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Developed by TIAER in the 1990s as part of the National Pilot
Project funded by EPA, the Planned Intervention Microwatershed Approach (PIMA)
is an assessment-based, community-led, performance-driven hybrid water pollution
abatement mechanism, combining a voluntary best management practice (BMP) program
with provisions to address bad actors.
- PIMA is assessment-based in that
it commences with water quality monitoring in impacted
watersheds, a check to ensure that producers' waste
storage ponds are adequate in size, and benchmark
soil testing on individual farms. These activities
are essential in evaluating nutrient management issues
faced by producers, developing BMPs, and as a means
of measuring progress and success.
- PIMA is community-led because
it relies on the input and involvement of a watershed
constituency committee and local producer councils
in managing and implementing environmental production
measures.
- Finally, PIMA is performance-driven because success is
measured by achieving established environmental goals in the water and on the
land, rather than by measuring implementation of BMPs and other controls.
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Researchers
Anne McFarland, Bill Bethel,
Jim Vergura, Gary Keith, Staci Pratt, Ron Jones
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Under PIMA, agricultural producers
work closely with nonregulatory, agriculture-friendly
agencies, such as local soil and water conservation
districts, to develop nutrient management plans and
adopt BMPs designed to abate nonpoint source runoff.
TIAER believes PIMA will predictably resolve water quality
problems while maintaining the competitiveness of the
agricultural industry, and set a precedent for minimal
government involvement in land-use planning and management.
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