EPA gives $3.7 million to Pennsylvania for Chesapeake Bay Restoration

Last week the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced that they are providing $3.7 million to the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (PADEP) to implement agricultural best management practices (BMPs) on farms in Pennsylvania’s portion of the Chesapeake Bay watershed. These practices will reduce the loads of nitrogen, phosphorus and sediment pollution going to the Chesapeake Bay and its tributaries.

If you recall EPA mandated a contamination limit called the TMDL (total maximum daily load for nutrient contamination and sediment) to all the states in the Chesapeake Bay Watershed and Washington DC. The pollution limits were then partitioned to the various states and river basins based on the Chesapeake Bay computer modeling tools and monitoring data.

The midterm assessment found that Pennsylvania had not met their goals. In an attempt to get there (and meet EPA requirements), the PADEP announced its “Strategy to Enhance Pennsylvania’s Chesapeake Bay Restoration Effort”, pledging renewed commitment to nitrogen, phosphorus, and sediment reductions. Because agriculture dominates much of the landscape of the Chesapeake watershed in Pennsylvania, it was the focus of the new strategy.

“The most practical way to balance farmers’ economic viability and the health of local waters is to enlist farmers in using environmentally conscious and economically sustainable best management practices,” said PADEQ Secretary Patrick McDonnell. “We’re grateful for funding support from EPA that enables DEP to partner with farmers to plan and implement these practices. Achieving clean local waters takes boots on the ground farm by farm, stream by stream. With over 33,000 farms in Pennsylvania’s part of the Chesapeake Bay Watershed, we simply couldn’t do it without EPA’s support.”

This funding, which is being provided through EPA’s Chesapeake Bay Implementation Grant (CBIG) program will support activities to help achieve and maintain the water quality necessary to fully restore the waters of the Chesapeake Bay and its tributaries, including:

• Developing multiyear management plans;
• Chesapeake Bay education;
• Implementing local BMPs to control stormwater runoff;
• Developing agricultural nutrient and manure management plans;
• Installing agricultural BMPs;
• Funding cost share programs to reduce the cost to farmers of implementing BMPs; 
• Providing funding opportunities to Pennsylvania conservation districts for implementing local stormwater BMPs.