Pennsylvania says it will make required dramatic reductions in the amount of nutrients and soil washing into the Chesapeake Bay by putting caps on sewage plants, improving stormwater control in urban areas and pressing farmers to ramp up anti-pollution efforts.

The "road map of changes" is contained in a 170-page draft plan that Pennsylvania and five other states and the District of Columbia had to submit to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency on Wednesday. Virginia asked for a two-day extension of the deadline.

The federal government, acting on marching orders from President Barack Obama to pull out the stops in saving the bay, has told Pennsylvania it needs to reduce the amount of polluting nutrients and sediment reaching the bay and local streams by about one-third by 2025.

"Pennsylvania is committed to protecting and enhancing our streams and watersheds," says the report, submitted by Gov. Ed Rendell and the state Department of Environmental Protection.

The report spends considerable space maintaining that Pennsylvania farmers and residents have made laudable progress in cleanup efforts so far.

It notes that farmers have been responsible for 80 percent of the reductions in nitrogen loadings so far, even though agriculture is only half the source of the nutrient.

The report also says "sweeps" will be done of privately funded conservation measures on farms because the state feels it has done more to address the problem than it is being given credit for.

Still, it's clear the agriculture community will be leaned on heavily in the years ahead as Pennsylvania pushes to meet tough pollution limits placed on it by the feds.

Lancaster County's intense farm base is mentioned specifically in parts of the report.

For example, the DEP said it will target farmers in more small watersheds that are "impaired" to determine if individual farmers are complying with basic water quality and soil-erosion regulations.

Watson Run, a small watershed near Intercourse that's home to mostly Plain Sect farms, was the first such experiment last fall. Eighty-five percent of farms inspected did not have required plans. The Muddy Run watershed in Leacock Township is currently undergoing similar scrutiny.

One reason agriculture will be a focus of the state's cleanup efforts, the new plan says, is that simple, relatively inexpensive, on-the-farm conservation measures known as best-management practices are considered "the most cost-effective tools to restore water quality."

The state also vowed to expand outreach and technical assistance to farmers.

Though tried-and-true methods such as fencing livestock away from streams will be a linchpin in cleanup efforts, the plan also calls for accelerated reliance on new technology.

One priority will be regional digesters in which gas from manure on dairy, poultry and hog operations is burned, thereby producing electricity while lowering the amount of nutrients placed on fields.

But the state is calling on the EPA to put up funds to support such projects, which have price tags of as much as $50 million.

Meanwhile, Pennsylvania plans to give a firmer footing to a nascent nutrient-trading program designed to pay farmers for making conservation moves.

The state proposes setting up an exchange that would buy and sell nutrient-reduction credits.

In addition to efforts aimed at farming, Pennsylvania proposes to cap the amount of sewage that the 183 largest sewage-treatment plants in the bay watershed can take in. That could affect the growth of new homes and businesses.

Better control of stormwater runoff is another pivotal strategy in the plan.

In the months ahead, after the states' plans are reviewed by the EPA and finalized, the federal agency will allocate what has been called "pollution diets" to each state. The states then will determine what levels of pollution will be allowed into streams on a county-by-county basis.

The plan ends with this promise: "DEP is committed to engage with Pennsylvania stakeholders to develop a plan that equitably distributes the responsibility for meeting our cap load allocations.

"Ultimately, it is up to all of us to take those actions necessary to protect and restore Pennsylvania streams and rivers and the Chesapeake Bay."

State Sen. Michael Brubaker of Warwick Township, who chairs Pennsylvania's legislative delegation to the Chesapeake Bay Commission, gave advice as the state plan was drafted.

Though he has not yet seen the final report, Brubaker appealed to federal authorities to let Pennsylvania set the ground rules for meeting the new cleanup goals.

"Pennsylvania prefers to do this on our own," he said.

He also said the federal government should come forward with funding for the costly programs that will be required.

"That is imperative to meet the goals and to succeed," he said.

New technologies — some of which don't yet exist — also will be crucial for the cleanup to become reality, he said.

acrable@lnpnews.com