Maryland Agricultural Water Quality Cost-Share Program (MACS)

The Maryland Agricultural Water Quality Cost-Share (MACS) Program provides farmers with grants to cover up to 87.5 percent of the cost to install conservation measures known as best management practices on their farms to prevent soil erosion, manage nutrients and safeguard water quality in streams, rivers and the Chesapeake Bay. Grassed waterways planted to prevent gully erosion, streamside buffers of grasses and trees planted to filter sediment and farm runoff, and animal manure management systems are among more than 40 best management practices currently eligible for cost-share grants. Certain practices qualify for 100% cost-share (a Provision for 100% Cost-Share applies). The MACS Manual details the specifics of these best management practices and includes the eligible practices, per-practice cost-share rates, forms and instructions needed for a project to qualify for payment.

Available to Maryland farmers installing eligible best management practices. More than 40 BMPs are eligible, including waste storage structures, poultry mortality composting facilities, grassed waterways, riparian forest and herbaceous buffers, filter strips, fencing, heavy use areas, watering facilities, pasture management, silvopasture, and wetland restoration. Applicants must have a current nutrient management plan certification. Priority watersheds may be targeted for funding. See the MACS Manual (Sections I-IV) for the full list of eligible practices, cost-share rates, and required forms.

Cost-share percentage: "Specific BMP cost-share percentages vary from 50 percent to a maximum of 87.5 percent of eligible project costs." Most of the 40-plus eligible practices are cost-shared at 87.5%; exceptions in the current rate schedule include Sediment Control Pond at 65.0% and Fencing at 50% / 87.5%. MDA's MACS Grants fact sheet lists exclusion fencing and riparian forest buffer at up to 100%. The amount actually offered "depends on the cost-effectiveness of the proposed BMP when compared to other alternatives for that site."

Dollar caps (MACS Manual, Section I, Cost-Share Funding Limits):

• Single project other than animal waste storage or treatment: "may not exceed $150,000" — or "$200,000" if covered by a pooling agreement. "No farm limit requirement."

• Single animal waste storage or treatment project: "may not exceed $200,000."

• All animal waste storage or treatment projects for one person combined: "The total payment made for all animal waste storage or treatment projects located on a farm or farms that a person owns, operates, or in which the person has a controlling interest may not exceed $450,000," whether that person or a predecessor-in-title installed the project.

• Start-up or expansion poultry/livestock waste projects: capped at 50 percent of the eligible cost, not 87.5%.

• Nutrient management plans: up to 87.5% of eligible costs (which may include soil, plant tissue and manure analysis), and "[p]ayment made for the nutrient management plan project is not included in the maximum total cost share allowed per person."

A "farm" here is an operation run by one person — individual, joint operation, partnership, trust, corporation or legal entity — and may span contiguous or non-adjacent parcels.

Maintenance obligation: 5 to 15 years depending on the practice (for example 5 years for contour farming and strip cropping, 10 for grassed waterways and pasture management, 15 for waste storage structures, riparian forest buffer, hedgerow and tree & shrub establishment). The full per-practice list is in Section II of the MACS Manual.

How you are paid: "Payment is usually made by check directly to the applicant" after completion, and may be directed to an additional payee (vendor, contractor or lending institution) on request. Direct deposit is available.

Other conditions: you must hold a current nutrient management plan certification, and priority watersheds may be targeted for funding. Apply through your local soil conservation district.

Apply through your local soil conservation district. The MACS Manual provides eligible practices, cost-share rates, the MACS Agreement, the Water Quality Project Application, and instructions. Contact MACS Program Manager Jason D. Keppler at 410-841-5864 or jason.keppler@maryland.gov, or the MDA Office of Resource Conservation, for assistance.