Don Williams is the District’s Nutrient Management Technician and responsible for the program.
This program is to aid farmers in the Chesapeake Bay Program (CBP) watershed drainage area by installing Best Management Practices (BMP’s). Somerset County landowners in Allegheny, Fairhope, Northampton, Southampton, and portions of Larimer and Greenville Townships are eligible under this program to receive cost-share funding to install practices to reduce agricultural runoff and the nutrient loading of streams.
The CBP is designed to give technical and financial assistance to farmers with any nutrient and erosion control problems on their farms. The ultimate goal of the CBP is to improve water quality both locally and also in the Chesapeake Bay. Any farmer that would like to request assistance through the Chesapeake Bay Program must sign-up as a cooperator with the Somerset Conservation District.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency allocates funds once a year to the Pennsylvania DEP Bureau of Water Quality Protection to implement the CBP. The funds are then allocated to counties that participate in the Bay Program to fund Best Management Practices (BMP’s) on local farming operations.
The Chesapeake Bay Program can provide 80 percent cost-share funding, up to a maximum of $30,000, for the installation of certain BMP’s, on a farm. These BMP’s include manure storage facilities, waterways, diversions, heavy use area protection, roof runoff management, and other conservation practices. A vital part of all of this is the implementation of a nutrient management plan for the farm, which helps the farmer control the use of nutrients, using them when needed by the crops.
The landowner agrees to implement a nutrient application plan for the life of the agreement and maintain BMP’s installed for the effective service life.