Pennsylvania faces tougher anti-pollution regulations as part of a new federal mandate to clean up the Chesapeake Bay.
But local and state officials complain that not enough credit is being given to projects that already are making a difference.
On Thursday, a few of those grass-roots efforts in Lancaster County were celebrated.
For example, this past growing season three local farmers reduced the amount of fertilizer they used as part of the American Farmland Trust's "Best Management Practices Challenge."
The Washington-based nonprofit AFT agreed to pay the farmers for lower yields of crops, if they occurred.
The farmers, like many others, would have been reluctant to adopt the practices aimed at reducing runoff and improving water quality if they thought they would lose profits.
The reductions in nutrients earned the AFT "nutrient credits" under Pennsylvania's fledgling nutrient trading program. Farmers earn credits for putting in place conservation measures. They then can earn cash by selling the credits to other entities, such as owners of sewage treatment plants required to reduce nutrient discharges.
In 2006, Mount Joy Borough became the first in the state to buy nutrient credits from nearby Brubaker Farms.
In the AFT project, the nutrient credits earned from conservation work on the farms weren't sold. Instead, in a ceremony at Thursday's Ag Issues Forum at the Farm and Home Center, AFT donated the credits to the Lancaster Farmland Trust in a symbolic show of support for the program.
"The success of farmers like these who are willing to do their part in Pennsylvania and other states demonstrates that you don't need hard-and-fast regulations to expand agriculture's role in cleaning up regional waterways," said Jim Baird, AFT's Mid-Atlantic director.
Then, echoing the sentiments of local and state officials in attendance, he added, "(That's) an important fact for everyone to remember as federal agencies develop a new strategy for restoring the health of the Chesapeake Bay and the creeks, streams and rivers that feed it."
AFT hopes more farmers will initiate conservation work and seek nutrient credits from the state.
The Lancaster Farmland Trust has launched its own on-farm effort to improve water quality through conservation practices.
The group's "Smart Farms" initiative provides technical assistance one-on-one with Plain Sect farmers.
Since 2006, more than 1,500 acres have been converted to no-till farming, and 48 farm owners have participated in best management practice consultations.
Using a grant from the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation, the group also hopes to get more farmers to initiate conservation measures themselves to get nutrient credits and thus help pay for doing the right thing.
"Ultimately, we hope to sustain agriculture in Lancaster County," said Karen Martynick, executive director of LFT.
John T. Hines, DEP deputy secretary of water management, endorsed nutrient-trading efforts, saying, "It helps our water, our economies and, in the end, it will help the Chesapeake Bay.
Contrary to the doom-and-gloom reports about the bay's demise, Hines noted that underwater grasses are up 85 percent where the Susquehanna empties into the bay at the Susquehanna Flats.
And he said monitoring on the Susquehanna River shows reduced levels of nitrogen, phosphorus and sediment.
"We're making it happen here on the ground in Pennsylvania," he declared. "We have to keep celebrating the successes."