Development of a functional, widely accepted and adopted bmp program in response to government regulation

Abstract

Beginning in 1988, at the inception of its Lower St. Johns River Basin (LSJRB) SWIM Program, the St. Johns River Water Management District began an effort to evaluate agricultural nonpoint source pollution loading resulting from row crop production in the Tri-County Agricultural Area (TCAA) of northeast Florida. The TCAA project area contains approximately 152,300 hectares of which 11,330 hectares, or roughly 10%, is irrigated vegetable cropland comprised of predominantly potato and cabbage farms. Results determined that the area’s agricultural operations were responsible for a significant portion of the lower St. Johns River’s nutrient load. A follow-up project was undertaken to develop and implement best management practices (BMPs) specific to TCAA crops and practices that would meet the program’s water quality goals, and yet be feasible for area growers and the District to implement in terms of cost and crop yield. The result was a multifaceted approach that used a suite of grower-implemented in-field BMPs augmented with District-implemented regional stormwater facilities within agriculturally intense watersheds. The Water Quality BMP Cost-Share Program was initiated in the year 2000 to encourage voluntary grower implementation of nutrient and water management BMPs. To date, BMPs have been implemented on 51% of the row crop acres in the TCAA. Because of the uncertainty of in-field BMP implementation, recent LSJRB initiatives have accelerated development of regional nonpoint source pollution controls as a secondary treatment to meet the Total Maximum Daily Load (TMDL) goal of 39% and 19% reduction of current total nitrogen and phosphorus loads, respectively. While the first regional treatment system is just coming on line, five years of incremental implementation of in-field BMPs is beginning to have an effect on water quality in agricultural receiving streams.