When the federal Environmental Protection Agency announced last fall it had targeted nearly two dozen small farms near Intercourse for farm-related water pollution inspections, fears of a crackdown rippled through farm and regulatory circles all the way to Harrisburg.

The 3-square-mile Watson Run, a tributary of Pequea Creek, was chosen from tax maps, according to Kyle Zieba of EPA. David McGuigan, also of EPA, said the agency wasn't initially aware that 23 of the 24 farmers in the watershed were Plain Sect.

"There was a great deal of trepidation," McGuigan, of the regional National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System Permits and Enforcement office, acknowledged Monday as he delivered the results to the Lancaster County Conservation District board.

The 24 farmers in Leacock Township appealed to the Lancaster County Conservation District to intercede on their behalf. Intense conversations have ensued, and Amish bishops have been involved.

At the presentation Monday, EPA officials emphasized that they would allow the conservation district to work with the farmers in the Watson Run watershed between Paradise and Intercourse to correct farm-runoff problems they found.

John Hanger, secretary of the state Department of Environmental Protection, drove to Lancaster to thank EPA for "listening and changing how you were going to do this."

Later, when asked about Hanger's comment, Don McNutt, administrator of the conservation district, said EPA's original intention was to declare all the farms as concentrated animal feeding operations, which would require the highest level of on-the-farm conservation measures.

Still, most of the Watson Run farmers are expected to place best-management practices on their farms or possibly face enforcement actions in the future, according to the EPA.

And the EPA assessment — others are planned in watersheds in Lancaster County — is another indication that the county is under the gun to dramatically reduce its flow of harmful nutrients from manure and crop fertilizers that are finding their way into local streams and the Chesapeake Bay.

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What was EPA, which only regulates large farms, doing assessing a local cluster of dairy, poultry and swine farms?

Southcentral Pennsylvania has been identified as one of three hot spots that are sources of unacceptably high amounts of manure nitrogen levels tainting surface, groundwater and drinking water.

The other two are intense poultry farming areas in the Delmarva Peninsula and the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia.

Zieba said the agency wanted to find a small headwaters area in Lancaster County to study the effectiveness of key best-management practices.

The two EPA members and one conservation district staffer who visited each farm between Nov. 30 and Dec. 18 were pleasantly surprised by some of the things they saw.

Most of the farms used cover crops and no-till or low-till farming. Most had their soil tested to determine they weren't over-saturating the soil with fertilizer and none discharged milk wastewater directly into Watson Run.

McNutt said that the conservation district and EPA "agreed that the farmers had met or exceeded some of the baseline requirements for many of their field practices."

But only four had manure storage facilities capable of holding manure through the winter without spreading it on fields. Only three of the 24 had farm conservation plans as required by the state.

And during storms, water running through barn lots and fields was observed flowing into waterways, Zieba said.

"We absolutely saw manure going into Watson Run, as well," she said.

"Our results show that only one farm is a best situation here."

Discussing the next step in the assessment, Zieba said, "There are regulatory options, but a cooperative approach is preferable."

Hanger noted the tough economic times Pennsylvania farmers have struggled with and said they can't be expected to implement large-scale conservation measures "without partnerships. I get that."

And he said it can't be just farmers shouldering the load for improving water quality and helping the Chesapeake Bay.

Sewer plants will have to be improved. Urban storm water and lawn fertilizers must be better controlled, he said.

New, emerging technologies also will have to play a key role for nutrient limits imposed on Pennsylvania by the federal government to be met by 2025, he stressed.

Hanger praised the Lancaster County Conservation District as tied with another as the best in Pennsylvania.

acrable@lnpnews.com