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Ozment proposes 'legacy' CREP plan Tuesday, March 2, 2004
Agri News staff writer
ST. PAUL -- It's time to change the paradigm in how the state deals with water quality issues.
Conservationists have relied on land use restrictions as a tool to clean up water quality, said Rep. Dennis Ozment, R-Rosemount, but technology may create new ways of keeping the water clean.
With this is mind, Ozment has proposed a Legacy CREP Agreement. The deal would allow landowners to purchase back all or part of the use rights on the enrolled property after 35 years have passed, provided that the owner agrees to maintain the water quality improvement.
Ozment said this program would allow landowners opposed to permanent easements another option to enroll in CREP. Permanent and 50-year easements would also be available.
"I really think we've got an opportunity," Ozment said. "This could change a lot of attitudes."
Water quality advocates don't want to dictate what farmers do on their land -- they want clean water. If clean water can be achieved by another means, he has no problem with farmers returning the land to production.
"To me, it's the water that should be the focus," Ozment said.
He represents suburban constituents who are willing to invest in water quality, but they don't want to keep investing on the same property.
Now every parcel is treated the same. Ozment said new technologies, such as fecal identification studies under way at the University of Minnesota, will make that obsolete. Instead, conservation will be individual to each parcel.
In order to be eligible to participate in the Legacy Agreement, land would have to meet certain standards. Standards would include being highly erodible or being within a sensitive ground water area.
A conservation plan would be required for each property, spelling out owner rights and responsibilities. Special attention would be paid to not impacting the drainage or productivity of non-enrolled lands, Ozment said.
Landowners who would want to buy back all or part of the land-use restrictions would do so at the appraised value of the land-use restrictions, provided that water quality protection continues. The land would also be appraised when it entered the agreement.
Landowners would be allowed to deduct the cost of providing the required water quality or flood damage reduction from the appraised estimated market value when repurchasing the rights.
The money from the buy back would go to a special fund set up to replace wildlife habitat lost when the land is put back to agricultural production, Ozment said. This would result in no net loss of habitat, though the location may change.
The final point of the plan is a landowner bill of rights. The bill of rights would be given to each person who signs up for CREP. It would spell out landowner rights and responsibilities. |
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