Standing at the Henderson Family Farm in Penn Yan on Monday, U.S. Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer launched his two-pronged plan to boost federal funding for farmers and communities to combat harmful algal blooms (HABs) in the Finger Lakes region.
Schumer wants to boost funding for the Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP), which provides direct financial assistance to farmers looking to protect waterways and prevent runoff that leads to HABs. Second, Schumer highlighted the importance of reauthorizing the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative (GLRI) and increasing support in it for programs to combat HABs to protect Upstate NY’s waterways.
HABs can be harmless but can also pose a threat to humans and animals if ingested, causing respiratory illness, skin rashes, eye irritation, and even liver damage. This year, the Finger Lakes region has seen an unprecedented surge in HABs, impacting major lakes throughout the area. Seneca Lake reported a record-breaking 50 confirmed blooms from August 24-29 alone, while Canandaigua Lake recorded 42 blooms in a single week from September 6-13, causing the closure of swimming beaches at Kershaw Park and Lakeshore Park. Cayuga Lake experienced 16 confirmed blooms, stretching from Ithaca to Seneca Falls, and Keuka Lake reported 21 blooms, 11 of which were identified as HABs.
According to Schumer, this surge highlights the growing urgency to address nutrient runoff and environmental changes contributing to HABs, emphasizing the need for targeted action to protect public health and support the region’s ecosystems and economy.
“At the end of this summer tourism season, the Finger Lakes saw some of the worst toxic algae blooms in recent memory. We can’t have our waterways swimming with harmful algae, hurting our local economies, closing our beaches, stopping fishing, and putting community health at risk,” said Senator Schumer. “The feds need to step up to provide additional support to make sure our beautiful Upstate lakes stay safe and algae-free. That’s why I’m launching my two-pronged push to keep our waters clean. Boosting programs like EQIP is a win-win supporting our local farmers who know how to care for the land and reauthorizing the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative, which provides the grants communities need for local preservation projects. We need to make sure next season is better than the last when it comes to HABs, and that all can enjoy the full natural beauty and economic energy of the Finger Lakes.”
Schumer said the federal EQIP has been very successful and is a win-win program and he wants to surge funding to expand it. Over 250 farms in the Finger Lakes have received a total of over $10.4 million in EQIP grants over the past 3 years to pay for ground cover, drainage, erosion mitigation, and other projects that help prevent the erosion and nutrient runoff that can fuel HABs in the Upstate NY waterways.
The Henderson Farm was recently able to tap EQIP for a number of new improvements to address nutrient runoff. Specifically, farm owner Matt Henderson used EQIP to work with USDA NRCS officials to plant cover crops on nearly 200 acres in the fall after their buckwheat harvest to absorb excess nutrients in the soil and prevent erosion into the area’s watershed via the small wetlands and seasonal streams on the farm. In addition, the farm transitioned from full tillage to reduced or no tillage farming practices across 300 acres. Tillage erosion is a major cause of soil and nutrient movement across lands because the tilling breaks up the soil structure, which increases surface runoff and erosion.
“As the fourth generation of my family to farmland in Yates County, we know first-hand the value in being good stewards to conserve and protect the land and our natural resources like the Finger Lakes,” said Matt Henderson. We appreciate Senator Schumer’s support for programs like EQIP that have enabled farms like ours to work with USDA NRCS experts to implement new ways to reduce erosion and farm runoff into our watersheds and Finger Lakes.”
EQIP provides agricultural grants and technical assistance to farmers to help them adopt conservation practices that reduce their farm’s environmental impact, including addressing the increased number of HABs that are impacting our Finger Lakes, while reducing costs on farms. Some benefits of implementing agricultural conservation practices include efficient nutrient use and improved soil health, which reduces both costs for farmers and runoff into local waterways that contribute to HABs growth while also improving the farm’s resiliency to drought.
EQIP is administered by the USDA’s Natural Resource Conservation Service (NRCS). Schumer said it is important to fully fund NRCS to ensure there is adequate staffing and resources to help local farmers, like Matt Henderson with Henderson Farms in the Town of Milo, get the assistance they need to implement cost-saving, climate-smart agricultural practices. Schumer is pushing to increase NRCS funding to $985 million in the end-of-year government spending bill. Since the program’s inception in 1996, New York farmers have received over $137 million in funding from EQIP, including $23 million in 2023 alone, the largest amount of funding the state has received in a single year.
Schumer also discussed his second push to increase the funding authority for the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative (GLRI) to $500 million and reauthorize the program through 2031 to ensure Great Lakes ecosystems, including in the Finger Lakes, can thrive.
The GLRI supports grants and cost-sharing programs that, similar to EQIP, allow farmers to reduce their fertilizer use and minimize nutrient loss to the environment that contributes to HABs growth. Schumer secured $1 billion – the largest ever single investment – in the GLRI as a part of the bipartisan Infrastructure Investment & Jobs Law.
Supporting projects that reduce nutrients lost from agriculture is a priority for the GLRI. By helping farmers make fertilizers more efficient so less nutrients are lost to the environment, the GLRI can help prevent the growth of these HABs in local lakes.
Schumer explained that the GLRI, which expires in FY2027, has had a significant impact on Upstate NY since its inception in 2010, including the creation of the Genesee River Demonstration Farms Network that is working with Finger Lakes region farms to innovate new conservation practices that not only benefit the farms, but improve water quality, reduce runoff, and improve natural resources.
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