(a) FSA will provide cost-share assistance to farmers and ranchers to rehabilitate farmland damaged by wind erosion, floods, hurricanes, wildfire, or other natural disasters as determined by the Deputy Administrator, and to carry out emergency water conservation measures during periods of severe drought, subject to the availability of funds and only for areas, natural disasters, and time periods approved by the Deputy Administrator.

(b) The objective of the ECP is to make cost-share assistance available to eligible participants on eligible land for certain practices, to rehabilitate farmland damaged by floods, hurricanes, wildfire, wind erosion, or other natural disasters, and for the installation of water conservation measures during periods of severe drought.

(c) Payments may also be made under this subpart for:

(1) Emergency water conservation or water enhancement measures (including measures to assist confined livestock) during periods of severe drought; and

(2) Floodplain easements for runoff and other emergency measures that the Deputy Administrator determines is necessary to safeguard life and property from floods, drought, and the products of erosion on any watershed whenever fire, flood, or other natural occurrence is causing or has caused, a sudden impairment of the watershed.

(d) Payments under this part are subject to the availability of appropriated funds and any limitations that may otherwise be provided for by Congress.

(a) To be eligible to participate in the ECP the Deputy Administrator must determine that a person or legal entity is an agricultural producer with an interest in the land affected by the natural disaster, and that person or legal entity must be liable for or have paid the expense that is the subject of the cost share. The applicant must be a landowner or user in the area where the qualifying event has occurred, and must be a party who will incur the expense that is the subject of the cost share.

(b) Federal agencies and States, including all agencies and political subdivisions of a State, are ineligible to participate in the ECP.

(c) All producer eligibility is subject to the availability of funds and an application may be denied for any reason.

(a) For land to be eligible, the Deputy Administrator must determine that land that is the subject of the cost share:

(1) Will have new conservation problems caused as a result of a natural disaster that, if not treated, would:

(i) Impair or endanger the land;

(ii) Materially affect the productive capacity of the land;

(iii) Represent unusual damage that, except for wind erosion, is not of the type likely to recur frequently in the same area; and

(iv) Be so costly to repair that Federal assistance is or will be required to return the land to productive agricultural use. Conservation problems existing prior to the disaster are not eligible for cost-share assistance.

(2) Be physically located in a county in which the ECP has been implemented; and

(3) Be one of the following:

(i) Land expected to have annual agricultural production,

(ii) A field windbreak or a farmstead shelterbelt on which the ECP practice to be implemented involves removing debris that interferes with normal farming operations on the farm and correcting damage caused by the disaster; or

(iii) A farm access road on which debris interfering with the normal farming operation needs to be removed.

(b) Land is ineligible for cost share if the Deputy Administrator determines that it is, as applicable:

(1) Protected by a levee or dike that was not effectively and properly functioning prior to the disaster, or is protected, or intended to be protected, by a levee or dike not built to U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, NRCS, or comparable standards;

(2) Adjacent to water impoundment reservoirs that are subject to inundation when the reservoir is filled to capacity;

(3) Land on which levees or dikes are located;

(4) Subject to frequent damage or susceptible to severe damage according to paragraph (c) of this section;

(5) Subject to flowage or flood easements and inundation when water is released in normal operations;

(6) Between any levee or dike and a stream, river, or body of water, including land between two or more levees or dikes;

(7) Located in an old or new channel of a stream, creek, river or other similar body of water, except that land located within or on the banks of an irrigation canal may be eligible if the Deputy Administrator determines that the canal is not a channel subject to flooding;

(8) In greenhouses or other confined areas, including but not limited to, land in corrals, milking parlors, barn lots, or feeding areas;

(9) Land on which poor farming practices, such as failure to farm on the contour, have materially contributed to damaging the land;

(10) Unless otherwise provided for, not considered to be in annual agricultural production, such as land devoted to stream banks, channels, levees, dikes, native woodland areas, roads, and recreational uses; or

(11) Devoted to trees including, but not limited to, timber production.

(c) To determine the likely frequency of damage and of the susceptibility of the land to severe damage under paragraph (b)(6) of this section, FSA will consider all relevant factors, including, but not limited to, the location of the land, the history of damage to the land, and whether the land was or could have been protected by a functioning levee or dike built to U. S. Army Corps of Engineers, NRCS, or comparable standards. Further, in making such determinations, information may be obtained and used from the Federal Emergency Management Agency or any other Federal, State (including State agencies or political subdivisions), or other entity or individual providing information regarding, for example, flood susceptibility for the land, soil surveys, aerial photographs, or flood plain data or other relevant information.

(d) Additional provisions making Government-owned land eligible is specified in § 701.106.

(a) State-owned land. When land is owned by a State, whether it is eligible for cost share is as specified in this paragraph (a) in addition to the requirements in § 701.105.

(1) If an eligible person or legal entity has a lease for the State-owned land that allows cost share, and files a cost share request for the State-owned land, the land is eligible for cost share if, as determined by FSA, the:

(i) Eligible person or legal entity will directly benefit from the practice; or

(ii) The land will remain in agricultural production throughout the established practice life span.

(2) If an eligible person or legal entity files a cost-share request for State-owned land, the land is ineligible for cost share if, as determined by FSA, the:

(i) Practice is for the primary benefit of the State or State agencies; or

(ii) Eligible person or legal entity is prohibited by the lease from accepting cost-share.

(b) Federally-owned farmland. When land is federally owned, whether it is eligible for cost-share is as specified in this paragraph (a), in addition to the requirements in § 701.105.

(1) If an eligible person or legal entity files a cost-share request on federally owned farmland, the land is eligible if all of the following apply:

(i) An eligible private person or legal entity is farming or ranching the farmland;

(ii) An eligible person or legal entity has a lease that does not prohibit cost-share;

(iii) The practice will primarily benefit nearby or adjacent privately owned farmland of the eligible person or legal entity performing the practice;

(iv) A person or legal entity performing the practice has authorization from a Federal agency to install and maintain the practice;

(v) The Federal land is the most practical location for the eligible practice; and

(vi) During a drought, the practice will primarily benefit the livestock owned or managed by the eligible person or legal entity performing the practice.

(2) If an eligible person or legal entity files a cost share request on federally-owned land, the land is ineligible if the practices performed on these lands are for the benefit of land owned by a Federal agency.

(c) Federal or State agency. For the purposes of this subpart, private persons or legal entities exclude Federal and State agencies.

(a) To qualify for assistance under § 701.103(a), the eligible damage must be so costly that Federal assistance is or will be required to return the land to productive agricultural use or to provide emergency water for livestock.

(b) The Deputy Administrator shall establish the minimum qualifying cost of restoration. Each affected State may be allowed to establish a higher minimum qualifying cost of restoration.

(c) A producer may request a waiver of the qualifying minimum cost of restoration. The waiver request shall document how failure to grant the waiver will result in environmental damage or hardship to the producer and how the waiver will accomplish the goals of the program.

(a) Duplicate payments. Participants are not eligible to receive funding under ECP on the same piece of land for which the participant has or will receive funding under any other Federal program that covers the same or similar expenses so as to create duplicate payments, or, in effect, a higher rate of cost share than is allowed under this part.

(1) The Wetland Reserve Program (WRP) provided for in 7 CFR part 1467;

(2) The Emergency Wetland Reserve Program (EWRP) provided for in 7 CFR part 623;

(3) The Emergency Watershed Protection Program (EWP), provided for in 7 CFR part 624, for the same or similar expenses; or

(4) Any other Federal program that covers the same or similar expenses so as to create duplicate payments, or, in effect, a higher rate of cost share than is allowed under this part.

(b) Refund. Participants who receive any duplicate funds, payments, or benefits shall refund any ECP payments received.

(a) Cost-share assistance may be offered for ECP practices to replace or restore farmland, fences, or conservation structures to a condition similar to that existing before the natural disaster. No relief under this subpart shall be allowed to address conservation problems existing before the disaster.

(b) The practice or practices made available when the ECP is implemented shall be only those practices authorized by FSA for which cost-share assistance is essential to permit accomplishment of the program goals.

(c) Cost-share assistance may be provided for permanent vegetative cover, including establishment of the cover where needed, only in conjunction with eligible structures or installations where cover is needed to prevent erosion and/or siltation or to accomplish some other ECP purpose.

(d) Practice specifications shall represent the minimum levels of performance needed to address the ECP need.

To be eligible for payments issued from the $16 million provided under the U.S. Troop Readiness, Veterans' Care, Katrina Recovery, and Iraq Accountability Appropriations Act, 2007 (Pub. L. 110-28, section 9003), each applicant must meet the provisions of the Adjusted Gross Income Limitations at 7 CFR part 1400 subpart G.

(a) In addition to other restrictions that may be applied by FSA, an ECP participant shall not receive more than 75 percent of the total allowable costs, as determined by this part, to perform the practice.

(b) However, notwithstanding paragraph (a) of this section, a producer who is a limited resource, socially disadvantaged, or beginning farmer or rancher that participates in ECP may receive up to 90 percent of the total allowable costs expended to perform the practice as determined under this part.

(c) In addition to other limitations that apply, in no case will the ECP payment exceed 50 percent of what the Deputy Administrator has determined is the agricultural value of the affected land.

(d) The Secretary may waive the maximum limitations described in paragraphs (a) through (c) of this section to the maximum extent allowed by law.

(a) A person or legal entity, as defined in part 1400 of this title, is limited to a maximum ECP cost-share of $500,000 per person or legal entity, per natural disaster.

(b) The Secretary may waive the maximum limitations described in paragraph (a) of this section to the maximum extent allowed by law.

(a) With respect to a payment to an agricultural producer for any eligible ECP practice, the agricultural producer has the option of receiving up to 25 percent of the projected payment, determined based on the applicable percentage of the fair market value of the cost of the practice, as determined by FSA, before the agricultural producer carries out the restoration.

(b) If the funds provided under paragraph (a) of this section are not spent by the agricultural producer within 60 calendar days of the date on which the agricultural producer receives those funds, the funds must be returned to FSA by a date determined by FSA.

(c) Payments made under this section are subject to the availability of funds.