New tool helps Bay Program partners estimate pollution loads, develop Bay cleanup plans

The Chesapeake Bay Program has launched a new tool designed to help states, municipalities, federal agencies and other partners quickly and easily assess various pollution reduction strategies for their Bay cleanup plans.

The Chesapeake Assessment and Scenario Tool (CAST) is a web-based tool that closely replicates the results of full Bay Program model runs. CAST will help partners understand and work with the Bay Program’s suite of models as the Bay jurisdictions develop their Phase II Watershed Implementation Plans (WIPs) and two-year milestones.

CAST allows the Bay jurisdictions to:

• Quickly estimate pollution load reductions that would result from various management actions
• Understand which combinations of best management practices (BMPs) provide the greatest pollution load reductions
• Discover which management actions will help them meet their 2010 Chesapeake Bay TMDL allocations for nitrogen, phosphorus and sediment

Visit http://www.casttool.org to learn more about CAST and use the tool.