 30-45%.

In vegetated drainage ditches plant matter and associated microorganisms trap sediments and take up excess nutrients and pesticides in agricultural drainage water.  In a well-designed ditch, vegetation can remove 38-98% of pesticides.