Mid Atlantic Water Program

Funding: Approximately $610,000 per year since 2002 (~$3.6 M total) from USDA-CSREES. Dr. Tom Simpson is the PI and Drs Doug Parker and Gary Felton are co-PIs on the project. Dr. Simpson serves as Regional Water Quality Coordinator for USDA-CSREES and leads the regional program. This program coordinates research, education and outreach efforts among land grant universities in the region. It involves eight other universities and more than 30 faculty from 7 disciplines who conduct applied research, develop educational materials, lead formal, conferences, and trainings on a wide range of nutrient water quality issues.

The PI’s have conducted more than two dozen scientific consensus or educational programs on topics such as feed management, nutrient credit trading, endocrine disrupting compounds, ammonia loss from animal production and soil phosphorus. Regional teams of scientists have developed tools such as the Mid Atlantic Nutrient Management Handbook, a web based nutrient budget and primers on nutrient trading, ammonia, phosphorus site indices, biofuels and numerous other emerging topics. The PI’s have worked to develop a regional feed management exam, a regional compost training school, training for inspectors and permit writers for large animal operations and other training programs. Program members and teams from participating institutions have leveraged many millions of dollars (>$10M) to support research and educational activities on topics of regional importance. Perhaps of greatest importance in this time of dwindling faculty resources, we have built a regional organization that enhances both the Extension and applied research water quality expertise and capacity for Maryland and the entire region.

For more information, contact Dr. Tom Simpson

Last updated: 02/7/2008