Fertilizer figures in Chesapeake Bay cleanup

Annapolis-Fertilizer runoff from farmlands and other sources in a six-state area is getting close attention as federal agencies, with EPA in the lead, start formulating an intensified effort to clean up Chesapeake Bay under orders from the White House. Draft plans have already been submitted by all agencies as the basis for the restoration strategy. Subsequently, the agencies will release a coordinated draft clean-up plan in November, take public comments, and then release a final plan by May 2010. In a hint of what may be in store, one senior EPA adviser suggested that while agriculture has made strides reducing runoff and that lawns and other turf now account for more acreage than corn in the watershed, farmlands still account for nearly half of nutrients, such as fertilizer, that enter the bay. He said the federal agency was considering how to make further reductions in farm runoff through better nutrient management plans and increased use of buffer zones around farm fields and cover crops. For one, Bill Angstadt, executive secretary of the Delaware Maryland Agribusiness Assn., found positive signs in a document proposing “an aggressive, voluntary partnership approach to farmers to continue to improve water quality while sustaining agriculture as a valued component of the watershed.” He said his association looks forward to partnering with the states and USDA to implement this approach. Bill Satterfield of Delmarva Poultry asked at one of the meetings whether EPA’s calculations included runoff from residential lawns, and Wilmer Stoneman of the Virginia Farm Bureau said that suburban Fairfax County in his state had the highest fertilizer sales in the state, mostly for lawn care. Katie Kyger Frazier with the Virginia Agribusiness Council noted, “Our industry believes that the first priority for Bay restoration should be ensuring that the data used to make decisions is complete. We will continue to seek accurate accounting and crediting of practices implemented by Virginia farmers, both voluntarily and through federal or state cost-share assistance programs.”