Virginia’s Voluntary Agriculture Programs are Reducing Pollution

“A nation that destroys its soils destroys itself.”- President Franklin Delano Roosevelt. Healthy soil leads to stable food production and healthy water resources. Though in President Roosevelt’s day ecology was an emerging field and we were just beginning to understand how these factors work together, today we have models of the ecology that can quantify the results.

Volunteers, Partners, Directors and staff from the Region II of the Virginia Soil and Water Conservation Districts meet for their regular spring meeting to discuss how their work to protect and preserve the soils and waters of the Commonwealth is helping the state achieve the Chesapeake Bay Total Daily Maximum Load (TMDL) for nutrient contamination and sediment target.

The TMDL was mandated by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and is really a pollution diet. The TMDL sets a total Chesapeake Bay watershed limits for nitrogen, phosphorus and sediment that were that represent about a 25% reduction in pollution to be achieved by 2025. Virginia and the other five Chesapeake Bay states and Washington DC were required to submit and have approved by the EPA a detailed plan of how they intend to achieve the pollution reduction goals assigned to them. These plans are called the Watershed Implementation Plans, WIPs and when used in conjunction with the Chesapeake Bay Model can quantify the performance. Russ Baxter, Deputy Secretary of Natural Resources for Virginia DCR for the Chesapeake Bay was kind enough to update the group.

Under the mandate by EPA and implementation plan approved by EPA, Virginia needs to reduce the nitrogen released into the Bay by 7.9 million pounds, the phosphorus released to the Bay by more than 1.1 million pounds and sediment released by 404 million pounds by the end of 2015 as compared to the 2009 baseline levels. These goals are just the first set of goals under the mandate and approved implementation plan which requires further reductions in released pollutants until 2025 when we are targeted to meet the overall 25% reduction goal.

All the information we have on how we are doing is based on the Chesapeake Bay Model. The good news is that according to the model, Virginia is ahead of schedule on reductions in nitrogen and phosphorus, the nutrients. Using the latest version of the watershed model (5.3.2) nitrogen reductions are ahead of the 2015 goal and phosphorus is ahead of the 2017 goal.

Unfortunately, according to the model the sediment levels have increased, though it is unclear why. It is hoped that revisions to the land use base data in Chesapeake Bay Model may produce a better sediment result. Overall, though, the water quality of the Chesapeake Bay was dismal at below 30% and falling the past couple of years. However, Virginia is doing well at meeting their goals helped by the billions of dollars Virginia had already spent on updating the waste water treatment plants and the success of their animal management programs.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency had recently completed an evaluation of Virginia’s animal agriculture programs and evaluating Virginia’s implementation of those programs. This included imputing agricultural census data (which found fewer animals than expected), and data collected by the Soil and Water Conservation Districts in verifying the implementation and functioning of Agricultural Best Management Practices (BMPs). Agricultural BMPs are approved and quantified methods of farming to ensure reductions in the amount of nitrogen, phosphorus, and sediment pollution going to waterways within the Bay Watershed. Though we have reduced the nitrogen and phosphorus entering the bay from Virginia, it is discouraging that the overall health of the Bay has gotten worse.

The EPA’s assessment looked at Virginia’s implementation of federal and state regulatory programs that manage the large scale permitted concentrated animal operations, as well as voluntary incentive-based programs for smaller animal operations and crop operations to meet the nutrient and sediment reduction commitments in its TMDL Watershed Implementation Plan (WIP). The voluntary programs are implementation of agricultural BMPs by farmers with the help of the Soil and Water Conservation Districts who oversee the cost share programs that are used to encourage farmers to use the BMPs on their farms. There had been criticism that the agricultural programs were largely voluntary, but EPA found the programs to be effective and well implemented and monitored.

Reducing pollution from agriculture and converting acreage to stream buffers and restoring wetlands is the cheapest way to reduce pollution, and the state’s WIP expect to get 75 % of their nitrogen, phosphorus and sediment pollution reductions from agriculture. Even with using the agricultural lands to achieve most of the pollution reductions, the costs of the Watershed Implementation plans are astronomical, about $13.6-$15.7 billion in Virginia alone.

The latest legislative session in Virginia maintained funding for the Conservation Districts though some cost share monies have been reduced. The Virginia Department of Forestry received $1.3 million from the Chesapeake Bay Funds. The NRCS (National Resource Conservation Service which is part of the U.S. Department of Agriculture) is funded under the Farm Bill and has conservation programs and financial assistance programs that complement the work of the Districts. NRCS implements long list of federal programs that you might want to take a look at. Together we all work to help Virginia achieve its pollution goals.

Non-Point Source Pollution and Best Management Practices

Non-point source (NPS) pollution is a major factor impacting the quality of the water supply. The rate at which diffuse sources of pollution are generated and delivered to water resources is greatly affected by human activities and natural processes. These pollutants are transported to surface water bodies by runoff, which results from precipitation or snowmelt (Leeds et al., 1993). Storm water is part of the natural hydrologic process; however, human activities, especially urban development and agriculture, cause significant changes in patterns of storm water flow and infiltration and the type and quantity of contaminants carried from land into receiving waters.

Urban storm water runoff includes all flows discharged from urban land uses into the storm water systems and receiving waters. Urban runoff includes runoff from landscape irrigation, dewatering, and water line and hydrant flushing as well as the wet-weather storm water runoff. Water quality can also be affected when runoff carries sediment and other pollutants such as oil and grease, pesticides, paints, cleaners and other products associated with modern life into streams, wetlands, lakes, estuarine and marine waters, or groundwater.

Agricultural activities that cause NPS pollution include confined animal facilities, grazing, plowing, pesticide spraying, irrigation, fertilizing, planting, and harvesting. The major agricultural NPS pollutants that result from these activities are sediment, nutrients, pathogens, pesticides, and salts. Agricultural activities also can damage habitat and stream channels. Agricultural impacts on surface water and ground water can be minimized by properly managing activities that can cause NPS pollution, by utilizing good environmental stewardship.

Good environmental stewardship means using land and animals in a way that protects and improves the environment. Environmental stewardship begins by evaluating the farm to identify likely pollution sources and their possible effect on the surrounding environment. Overgrazing pastures; applying too much manure; giving animals free access to streams, ponds, wetlands, or marshes; mismanaging manure; and allowing excessive erosion can reduce water quality. The type, size, and numbers of animals affect the amount of management required for your farm. Kate Norris of Prince William Soil and Water Conservation District has put together a series of articles outlining the basic techniques to use to minimize environmental impact from a horse property. Many of these techniques can be used with any small scale livestock farm or hobby horse farm.

Overstocking causes most of the water quality damage on small-scale livestock farms and hobby horsefarms. It occurs when too many animals are kept on too few acres. Overstocking can strip areas of pasture, increasing polluted runoff. On farms where animals are confined and manure is collected, overstocking often leads to large amounts of manure that must be managed. So called Best Management Practices, BMPs, range from making simple changes to building structures that hold manure, but they in total add up to less run-off of pollution. They can be comprehensive and consider how the parts of the farm are related. BMPs are meant to be practical and easy to implement. They are intended to be modified to fit the type of operation, and the environmental and geological factors specific to the site. Unbelievably enough, the Soil and Conservation Districts throughout the nation are there to help you manage your properties for free.
BMPs minimize inputs of fertilizers, pesticides, labor, etc. to achieve a desired level of course performance and quality while protecting the environment. BMPs are designed to benefit water quality while maintaining or even enhancing agricultural production.Agricultural BMPs are practical, cost-effective actions that agricultural producers can take to reduce the amount of pesticides, fertilizers, animal waste, and other pollutants entering our water resources. The most recent National Water Quality Inventory reports that agricultural nonpoint source (NPS) pollution is the leading source of water quality impacts to surveyed rivers and lakes, the third largest source of impairments to surveyed estuaries, and also a major contributor to ground water contamination and wetlands degradation. Good environmental stewardship of these properties can go a long way in making agriculture sustainable.