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Information on Agricultural Water Use in Maine

Water Management Planning
Whenever you begin to look into starting or expanding irrigation on your farm, start with developing a water management plan. A plan, on paper, will help you understand your water needs, timing of water use, and the size of the storage or well capacity you may need.
We strongly suggest you go to The NRCS page, http://www.wcc.nrcs.usda.gov/nrcsirrig/ which has a good template to follow. You can enlist the help of your local NRCS office, or contact us at the Maine Department of Agriculture (John Harker) for assistance. For larger projects, you may want to consider contacting a consultant (See the list below).

Permitting New Sources of Water

Building a pond or drilling a new well must start with a water management plan, and with a trip to the USDA-NRCS office and Maine Department of Environmental Protection office http://www.maine.gov/dep/blwq/docstand/nrpapage.htm or Land Use Regulation Commission office if you are in LURC jurisdiction). Why? Because most likely you will be impacting a wetland or be close to a wetland, intermittent stream, etc. If you schedule an appointment with those agencies at the start, they can guide you through what you may need for a permit and the timeline for getting a permit. Again, the NRCS page http://www.me.nrcs.usda.gov/technical/IrrigationPondPermitApplicationProcess.html has a document that steps you through the process for permitting a pond, if a wetland is impacted. You can contact us at the Department to also help guide you. You may not need a permit in all situations. A number of sites, even with a wetland involved, may be exempt from the need for a permit. Army Corps of Engineers oversees all wetland permitting for Maine.

Status of Water Supplies in Maine
A good place to find out the current status of water supplies in Maine can be found at the U.S. Geological Survey.

Weather
A number of good sites give you up to the minute information on weather. The one here brings you to NOAA.

Drought Management Task Force
This site brings you to the State's drought management committee and important information about the current drought situation, http://www.maine.gov/mema/drought/.

Cost Share Grant and Loan Programs
The two major programs that help with funding water sources and equipment upgrades are the USDA-NRCS Agricultural Management and EQUIP programs (Start with your local Conservation District Office) and the New Maine Department of Agriculture Cost Share Program for new source development. Both had deadlines for applications.

Other Irrigation Sites
A big listing of resources for irrigation at Jess Stryker's Irrigation Tutorials.
Another general list of other sites related to water use Texas Water Resources Institute
EPA site for New England Watershed information
Repository for technical papers on irrigation and hydrology: National Water Management Center

 

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