Survey may give Lancaster County farmers their due in Chesapeake Bay cleanup

Lancaster County’s 5,600 farmers and others in the Susquehanna River watershed have been much maligned over polluting the Chesapeake Bay. But they may soon be seen in a better light. Nearly 7,000 farmers, including Plain sect farmers, have sent in surveys listing on-the-farm conservation practices that state officials and farm groups contend are not counted by the federal government in grading Pennsylvania’s progress toward cleaning up the nation’s largest estuary.If confirmed, the uncounted conservation work that farmers have paid for themselves could mean a public relations boost for farmers. And if the survey results confirm that Pennsylvania has reduced the flow of nutrient and soil pollution entering the bay through the Susquehanna River, that could ease  federal demands on the state, including threats of withholding money for state farm programs.