NEWSLETTER

Chesapeake Assessment Scenario Tool

CAST Newsletter: September 2024

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

Did You Know?

Did you know about the SAV reports? The Chesapeake Bay Submerged Aquatic Vegetation (SAV) Synthesis Project brought together experts from the Chesapeake Bay Program (CBP) partnership specializing in SAV, water quality, and land-use research and management. In response to interest from resource managers, local planners, and watershed organizations, the SAV Synthesis Project team conducted segment-specific reviews of SAV trends and progress towards restoration targets and created SAV fact-sheets for each segment. The fact sheets can be found on the TMDL Tracking page.

CAST Webinars and Training

Upcoming Webinars

This month's CAST webinar will discuss how the model can be used for performance-based financing applications. Conservation Innovation Fund (CIF) will share 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 will demonstrate how to create a scenario to quantify the load reductions from specific practices for estimating funding opportunities. Then, we will discuss adding carbon reduction estimates to CAST.

  • Topic: Pay for Performance
  • Time: September 19, 2024 at noon EDT
  • Join Zoom Meeting
  • Meeting ID: 881 6009 3011
  • One tap mobile +13017158592,,88160093011#

In-person trainings are available upon request.

Available Training Videos

The American Farmland Trust hosted a webinar on CAST, which demonstrated how to use CAST to evaluate trends over time as well as estimate loads from current or planned BMPs. Specifically, it:

  • Explained how project managers can evaluate and report on project-level outcomes associated with the adoption of conservation practices by multiple farmers in a project, including:
    • Ecosystem benefits such as improved brook trout habitat, community stewardship, and toxic contaminants prevention.
    • A discussion of the appropriate scale at which to use various modeling options and how to interpret the results.
  • Showed how CAST answers questions about the sources of nitrogen and phosphorus from animal manure and inorganic fertilizer and how to view graphs of the changes over time.
  • Provided information on how to create scenarios estimating load reductions using climate-smart agricultural practices.

A recording of this webinar is available on the American Farmland Trust's website.

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

Shapiro Administration Celebrates Historic Improvements to the Chesapeake Bay Watershed and the Susquehanna River as Commonwealth Leads Effort to Improve Water Quality: Under the Shapiro Administration, Pennsylvania will continue to improve local waterways and water quality. Read more about this success story on the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection's 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.

  • October 1, 2024: Federal facility BMP reports due to the jurisdictions.
  • 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 Trends Over Time Loads delivered to the streams and the Bay and Wastewater graphs have been updated to include 2022 and 2023 data.

A full list of changes is available on CAST's Upgrade History. The new CAST version is Phase 6 - 7.13.0.

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