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According to the six year, $27 million EPA study, agriculture pollutants entering the Bay include excess nutrients such as nitrogens and phosphorus, sediment, pesticides and herbicides. These pollutants have been linked to decline of aquatic grasses, increased algae blooms and a reduction of dissolved oxygen in some of the Bay’s waters. The study concluded that these factors affect the Chesapeake’s productivity and wildlife.
About two-thirds of the state drains into these basins and the program area covers 68 of Virginia’s 95 counties. Farmers and landowners in those basins are eligible for cost-sharing on at least six BMPs. The practices are minimum till cropland, no-till cropland, no-till pastureland, grass filter strips, vegetative cover on critical areas and reforestation of erodible cropland.
Three “sub-basins” have also been identified where additional BMPs are being cost-shared by the state. Seven additional practices are being funded in the “cropland priority” sub-basin which includes 21 counties that drain into the York or Rappahannock River and two counties located on the Eastern Shore. The “animal waste” sub-basin consists of seven northwestern counties in which two additional practices will be funded and in the Chowan River drainage basih, one additional BMP is covered.
For more information, contact the Rappahannock County ASCS Office, 675-3616 or call the Culpeper SWCD Office at 825-8591.
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