NEWSLETTER

Chesapeake Assessment Scenario Tool

CAST Newsletter: October 2024

Tips and information to facilitate environmental restoration efforts in the Chesapeake Bay watershed

Did You Know?

Did you know about the how-to videos? The Free Training Videos page is a great place to look for upcoming webinars and trainings, and to find recordings of past webinars. It is also home to some shorter, how-to videos, that are useful when you are looking for a quick refresher on a particular skill. These videos range anywhere from 1 to 9 minutes, and cover topics such as how-to add scenarios, create reports, and where to start. You can find these recordings by explanding the CAST 101, Cost Data, and Develop a Plan headings on the Free Training Videos page.

CAST Webinars and Training

Upcoming Webinars

This month's webinar will focus on how to convert BMPs from percentages to acres in scenarios. This process is commonly called for when adding BMPs to a scenario that has WIP or Progress BMPs copied into it. A working knowledge of how to create CAST scenarios will be useful for attending this webinar.

  • Topic: Converting BMP Percentages to Acres
  • Time: October 17, 2024 at noon EDT
  • Join Zoom Meeting
  • Meeting ID: 872 9129 0617
  • One tap mobile +13017158592,,87291290617#

In-person trainings are available upon request.

Available Training Videos

Last month's CAST webinar discussed how the model can be used for performance-based financing applications. Conservation Innovation Fund (CIF) shared examples of how they have used CAST to estimate and report pollutant reductions for various projects in the Chesapeake Bay watershed and elsewhere, including MD Clean Water Commerce Account Program, MS4 permitting, and USDA Climate Smart Commodities Grants. We demonstrated how to create a scenario to quantify the load reductions from specific practices for estimating funding opportunities. Then, we discussed adding carbon reduction estimates to CAST.

This, and other past training videos on topics ranging from buffers to targeting nutrient reductions, are available in the Learning section of CAST under 'Free Training Videos'. Amongst the variety of training content available, there are also short videos on topics like 'Where do I start,' under CAST 101 - Getting Started.

Chesapeake Bay Watershed Success Story

Grants Awarded to Maryland Department of Natural Resources to Conserve Native Brook Trout and Sunfish and Restore Their Habitat: Grant funds will support comprehensive conservation strategies including targeted reintroduction efforts for two freshwater fish species listed as species of greatest conservation need within Maryland's State Wildlife Action Plan. Read more about this success story on the Maryland Department of Natural Resources' website.

Does your organization have a Chesapeake Bay Watershed success story you'd like to share? If you have a story you would like to see in the next CAST Newsletter, submit an article using the 'Contact Us' feature from any page of the CAST website.

Chesapeake Bay Program Deadlines

2024 Progress toward the Bay TMDL

The Chesapeake Bay Deadlines refer to the major jurisdictions' annual reporting of new BMPs implemented, and existing BMPs verified as functioning in the watershed. BMP implementation information is used to create annual progress scenarios using CAST and to make assessments and report out the estimated impacts of restoration efforts.

  • No later than December 1, 2024: Final BMP submissions for previous July 1 - June 30 data period due from jurisdictions for the 2024 Progress Phase 6 model assessment - both wastewater data and non-wastewater BMPs. Wastewater data includes the categories CSO, bio-solids, spray irrigation, large onsite septic systems, and rapid infiltration.
  • December 2024: Progress reports and resubmission reminders are available each Friday. Calls with state technical leads are scheduled to resolve issues.
  • January 2025: Progress reports and resubmission reminders continue. Calls with state technical leads continue.
  • February 10, 2025: Final opportunity for states to update BMP data.
  • February 11, 2025: Final progress run information available to jurisdictions - needed for outside reporting of progress on commitments to keep results relevant.
  • March 21, 2025: 2024 Progress finalized and released on CAST. Progress may be delayed due to unresolved issues surrounding the verification assessments.

Updates to CAST

New features: The phosphorus module is corrected for a missed source data update when migrating to CAST-23 on May 21, 2024. Any scenario that you migrated from the previous version of CAST may have slight differences in TP loads. These are not expected to be substantial. All new scenarios migrated will be correct. This does not affect any scenarios that you created in this version of CAST, just the ones migrated from the prior version.

A full list of changes is available on CAST's Upgrade History. The new CAST version is Phase 6 - 7.14.0.

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