After a do-over, Pennsylvania's detailed plan for how it will vastly reduce the amount of smothering soil and nutrients it's flushing into the Chesapeake Bay has been accepted by the federal Environmental Protection Agency.

Farmers will be profoundly affected, of course, but so will almost everyone who lives in more than half of Pennsylvania whose water drains into the Susquehanna River.

Over the next 15 years, residents can expect to pay higher water and sewer bills and perhaps a stormwater-management fee; other bay states already are considering legislation that would limit what goes into lawn fertilizers.

As a targeted area, Lancaster County can expect intense pressure to clean its many impaired streams and to stem runoff.

Chesapeake Bay Foundation has been a major player in determining how Pennsylvania will reach the ambitious cleanup goals set in motion by an executive order from President Barack Obama.

Matt Ehrhart, executive director of the Pennsylvania office of the advocacy and education group, and Lamonte Garber, the group's agriculture program manager — both Lancaster County residents — recently discussed the impacts and offered their candid takes on Pennsylvania's pollution-reduction blueprint.

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For the first time, Ehrhart and Garber pointed out, farmers are being required to have and implement basic erosion and manure conservation plans for their farms, regardless of size. Those requirements have been on the books for decades but have not been enforced.

"There are a lot of farmers out there who legitimately don't have any idea what is required, as ridiculous as that seems," Ehrhart said.

He estimated that half the farmers in Pennsylvania — mostly running small farms — don't know what's expected of them.

"A lot of folks, particularly the Amish community, were happy to say, 'You know, when I have to deal with this, I will. Until then, I have other stuff to do,'" Ehrhart said.

"I think there's a growing sense that maybe now's the time we have to do this."

How will farmers get the message? From everything from personal visits to their farms to workshops and mailings. The state and Lancaster County Conservation District recently printed a pamphlet for farmers titled "Agricultural Environmental Regulations: Am I In Compliance?"

Also key will be a farm manure manual being drawn up by the state Department of Environmental Protection. It will set requirements for small farmers on everything from how to apply manure to how close to streams manure can be spread.

Financial aid for dairy farmers — who have experienced several years of devastatingly low milk prices and rising feed costs — is essential if they are to make the barnyard changes expected of them, Ehrhart and Garber stressed.

There are several federal programs that offer direct payments to farmers for putting in conservation practices. For some Plain-sect farmers who shy away from government support, the state's Resource Enhancement and Protection (REAP) program has been popular because it provides tax credits for installing the practices.

Chesapeake Bay Foundation recently launched its own Buffer Bonus Program for Plain-sect farmers. The program offers additional payments and rent compensation to up to 50 farmers in Lancaster and Chester counties who enroll in the federal CREP program to install streamside buffers.

Ehrhart and Garber said they are hoping new Gov. Tom Corbett doesn't carve money proposed for clean-water programs in Pennsylvania. And harsh cuts to federal cleanup programs are being pushed by Republican congressmen.

Fencing to keep cattle out of streams and lining the banks with treed buffers are crucial steps to Pennsylvania meeting its cleanup deadlines, Ehrhart and Garber said. Not only do treed buffers capture runoff, they improve water quality as well.

Pennsylvania's plan, approved by EPA, calls for thousands of acres of new tree buffers in Lancaster County.

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Ehrhart and Garber were asked about a recent lawsuit against EPA's cleanup plan brought by Pennsylvania Farm Bureau and American Farm Bureau Federation that claims, in part, that many voluntary conservation practices made by farmers are not being considered in determining the ag requirements.

"It's legitimate, and we support the tracking of voluntary best-management practices," Garber said. For example, it's now estimated that as much as 50 percent of cropland in Pennsylvania is under runoff-preventing no-till plantings and cover crops.

But he defended as accurate the computer modeling that is being used to determine what needs to be done to clean the bay.

Garber also addressed a prevalent lament from local farmers that they are being unfairly targeted, considering there is lax enforcement of Lancaster city and other municipalities over controlling stormwater runoff, identified as another major source of pollution entering the bay.

"They have latched onto this as an example of unfairness — that no one else is doing their fair share," Garber said. "I truly think it's affecting some farmers' willingness to take some additional measures."

Garber said fixing Lancaster's and other older cities' combined stormwater and sewage drainage systems is hugely expensive with few options.

Moreover, he said, stormwater events in the city really don't flush that many nutrients downstream.

And, he added, Lancaster city has begun implementing an ambitious "green infrastructure" plan to capture stormwater with porous pavement, living roofs and more tree plantings.

acrable@lnpnews.com