Chesapeake Bay Area Nutrient Management Programs: An Overview. Chesapeake BayProgram Technology Transfer Report

摘要

Agriculture has been identified as a major contributor of nutrients to theChesapeake Bay in the 1987 Chesapeake Bay Agreement. Under this agreement, the states of Maryland, Pennsylvania, and Virginia and the District of Columbia committed to reduce nutrient loads to the Chesapeake Bay by 40 percent by the year 2000. These jurisdictions have made the implementation of agricultural nonpoint source (NPS) pollution control effective practice to reduce NPS pollution in the 1992 Baywide Nutrient Reduction Reevaluation and the 1995 'Cost Analysis for Nonpoint Source Control Strategies in the Chesapeake Basin'. Nutrient management is a pollution prevention practice that manages the rate, timing, and method of application of nutrients and minimizes their potential losses through runoff or leaching to groundwater. Nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium are three essential plant nutrients used in significant amounts in intensive agricultural operations. These nutrients are important for satisfactory crop production but, if not managed properly, can easily move from farmland to ground and surface waters.