For years, officials working to clean up the Chesapeake Bay have worked with farmers and property owners to stem pollution that runs off their land.
That’s led to some progress, but not enough, said Joe Wood, senior scientist with the nonprofit Chesapeake Bay Foundation in Virginia.
“The way our programs have been built, there's limits to their effects,” Wood said. “Doing something new responding to some of those gaps is really critical.”
Virginia’s Department of Environmental Quality is launching a pilot program to do so, prompted by the General Assembly earlier this year.
It’s called the Pay-For-Outcomes program and works like it sounds: landowners are paid only when they can prove significant cuts in pollution. Each award would range from $100,000 up to $7.5 million.
Wood said that marks a “paradigm shift” from previous efforts, which directed farmers to certain best practices like planting cover crops and trees to capture nutrient pollutants.
“Historically, our programs served as coupons or rebates: You go do X, Y and Z and we will cover the costs,” he said. “In this situation, you go find out how to do it. And the hope is that type of economic incentive can be used to find those projects that are most effective and someone might profit from it.”
Virginia’s pilot program fits into a larger shift in how Chesapeake Bay managers are thinking about their long-term cleanup strategy.
The formal restoration effort stretches back decades and is a partnership between nonprofits, academics and governments at the local, state and federal levels.
In 2010 came the creation of the Total Maximum Daily Load, known as the bay’s “pollution diet.” The policy under the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency calculates the maximum amount of pollutants the bay can receive while still maintaining water quality.
The Chesapeake watershed is not the only place to use the strategy — but it is the largest and most complex, according to the EPA. It’s also unique because of accountability measures attached to the pollution standards.
The government set targets for officials in six states, including Virginia, and Washington D.C. to meet by 2025. Officials say no one’s fully on track to meet those standards.
Agriculture is the largest remaining source of nutrient pollution in the bay, according to a massive report from the Chesapeake Bay Program last year.
In the report, officials said that efforts to clean up the bay are proving to be more challenging than anticipated due to factors including climate change and population growth.
“Moving the needle on improving bay water quality will require more than just money and effort — it will require new approaches,” Kurt Stephenson, a Virginia Tech professor involved with the research, said at the time.
Wood said Pay-For-Outcomes is one step in that direction.
Virginia’s legislature allocated $20 million for the pilot program.
Eligible landowners — which include farmers, environmental groups, businesses and local governments — can apply for the program through Feb. 3. Those interested must also tune into a pre-application webinar on Jan. 26. Learn more at the DEQ website.
