There’s been a lot of talk recently about the new and improved Chesapeake Bay model that can be used on a large- or small-scale watershed basis allowing states to create Total Maximum Daily Loads for pollution, specifically nitrogen, phosphorus and sediment.

This update has created some controversy in the way the model predicts trends and pollution amounts, which in turn shapes the way states enforce current clean stream laws and helps guide them shaping new regulation in an effort to keep up with the changing landscape.

Many in our area will not give this news a second glance. However, the model currently running in the bay is being researched by other watersheds that utilize the same information to set pollution limits.

While this model is not currently being run in the entire Ohio River watershed, there is a growing push from environmental groups to use the bay model in all portions of the Ohio River.

Secondly, recent data from river monitoring stations show a decreasing trend in pollution from all stations along the Susquehanna except for those in the extreme northwest portion of the watershed, specifically Elk and Jefferson counties. This proves the regulations and best management practices, BMP, put in place years ago in the bay are working.

We need to be mindful these regulations are not going away, and while there is enforcement taking place on the other side of the state, it’s only inevitable those same regulations will soon be taking place near our own farms.

Recently, DEP completed chapter 102 enforcement activities in Indiana County through the Crooked Creek watershed looking for conservation plans, manure management plans and the level of implementation.

While these regulations won’t end agriculture as we know it, we need to begin implementing a lot of the BMP routinely practiced in the bay; cover crops, no-till and implementation of stabilized feeding areas as well as animal exclusion from streams.

Taking a proactive approach to BMP implementation not only benefits the farm’s economic outlook, but it’s also the right thing to do.

Andy Gaver is a conservationist with the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service in Butler County.