Cost Effectiveness of BMPs

Knowing the BMPs that are most effective and have the lowest cost makes it possible to develop an effective plan.

A range of agencies and organizations support the Chesapeake Bay Program's work. While an estimate of the total funding directed toward the Chesapeake Bay Watershed Agreement is not available, the information on the Chesapeake Progress Funding page outlines the state and federal funding reported through the Office of Management and Budget as part of the Chesapeake Bay Accountability and Recovery Act.

Identify Cost-Effective BMPs for Improving Water Quality and Maximizing Co-Benefits

Run Scenario Icon

Once a scenario is created or edited, background processes take place to prepare it for running. The scenario status will display Editing on the Scenarios Page during this time. Once the prep work is complete, the status will change to Editing Finished and the Run button will be activated which is indicated by the color change to green. Clicking the Run icon will perform the calculations required to create the loads data.

Run Errors

If an error occurs during the run process, the status will display System Error and an email will be sent to the user notifying them of the problem and that the CAST Team will be in contact about the issue.

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Delete Scenario Icon

The user cathe results of a scenario is to apply it to one of the available report types on the Reports page or to use it in a scenario comparison on the Compare Scenario page.

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Scenario Status Example 2 – If a system error occurs, an email will be sent to you and the CAST Team who will contact you directly to resolve the issue.

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Date Modified Column

The date modified will only change when the scenario metadata or BMPs are altered.  Running the scenario will not be reflected in this column.  

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Cost Profiles

Default unit cost estimates are provided for each state and the Chesapeake Bay Watershed. The Chesapeake Bay Watershed is an average of all states. Costs are provided as a starting point to use for creating your own cost estimates of various BMP scenarios. Costs are estimated in 2018 dollars. Costs are those incurred by both public and private entities. Technical assistance is not included in costs. Costs are for all BMPs in a scenario, both those currently implemented and those planned.

There are two cost formulas. For Total Annualized Cost, capital and opportunity costs are amortized over the BMP lifespan and added to annual operations and maintenance (O&M) cost. The interest rate for capital and opportunity costs is 5%. Costs represent a single year of cost rather than the cost over the entire lifespan of the practice. Total Annualized Costs are annualized average costs per unit of BMP (e.g.: $/acre treated/year). These costs are for a single year, and are not accumulated over time. The reason is two-fold. First, once the Bay TMDL deadline of 2025 is met, BMPs will need to remain in place to control loads and new BMPs will need to be implemented to offset new growth. Second, it is difficult to predict when a BMP is going to be implemented. Using this cost formula makes evaluations of costs among scenarios more comparable. The Total Annualized Cost formula is:

  • annual costs = (capital * annualization factor) + O&M costs + (land * annualization rate)
  • annualization factor = i/((1+i)^n - 1) + i
  • i = annualization rate, which is always 5%.
  • n = period of annualization (also called lifespan)

For Total Implementation Cost, the entire capital cost and one year of opportunity cost are summed. Total Implementation Cost does not consider life cycle costs. The formula is capital + land. You may specify this formula in Cost Profiles once logging in. The Total Annualized Cost is provided below.

    Watershed Average
    District Of Columbia
    Delaware
    Maryland
    New York
    Pennsylvania
    Virginia
    West Virginia

    Edit Cost Profiles

    You can log into CAST and edit the costs by creating your own Cost Profile. CAST provides costs associated with each scenario using the cost profile you select. The data available in the Cost Profiles is summarized to include the capital, operations and maintenance, and opportunity costs, depending on which cost formula you select.

    BMP Costs

    BMP costs included in CAST are developed by contractors to the EPA and are in 2018 dollars.The original costs were reviewed with the states who provided input. Additional BMPs were approved by the Chesapeake Bay Program Partnership since the original TMDL costs were determined. The data source of all BMPs are provided in the downloadable files below by sector.