BMP Verification Committee

The BMP Verification Committee is responsible for developing all of the elements of a basinwide BMP verification framework, including principles, protocols, review panels and other related procedures.

Meetings

About

The Best Management Practices (BMP) Verification Committee is charged with responsibility for developing all the elements of a basinwide BMP verification framework— BMP verification principles, protocols, review panel, and other verification related procedures (e.g., eliminating double counting, clean up of historical databases)—working in tandem with the Chesapeake Bay Program Partnership's pollutant source sector and habitat restoration workgroups.
The BMP Verification Framework includes:

  • Verification principles – Partnership agreement on principles to guide the jurisdictions’ development and implementation of BMP verification programs
  • Source sector- and habit-specific verification protocols – Developed through the Water Quality Goal Implementation Team's source sector workgroups — Agriculture, Forestry, Stormwater, and Wastewater — and Vital Habitat GIT’s habitat workgroups — Wetlands and Streams — and approved by the Partnership
  • Verification review panel – Regional and national verification experts charged by the Partnership to review/make recommendations on the seven jurisdictions’ proposed verification programs

Goals and Priorities

Priority work tasks include the following:

  • Review, comment on, and modify a working draft approach to preventing double counting BMPs developed by USGS working with the six states and NRCS.
  • Review, comment on, and modify a working draft approach to cleaning up historical BMP databases developed by EPA Chesapeake Bay Program Office staff.
  • Synthesize the various source sector workgroups and accounting workgroups/teams recommended verification protocols, feedback on the principles, etc. into an initial BMP verification framework for presentation to the WQGIT and then the other GITs for feedback and direction.
  • Take the individual and collective feedback from the six GITs and the three advisory committees and revise the BMP verification framework prior to presentation to the Management Board.
  • Take the feedback from the Management Board and work with the appropriate workgroups and GITs to address the concerns and specific direction from the Management Board.
  • Let the Management Board know when all the components of the partnership’s overall BMP verification framework are ready for presentation to the Principals’ Staff Committee for review and adoption.

BMP Verification Program Plan Documentation

Please visit the following webpage for access to the jurisdictions' draft BMP Verification Program Plans, initial feedback reports on the draft Verification Program Plans submitted on June 30, 2015, as well as other useful resources related to the BMP Verification effort.

www.chesapeakebay.net/about/programs/bmp/additional_resources

Projects

Basinwide BMP Verification Framework Document

Revised final draft of the Chespeake Bay Basinwide BMP Verification Framwork document, updated in August 2014 for review by the Management Board. Supporting documentation provided as Appendices A-U.

Integrating Federal and State data records to report progress

Integrating Federal and State data records to report progress in establishing agricultural conservation practices on Chesapeake Bay farms. The final published report and appendices are available online via USGS: http://pubs.usgs.gov/of/2013/1287/

Citation:

Hively, W.D., Devereux, O.H., and Claggett, Peter, 2013, Integrating Federal and State data records to report progress in establishing agricultural conservation practices on Chesapeake Bay farms: U.S. Geological Survey Open-File Report 2013–1287, 36 p., http://dx.doi.org/10.3133/ofr20131287.

Existing State and USGS 1619 Data Sharing Agreements

Maryland, New York, Virginia and West Virginia as well as the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) currently have signed 1619 data sharing agreements with U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) and Farm Services Agency (FSA). As part of the collaborative work on larger BMP Verification Framework, the jurisdictional partners are working closely with NRCS and FSA to ensure all six states have consistent, comprehensive data sharing agreements in place. The objective is to ensure each jurisdiction has equal and full access to all federally cost shared data needed to fully credit producers for their implementation conservation practices. These agreements ensure that full access to data while maintaining the business confidentiality of the individual producers information and data. The USGS’s 1619 data sharing agreements with NRCS and FSA were put into place to assist the six states in: getting full access to the federal cost shared data; enhancing their existing tracking and reporting systems; and developing and fully implementing procedures to eliminate any double counting of individual practices funded by two (or more) state/federal cost share programs.

Publications

Related Resources

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