Monday, November 5, 2007 - 2:40 PM
43-5

Nutrient Management in the Chesapeake Bay Watershed.

Douglas Beegle, Dept of Crop and Soil Sciences, Pennsylvania State University, 116 Agricultural Sciences & Industries Building, University Park, PA 16802-3504, Quirine Ketterings, Department of Crop & Soil Sciences, Cornell University, 817 Bradfield Hall, Ithaca, NY 14853, Rory Maguire, Dept. of Crop and Soil Env. Sci., Virginia Tech, Smyth Hall, Blacksburg, VA 24061, and Joshua McGrath, Dept. of Environmental Science & Technology, University of Maryland, 0214 H.J. Patterson Hall, Bldg. 073, College Park, MD 20742-5825.

Nutrient and sediment pollution from agriculture is a major water quality concern in the Chesapeake Bay. A key strategy in Bay restoration efforts has been implementation of nutrient management plans to manage nutrients for optimum farm profitability and minimum environmental impact. The Maryland Nutrient Management Program was established in 1989 with the goal to place 1.4 million acres of Maryland farmland under nutrient management plans. The Pennsylvania Nutrient Management Act, passed in 1993, mandated nutrient management plans for high density animal agriculture. In 1999, Virginia passed a law requiring permits, including nutrient management plans, for large poultry farms, and that same year New York released its first State Pollution Discharge Elimination System (SPEDES) permit for dairy and livestock farms under the Federal Concentrated Animal Feeding Operation (CAFO) rule. Initially, nitrogen (N) was the focus. However, outbreaks of pfiesteria in 1997 redirected more attention on phosphorus issues in the Bay and eventually led to all of the states expanding their programs to include phosphorus.  Currently, all Chesapeake Bay states have developed and implemented the use of a P index as a field-level P risk assessment tool. There has been extensive regional and national collaboration to address agricultural pollution challenges. For example, significant leadership in the development of the P index came from scientists in the Bay states collaborating in research and extension to improve agricultural P management. Scientists, policy makers, and extension educators in the region continue to work collaboratively addressing issues such as farm and regional nutrient imbalances, nutrient management plan writing, manure handling and relocation technology development and implementation. Such collaborations are essential to remove the Bay and its tributaries from the list of impaired water bodies and meet the nutrient and sediment load reductions required to avoid an EPA imposed Total Maximum Daily Load (TMDL) in 2011.

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