Enrollment for the Agricultural Water Conservation Initiatives Program, also known as the ponds program, is going on right now. This program gives landowners the chance to receive funding from a $2.42M initiative to help conserve agricultural irrigation water by constructing and improving irrigation reservoirs. Since the program began in 2001 it has helped to build 222 ponds and complete 447 irrigation retrofits. The sign-up period began Monday, August 3rd and ends on August 31st, 2009.

The Georgia Soil and Water Conservation Commission (GSWCC) will oversee the program, and the USDA Natural Resource Conservation Service (NRCS) will provide the technical assistance to landowners. Eligible counties include and are south of a line extending from Chattahoochee, Crawford, Wilkinson, Washington, and Burke counties. This program provides financial and technical assistance to landowners for reservoir development and irrigation system improvements to help conserve water for their operations.

These reservoirs are catchments that retain surface water for agricultural irrigation. Implementing these surface water impoundments will help decrease well drilling and aquifer withdrawals, while the retrofitting program improves application uniformity enabling farmers to irrigate crops more effectively.

The funds to build and repair reservoirs are available as a cost-share agreement between the GSWCC and Georgia landowners. To participate in the program, landowners must provide a minimum of 25 percent of the cost, while the Conservation Commission will fund 75 percent, not to exceed $50,000, of the estimated cost as determined by the NRCS.

As part of the irrigation retrofitting program, GSWCC conducts an initial field audit on the system to evaluate application uniformity. It must score below 70% using the Christiansen uniformity coefficient to qualify. To qualify for end gun shutoff financial assistance the system's end gun must apply water offsite to greater than .5 acres or wet a public roadway. After improvements have been made a retest is conducted by GSWCC and the system must score 80% uniformity or greater to receive payment. Retrofit payments are $6 per foot up to a maximum of $5,000 and end gun shut off is 75 percent of invoice up to a maximum of $3,000. Each application is scored by a point system to determine which ones will be chosen. Applications and program information are available on the GSWCC homepage www.gaswcc.org and at the Soil and Water Conservation Commission offices in Dawson (229-995- 6001), Milledgeville (478-445-5766), Cochran (478-934-7299) and Statesboro (912-681-5241), or at USDA Natural Resource Conservation offices in South Georgia. Please contact the Soil and Water Conservation Commission at 706-542-3065 or visit www.gaswcc.org for more information. Applications received after August 31st will not be considered for the program. Landowners that need supplemental irrigation are encouraged to apply.