New Drain Tiling Legislation Proposed for SD

UGUIDE

UGUIDE

Active member
This was brought to my attention by one of our hunters and I thought I would post here. Interesting piece of legislation and even more interesting to see where this goes.

http://talk.newagtalk.com/forums/thread-view.asp?tid=363496&mid=2867652#M2867652

Help Fight South Dakota Senate Bill 179
Proposed Bill Will Harm Farmers and the South Dakota Economy

From Brian Hefty, Baltic, S.D. (February 1, 2012)

Improving farm drainage throughout our region has been a big point of emphasis for my brother Darren and me over the last few years since we started tiling on our farm. Unfortunately, many legislators in the state of South Dakota are concerned that the tiling projects being completed in our state are doing harm to our environment, our rivers, and our neighbors. Obviously, this isn't true.

I am writing you today to ask you to consider attending a committee meeting in Pierre on Wednesday, Feb. 6 as Senate Bill 179 is debated. Many farmers are planning to attend, but the more we can get there, the quicker this bill gets stopped. PLEASE CHECK WITH YOUR LEGISLATOR OR SD CORN (605-334-0100) BEFORE YOU GO, JUST TO MAKE SURE THEY DON'T CHANGE THE DATE OR TIME FOR THIS COMMITTEE HEARING.

This bill, if enacted, would do great harm to farmers in our state and potential tiling projects in the future. It would require all tiling projects to be designed by an engineer and have an impact study done before any tile project is approved. I can understand getting an engineer involved if you're talking about hundreds of thousands of acres all going through one big pipe or one big ditch, but on most farms in our state the drainage only impacts a few fields at one time.

A copy of the draft of Senate Bill 179 is available for you to review at this link:
http://legis.state.sd.us/sessions/2013/Bills/SB179P.pdf

You will see that it is not favorable to farmers, and contains many points that could grind progress to a halt in South Dakota.

As farmers, we need to work more closely with non-farmers so they can better understand tiling and what it does. For example, tiling reduces erosion; tiling reduces flooding; tiling improves downstream water quality; and proper tiling helps improve roads, as well. Darren and I often reference the Zucker and Brown work done in 1998 at Ohio State which describes tiling as having little impact on the total annual flow in a watershed. I often say to non-farmers, "How do you think a farmer can pay for the tile?" The only way is through yield increases, and higher yields mean more water is used. That means LESS water will flow downstream rather than more in the future.

If you are unable to make it to Pierre next week, I encourage you to contact your legislators. Here is some information on how to do that.

Leave a message for your Senator at 605-773-3821 and for your Representative at 605-773-3851. You may leave messages with a page for up to 2 legislators. Give the bill number, the vote you want, your name and County or a message for them to call you.

To e-mail your legislator, use the link below. It helps to personalize the e-mail, and don't forget to sign it.
http://legis.state.sd.us/email/LegislatorEmail.aspx

Use this link to find which district you are in:
http://arcgis.sd.gov/server/dlrc/lrc2012/

Use this link to find out who your legislators are:
http://legis.state.sd.us/who/index.aspx

My final point is simply this - in Iowa and Minnesota they probably get twice as much annual rainfall as we do in South Dakota, yet they don't have any laws like this. Why do we need one? When tiling is done correctly, it is great for the environment and our neighbors, which is why Darren and I invest as much time as we do training people on how to install tile correctly.

Everyone in government is looking at how we can grow the economy yet do it in an environmentally responsible fashion. Proper tiling fits into both categories. Senate Bill 179 will slow progress, hurt our economy, damage land values, and negatively impact South Dakota families and communities. Please help us in fighting it.

Sincerely,

Brian Hefty
605-529-5412
[email protected]
 
This is a perfect example of to see the wide spread of agriculture vs. Conservaton. Pay for it ?, are you serious! You mean with tax deductions and grants, paid by taxpayers. The only reason Minnesota and Iowa don't have this law is because they are unenlighted or based in the grip of Farm based Lobbys.
 
the ugliest thing I saw in the midwest was semi-trailers full of black tile sitting next to farmers fields while the crew was out with heavy machinery tearing down the shelterbelts and burning everything in sight so they could plant another couple acres. shouldn't that moisture be left to soak deep into your soils and not be diverted to some other area??
 
Repeat of the Dust Bowl?

Did any you of watch the PBS series about the Dust Bowl? A very troubled time in our history. The drought of the 1930s caused evnivormental havoc throughout the mid section of our country. I am hoping that the trend toward plowing up every acre owned does not lead to the same consequences. I farming is a business and a very vital one. However na tural buffers and water catches seem to be part of natures way of balancing extremes in nature. We can pray for more rain/moisture, but let's balance the current farming practices by leaving some natural habitat/moisture catches.
 
I see he uses a study done here in Ohio. This is where in many of our lakes we are having huge toxic alge blooms such as Lake St Marys and even lake Erie due to field drainage and run off of fertilizers and manures.How is this good for our envioment? Now they are trying to come up with ways to slow down the water in big rain events.More tax payer money spent on a problem created by a few people with help of our so called soil and water conservation districs.
 
"As farmers, we need to work more closely with non-farmers so they can better understand tiling and what it does. For example, tiling reduces erosion; tiling reduces flooding; tiling improves downstream water quality"

How is any of this even remotely true?
 
jeffstally said:
"As farmers, we need to work more closely with non-farmers so they can better understand tiling and what it does. For example, tiling reduces erosion; tiling reduces flooding; tiling improves downstream water quality"

How is any of this even remotely true?
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Mr Hefty lives not far from me. He has a weekly tv show, all about spreading more fertilze, weed control and pesticides. It's hiS business. I am going to exactly the opisite of what he says in contacting my reps. Doubt if it will do much good.
My creek ran dirty for the first time in 7 years last spring. I have documentation of the erosion damage to the Willow Creek drainage. I was to attend a meeting re a big conservation push to keep silt out of the Skunk Creek drainage of which Willow is a big part. Unfortunately I could not attend, as I was delivering puppies. I do not understand the push to get the water downhill as quickly as possible then complain about the floods. There is no filtering anymore.
 
No way much filtering goes on once the soil is saturated. The water goes right into a tile and right to a open ditch. The hog farm just down the road from me used to pump there manure pit onto the fields with a big sprinkler type system. In a matter of just a few hours the liquid would be running out the tiles into the nearby creek and would kill all the fish for hundreds of yards down steam.
 
Any correlation between giagantic farm equipment and compaction, and increased use of pesticides, fertilizers, detroying buffer zones which decrease tillage on ridiculously priced farmground, to placate cash hunger investors,or owner operator. When you strip the land of everything but season crops, heck yes you need tile to fix the problems you created in the first place. No doubt Ohio is a model, It's been a barren waste ground since the 1970's, so they would know!
 
Win97 said:
No way much filtering goes on once the soil is saturated.
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That is the idea with saturated soil the nutrient laden water just runs off. With a tile the ground is not saturated.
 
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Hey if you guys just sink some deep wells to irrigate in drought years you could be just like california someday.:cheers:

Where this picture was taken is about 30 miles from my house and shows soil subsidence that continues today. The top mark is where the soil WAS in 1925.:eek:

JoePoland1-138x300_zpsf88d66f3.jpg
 
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Where do you think tile water goes? It usally goes to a open ditch which ends up in a bigger river or lake. With big orange risers in the low areas that used to be wetlands, with cattails that actually held and filterd water now runs staight into a tile taking with it many nutrients and pesticides.
 
It would seem there is no shortage of arguments that spin the purpose of tiling either for or against the environment. Or for or against agricultural drain tile.

I see the purpose of tile as 1 thing....to move water....excess water.

Just like drain tile in a basement it is designed to move water out of undersireable areas.

Unlike drain tile agricultural tile seeks to move water "off" the property and on to someone elses.

Another way to look at this is for a landowner to take their problem....and make it somebody elses.

This begs for a definition of what environmental responsibility is or should be. When we don't define it correctly for ourselves then the government will get involved and help us define it.

I took the position that if there is a pothole on my farm then it is there for a functional purpose: To filter water and take it down in the soil profile not off the farm. Yes, I'm a water hoarder:D

If one could assess the environmental cost of tiling water off a farm and assess those costs back to the landowner I suspect tiling would not be as popular as it is.
 
Win97 said:
Where do you think tile water goes? It usally goes to a open ditch which ends up in a bigger river or lake. With big orange risers in the low areas that used to be wetlands, with cattails that actually held and filterd water now runs staight into a tile taking with it many nutrients and pesticides.
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I donot think around here they allow surface drains. At least I have not seen any. All the water has to be filtered through the soil first. That reduces P and K run off as well as sediment erosion. Granted N can be a problem if not managed we'll in the first place.


UGUIDE said:
If one could assess the environmental cost of tiling water off a farm and assess those costs back to the landowner I suspect tiling would not be as popular as it is.
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Doe that mean I get paid if I am doing an enviornmental benefit.
 
I have potholes on the ranch, Whole bunch of them, I like the poholes, (VERY WILDLIFE FRIENDLY):)
Dry weather has made it possible to take the skid steer in some of the shallow ones., down to where I had water seeping in.
We're accumulating a lot of snow up here, hilly country will have good runoff, should give me good water this Spring. :thumbsup:

Not only ag drain tile pollutes, How about Municipalities and storm sewers and all the fertilizer added to lawns and parks. And Golf Courses they drain tile, irrigate, fertilize to the extreme. :eek:
 
I notice that with all the money to be made and is being made on crops these days Farmers are spending a lot of money. Around here they are cleaning up the corners of the pivots. New pivots to cover more area and for sure getting rid of the low spots in the fields. Those areas that hold water after snow melt and for a few days after a hard rain. Farmers want to plant through these areas, basically farm through the whole field at the same time.

Can You blame them? Their running a business.
Those weedy, low areas in cropland where some fine pheasant cover though.:(

Farmers have the money to spend now and any expense is tax deductible, so look for a LOT more land to go into crops.
 
Yes I guess I can blame them to some degree. Fogive them for they not know what they do. I feel you can farm and still make money without taking out all the wildlife habitat as they have done here in the east. Soon the west will be like it is here,nothing much left. It happend very quickly here begining in the 70's.We have lost 98 percent of our wetlands in my state, and whats left is in danger.
 
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