MM-8 (7/8/05 version)
Local Management Mechanism Selection Process

Prior to selecting individual NPS management practices or measures, three key items need to be identified, in the following order, when selecting a management practice/measure from the list:

• Major cause of impairment or threat to drinking water quality;
• Target implementation areas; and local support for implementation; and
• Management practice applicability and effectiveness;

Major Causes of Impairment

• Bacteria;
• Sediment;
• Phosphorus;
• Nitrogen;
• Abandoned mine drainage (AMD) (includes acid mine drainage and metals);
• Pesticides;
• Hydromodification and habitat modification.

Target Implementation Areas

Within the applicable critical areas identified, target implementation areas are those locations where existing data documents that preservation, restoration and/or nonpoint source pollutant reductions will have the most impact to correct existing water quality impairment or threats to full attainment. Target implementation area boundaries will vary based on the specific type of water quality use impairment/threat, causes of impairment/threat, and particularly the locations where sources or threats are concentrated.

Identification of target implementation areas is encouraged due to the limited resources available to support management practice implementation.

Local Support for Implementation

Any management system selected based on effectively addressing impairments in target implementation areas may not be practical if there is little or no local support for implementation. Efforts to educate and involve local stakeholders in the watershed evaluation and decision-making process and about the relative benefits of various environmental improvement options is critical to achieving local support for the project(s).

In some cases, management practice implementation may be driven by state laws, local ordinances, or other regulatory requirements. In these cases, an environmental outcome is dictated, but there are generally a variety of options to achieve that outcome. Therefore, the above-mentioned local involvement and support is still critical to encourage local ownership of the particular set of options that will be used to meet the requirements.

Management Practice Applicability/Effectiveness

This step in the management practice decision-making process is often the most challenging simply due to sheer volume of information available and the variety of management practices available to address any given cause of water quality impairment or threat. Guidance to help with the decision-making process is available by clicking on the links below:

• Management Practice Systems
  • Overland Transport Management Practice Systems; and
  • Stream Integrity Management Systems.
    
    
• Management Practices and Measures
• WATER, Soil, and Hydro- Environmental Decision Support System - (WATERSHEDSS) is comprised of three components:
  1. The watershed assessment and evaluation which includes a pollutant budget spreadsheet (estimates pollutant loads) and an agricultural best management practice (BMP) database (with information on effectiveness).
  2. An educational component, containing detailed information and references on NPS pollutants and sources.
  3. An annotated bibliography of NPS literature.
     
     
• Acid Mine Drainage Decision Tree