Best management practice verification programs in place across Bay watershed

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has approved programs in each of the six watershed states and the District of Columbia that ensure practices installed to reduce or prevent pollution are in place and operating correctly. These “best management practices,” or BMPs, can range from restoring forest buffers to planting cover crops to installing rain gardens. The state verification programs address all possible pollutant-loading source sectors: agriculture, stormwater, forestry, wastewater treatment facilities, combined sewer overflows, septic systems and on-site treatment systems.

It isn’t possible, however, to simply claim that a certain method is a BMP and should receive credit for pollution reduction. Chesapeake Bay Program partners developed and instituted a vigorous, watershed-wide verification process for these conservation and technical practices that includes initial inspection, follow-up checks and evaluation of performance. Each jurisdiction in the Chesapeake Bay watershed is required to have a comprehensive BMP Verification Program in place by 2018 to confirm that each practice tracked and reported for nutrient and sediment pollutant load reduction credit is in place and operating correctly. Previously, the EPA approved plans from the District of Columbia and Maryland but only conditionally approved Delaware, New York, Pennsylvania, Virginia and West Virginia. As of May 2016, all plans are now approved.

This is a milestone for the Chesapeake Bay Program partnership, as work can now begin to fully implement the components of these plans by 2018, connecting federal, state, local and non-governmental organizations with one common goal: the restoration and protection of the Chesapeake Bay and its waterways.