Heavy Animal Use Areas Runoff Treatment – Pennsylvania

Heavy Animal Use Areas Runoff Treatment, Chesapeake Bay, PA

Despite significant efforts by Federal, State, and local governments and other interested parties, water pollution in the Chesapeake Bay prevents the attainment of existing State water quality standards and the “fishable and swimmable” goals of the Clean Water Act. At the current level and scope of pollution control within the Chesapeake Bay’s watershed, restoration of the Chesapeake Bay is not expected for many years. The pollutants that are largely responsible for pollution of the Chesapeake Bay are nutrients, in the form of nitrogen and phosphorus, and sediment (http://www.whitehouse.gov/the_press_office/Executive-Order-Chesapeake-Bay-Protection-and-Restoration).

In May 2009, President Barack Obama issued an executive order for the federal government to take a more vigorous role in cleaning up the Chesapeake Bay.

This project has been established in May 2012 in collaboration with the USDA Agricultural Research Service (ARS), Penn State University Extension and private sector.  A nitrate bioreactor and a PhosphoReduc system were installed as the innovative, low cost solution to reduce phosphorus, solids and pathogens originating from the heavy animal use areas runoff.