New proposals for Maryland’s Phosphorus Management Tool

The Maryland Department of Agriculture has announced that newly proposed regulations were published on Friday in Maryland’s Register.

The regulations are reportedly intended to establish a multi-year process for farmers to make the switch from the Phosphorus Site Index to the Phosphorus Management Tool which could better identify the possible risks of phosphorus loss from farms.

A proposal that appeared in the register features two enhancements of a prior proposal.

Those enhancements consist of:

Regulating the amount of phosphorus in already phosphorus-rich soils and collecting data on phosphorus conditions statewide.

In addition, the proposal also has two changes to address the concerns of legislators and the environmental community, which consists of establishing an expert advisory committee to evaluate the transition and a new implementation schedule.