USDA Awards MDA $650,000 Grant to Manage Eastern Shore Ditches

ANNAPOLIS, MD (August 22, 2011) –The Maryland Department of Agriculture (MDA) has been awarded a $650,760 State Conservation Innovation Grant from the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service to implement progressive management practices for drainage systems on the Eastern Shore and help the state meet its Watershed Implementation Plan goals.

“There are 820 miles of public ditches on the Eastern Shore that were originally designed to manage agricultural drainage,” said Agriculture Secretary Buddy Hance. “Today, those ditches also support storm water drainage from urban town centers, state highways, and commercial and residential development. As a result, many of these ditches are very seriously stressed. This grant will help us work with local farmers and landowners to implement innovative methods, using the most advanced technology available, for managing modern drainage needs while protecting the environment and improving water quality.”

Most of the Eastern Shore ditches were constructed in the 1960s and 1970s in Caroline, Worcester, Wicomico and Somerset counties. They have a drainage area of 220,000 acres. Under the Maryland Drainage Law, which was passed in 1957 and last amended in 1994, MDA is responsible for ensuring that each drainage system has an approved maintenance plan in place.

Over the past ten years, MDA has worked with the University of Maryland scientific research staff to develop nutrient reduction technologies and management recommendations to improve drainage ditch function; however, no coordinated program to increase the adoption of these practices has been possible. With the USDA/NRCS grant, MDA will be able to identify and target the most stressed ditch systems on the Eastern Shore and work with some 450 landowners and producers to implement management practices and technologies that will reduce sediment and nutrient runoff and improve water quality.

Research has shown that proper drainage of frequently saturated soils helps create more productive farmland, reduces flooding, protects public health, improves the transportation infrastructure and supports local economies. However, drainage systems can also accelerate the delivery of nutrients to nearby waterways, disturb wildlife habitat and contribute to erosion and sediment losses. Heightened concerns over the environmental impacts of current maintenance activities have increased the demand for these more progressive management practices.

Some of the nutrient reduction practices that MDA intends to implement include building water control structures; using phosphorous sorbing materials in ditches; employing weed wiper technology; and using hydromodification and algal turf scrubber technology.

Two other CIG grants were awarded to Maryland organizations that work closely with MDA. The Maryland Association of Soil Conservation Districts will receive a $73,500 grant to provide critical farming and conservation information  to non-English speaking poultry growers, primarily Korean and Vietnamese farmers.  The Green Trust Alliance was awarded a $260,457 grant to apply innovative bioremediation technology to nitrogen and phosphorus removal associated with agricultural operations.

Conservation Innovation Grants are administered by the USDA’s Natural Resources Conservation Service and are aimed toward enhancing the delivery of conservation programs to farmers and landowners. MDA’s proposal was selected from among 184 applications.  A total of 52 grants were awarded nationwide for $22.5 million.

# # #

Follow MDA on Twitter @MdAgDept.