Wellesley is the “poster child” for a program that helps farmers make changes to their operations that protect water sources.
The Rural Water Quality Program has been widely adopted in the township, the Grand River Conservation Authority acknowledge in a presentation Tuesday night to township councillors.
The RWQP provides grants to farmers to help them undertake projects to protect water quality.
Dating back to 1998, the program as a whole has helped to complete more than 5,000 projects, giving out $16 million in direct grants to cover anywhere from 30 to 100 per cent of project costs.
Over the years, the program has helped farmers to complete projects such as fencing, tree planting, manure storage, well decommissioning and the like – projects that will improve and protect water quality at a local level.
“It is a cost-share project so what that means is that farmers are also contributing towards the project as well, so what you will see is that although there has been $16 million in grants, there has actually been more than $45-million invested across our watershed in protecting and improving water quality, which I think is pretty significant. We are looking at a watershed that is the size of PEI,” said Crystal Allan, natural heritage supervisor with the GRCA.
Although the agency administers the program, most of the funds come from municipal governments.
“Wellesley is actually, sort of our poster child and has had the greatest uptake and the greatest action in having these projects implemented,” she said. “We are thrilled to work with your residents here in Wellesley and put them up as a shining example in the watershed outside of this area.”
In Wellesley alone, the program has helped farmers complete 810 projects, with $3.3 million of the $10.8 million invested coming from program grants.
Farmers can participate in the voluntary program by submitting an application outlining their proposed project to the organization.
