Philip Slater, a representative of MCO Jasco who said he works with the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the NRCS, told Miller County commissioners about the Emergency Watershed Protection Program and its uses for communities recovering from storms and floods.

Slater said the program can fund removal of structures that cause soil erosion and stream debris removal and described buyouts for whole communities. "They will have the 75% of the cost and the what we call sponsors…those are the people that can sign up as what we call sponsors," Slater said, describing sponsors as mayors, councils, soil and water conservation districts and county commissioners. He said, in Limited Resource Areas, the federal share can shift to about 90% and sponsor responsibility to about 10%.

On eligibility and timing, Slater said communities typically have about 60 days from when a site is accessible to apply and that NRCS maintains a template letter that serves as an application. He said the template is submitted to the state conservationist (identified in the presentation as Terrence Rudolph in Athens, Georgia), who can send a damage-survey team of engineers, conservationists and biologists to inspect sites.

Slater also described coordination with other federal programs, saying NRCS may work on the same projects as FEMA or the Farm Service Agency under coordinated operating conditions but that agencies "will not pay the same amount of money for the same project"; he characterized NRCS as more construction-focused while FEMA often handles cleanup. He said certain projects can be fixed twice under program rules but not a third time, and noted some limitations on project types.

Commissioners were told they can contact the local NRCS office or the state NRCS office in Athens for more information and to obtain the application template. The presentation ended with commissioners thanking Slater and moving to other agenda items.