Agricultural Nutrient Management in the Lower Susquehanna River Subbasin
Open Access DepositedThe Chesapeake Bay Watershed (CBW) is one of the largest salt-water estuaries in the world. It is a sensitive watershed with an environment highly impacted by development and intensive agriculture, especially in the state of Pennsylvania (PA) where the Lower Susquehanna River Subbasin is one of the regions of the entire CBW most highly affected by agricultural pollution runoff. This praxis focuses on the problem of excess nutrient loading to the Lower Susquehanna River Subbasin and adjacent regions that are typical of the raw egg layer manure export of Hillandale Farms, the largest Concentrated Animal Feeding Operation (CAFO) in the CBW. The sponsor company for this effort is EnergyWorks Group, a company that developed and owns a large-scale egg layer manure treatment facility co-located with Hillandale Farms in Gettysburg, PA. Hillandale Farms was specifically chosen by EnergyWorks Group to apply its agricultural pollution mitigation technology because it is the largest in the CBW with over five million egg layer chickens between their headquarters and 30 contract growers in PA with egg production of 155 million dozen eggs per annum. The Nitrogen (N) and Phosphorus (P) excesses from this operation, as well as many other non-point source agricultural food/cropping operations in the CBW, have contributed significantly to a failure to meet the annual Total Maximum Daily Load (TMDL) reduction goals for the CBW year after year. Pennsylvania is responsible for 70% of the overall TMDL reductions needed for the entire Chesapeake Bay Program (CBP), administered by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), creating an opportunity for novel technological solutions, including an effective Integrated Environmental Management Systems (IEMS) approach, to meaningfully address and even achieve the targeted reductions. This praxis is on the front end of a multi-year effort in which EnergyWorks Group is engaged to develop an approved pay-for-performance protocol and re-start their existing Animal Waste Treatment Plant (AWTP). Insights gained in the business-as-usual (without manure treatment) case, along with improved best practices and enhanced efficiency fertilization approaches, provided critical information for this praxis project. Utilizing the Soil & Water Analysis Tool (SWAT), a mature modeling platform, the Chesapeake Assessment Scenario Tool (CAST), and other available data from appropriate sources, this praxis presents analyses and conclusions based on actual data collected from Hillandale Farms. The overall influence of non-point source agriculture on nutrient loading in the CBW within the Hillandale Farms sphere of influence, whose epicenter is within the Lower Susquehanna River Subbasin, also is presented. This final praxis report presents applied research results that are making a strong contribution to the EnergyWorks Group’s pursuit of their AWTP and IEMS, helping to advance substantially a multi-decade partnership between Pennsylvania, the CBP and EnergyWorks Group. The IEMS approach used in this research is highly generalizable to other agriculture-intensive parts of the CBW as well as other sensitive watersheds.
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Yealdhall_gwu_0075A_17721.pdf | 2025-12-12 | Open Access |
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