BMP Expert Panels Publications

A report and appendices from the Animal Mortality Management BMP Expert Panel. This report was approved by the Water Quality Goal Implementation Team on July 24, 2023.

View document [PDF, 7.4 MB] Animal Mortality Management BMP Expert Panel Report

Nitrogen and Phosphorus Reduction Associated with Harvest of Hatchery-Produced Oysters and Reef Restoration: Assimilation and Enhanced Denitrification

View document [PDF, 8.9 MB] Oyster BMP Expert Panel Second Incremental Report: Assimilation and Enhanced Denitrification

Approved by WQGIT June 18, 2019

View document [PDF, 1.2 MB] Recommended Methods to Verify Stream Restoration Practices

Approved by USWG October 15,2019

View document [PDF, 4.7 MB] Consensus Recommendations to Improve Protocol 1

Approved by WQGIT October 15, 2019

View document [PDF, 4.7 MB] Protocol 1 Memo

Approved by WQGIT on October 26, 2020

This report details the work done by the Cropland Irrigation Expert Panel to improve the BMP definition and efficiency values for cropland irrigation, create unique BMP definitions and recommendations for three different cropland irrigation categories, and investigate differences in BMP efficiencies and irrigation practices across regions.

This report review the available science on the nutrient and sediment removal efficiencies associated with agricultural ditch best management practices.

View document [PDF, 3.5 MB] Agricultural Ditch Management BMP Expert Panel Report

The Wetland Workgroup approved the formation of this expert panel to evaluate the effectiveness of nontidal wetland best management practices (BMPs) to reduce loads of nitrogen, phosphorus and sediment to the Chesapeake Bay. This panel was formed to expand on the CBP-approved report by a previous Wetland Expert Panel that clarified the wetland restoration BMP and established two nontidal wetland land uses in the Phase 6 Chesapeake Bay Watershed Model (WEP, 2016).
The current panel first convened in November 2017 and deliberated its approach and recommendations over the subsequent months. This report describes the panel’s recommendations for review, feedback and approval under the Chesapeake Bay Program’s Protocol for the Development, Review, and Approval of Loading and Effectiveness Estimates for Nutrient and Sediment Controls in the Chesapeake Bay Watershed Model, or “BMP Review Protocol.”
The expert panel worked diligently to articulate BMP efficiencies for wetland creation, rehabilitation and enhancement with respect to the available literature and the CBP-approved wetland restoration BMP. As with wetland restoration, the recommended wetland creation BMP is simulated as a land use change that also reduces upland loads using the above efficiency value. The recommended wetland rehabilitation BMP is not a land use change, but the efficiency is applied to upland land uses. Further details for how the BMPs will be reported for progress runs and simulated in the Watershed Model are provided in Appendix B. As explained in section 5, the panel recommends that wetland enhancement should not be a BMP for purposes of achieving nutrient and sediment reduction targets under the TMDL, as simulated in the Watershed Model.

This report provides protocols to estimate the nutrient and sediment pollutant load reduction associated with different shoreline management practices.

View document [PDF, 5.3 MB] BMP Panel Report for Shoreline Management (Amended)