Shoreline Management BMPs Implemented on Agricultural Lands Achieve Chesapeake Bay TMDL Pollutant Reductions
According to the USGS, shoreline erosion is the dominant source of sediment to the Chesapeake Bay, accounting for 57% of the load. Human activity, such as agriculture and urban development, can drastically accelerate the natural rate of shoreline erosion. In 2010, the USEPA established the Chesapeake Bay TMDL – a pollution diet – to guide actions to restore clean water in the Bay. In 2019, Virginia released the Phase III Watershed Implementation Plan (WIP), the final restoration plan for Virginia’s portion of the Chesapeake Bay. This blueprint includes ambitious goals for implementing shoreline management BMPs (e.g., nature-based solutions like living shorelines) along the Bay and its tidal tributaries. Further, the 2023 CESR report promotes a nearshore focus on BMPs for WIP activities beyond 2025. The Virginia Agricultural BMP Cost-Share Program (VACS) offers technical assistance and financial incentives for landowners to adopt BMPs aimed at reducing nonpoint source pollution from agricultural operations. VACS is administered through a partnership between the Virginia Department of Conservation and Recreation (DCR) and Virginia’s 47 local soil and water conservation districts. VACS has distributed hundreds of millions to farmers and landowners since its inception – a record $207M for FY2025 alone). This historic level of funding provides agricultural producers with unprecedented support to adopt conservation practices (e.g., cover crops, forested buffers, livestock stream-exclusion systems) designed to protect water quality throughout the Commonwealth. The historic levels of agricultural cost-share available through VACS can be used to accelerate the scale and rate of stabilizing the shorelines of the many hundreds of miles of cropland and timberland along the Bay and its tributaries. VACS can be utilized to advance progress towards achieving the ambitious shoreline management goals in the Phase III WIP. The first project to utilize VACS to install a living shoreline along cropland was completed in 2024 along the James River through a partnership with DCR, Colonial SWCD, and the James River Association. This presentation will discuss 1) how this partnership coalesced to assist this landowner, 2) the design of the living shoreline, 3) permitting and construction challenges overcome, 4) the variety of financial incentives utilized by this landowner, and 5) the pollutant load reductions reported for this living shoreline.
Author Bio
Wendt currently serves the Commonwealth of Virginia as an Environmental Specialist with the Department of Conservation and Recreation. Working in the agency’s Shoreline Erosion Advisory Service, he provides technical assistance on shoreline management alternatives to property owners who are experiencing erosion problems. He’s been in this role for over seven and a half years. Aaron has over 15 years of service with the State of Texas, having experience with agricultural nonpoint source water pollution abatement, watershed planning, public water supply enhancement, border security initiatives, and invasive species management. He was born and raised in Texas and moved to Virginia with his family in 2017. He is a graduate of Texas A&M University, where he earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Renewable Natural Resources Management in December 1999.
