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Va. Touts Its Progress In Curbing Farm Runoff

By Craig Timberg
Wednesday, November 15, 2000

RICHMOND, Nov. 14 -- Virginia officials announced today that a $20 million program to curb agricultural runoff into the Potomac and Shenandoah rivers has reached its goal, allowing officials to claim at least partial compliance with the 1987 Chesapeake Bay Agreement.

The agreement, signed by Virginia, Maryland, Pennsylvania and the District, called for 40 percent reductions by the end of this year in the flow of nitrogen and phosphorus, nutrients that cause oxygen-depleting algae blooms.

Virginia has reduced its agricultural runoff sufficiently to meet that goal but is still short of the standard set for emissions from sewage treatment plants, the other major source of the harmful nutrients.

Only the District has achieved full compliance, thanks to $100 million in improvements to the Blue Plains Wastewater Treatment Plant. Across the entire Chesapeake Bay region, the flow of these nutrients is down by nearly 30 percent since 1987, federal environmental officials said.

The bay itself is not measurably cleaner. But key tributaries such as the Potomac River, which provides one-quarter of the bay's flow, are cleaner. Programs curbing runoff in Virginia and Maryland are at least partly responsible, federal and state officials say.

The Virginia program is by far the most aggressive effort in the state's history, though many of its benefits will not be seen for years, because of the time it takes for cleaner groundwater to make its way into rivers.

Under Gov. James S. Gilmore III (R), Virginia budgeted $15 million, augmented by $5 million in federal funding, to help farmers pay for fencing around streams and lagoons to manage animal waste and other improvements that keep nutrients out of waterways. Private spending added $6 million to the effort, said David G. Brickley, director of the Virginia Department of Conservation and Recreation.

"It's a partnership that has succeeded, and we're mighty proud of it," Brickley said.

Virginia will not meet its overall goal in the Potomac and Shenandoah watershed this year because planned improvements to sewage treatment plants in Northern Virginia and elsewhere are not scheduled for completion until 2002.

State officials have already made grants totaling more than $61 million to help localities improve their sewage treatment plants, said Bill Hayden, a spokesman for Virginia's Department of Environmental Quality. "That is an expensive and time-consuming process that's well underway," he said.

In Maryland, runoff from agricultural areas is down by the targeted 40 percent, but improvements to sewage treatment plants in the Baltimore area are lagging behind the goal set in the bay agreement.

Nitrogen and phosphorus come largely from human and animal waste. When they reach waterways, they fuel the rapid growth of algae, which cut oxygen levels, killing fish and damaging fragile ecosystems.

Preventing the flow of those nutrients depends on upgrades to sewage treatment plants and also improvements of agricultural practices.

Joseph H. Maroon, head of Virginia's office of the Chesapeake Bay Foundation, praised the state's investment in curbing runoff.

"It's definitely good news," he said. "The bay is seriously degraded, and it's going to take a series of steps like this one to bring the bay back."

Water quality in the bay has held steady for several years. It could take several more for cuts in nutrient levels to make a measurable impact, said Bill Matuszeski, who oversees the bay improvement program for the Environmental Protection Agency.

The latest Chesapeake Bay agreement, signed in June, has even more ambitious goals requiring a broader attack on the problem, including targets for reducing sprawl and air pollutants that hurt the bay.

Virginia officials also hope to extend the agricultural runoff program to other parts of the state, including the watershed's bay tributaries such as the Rappahannock, York and James rivers.

"It's a mixed picture right now," Matuszeski said. "Ultimately, this old bay ought to start responding."

© 2000 The Washington Post Company