Posted: December 19, 2022
The purpose of this article is to communicate the signature requirements in Act 38 Nutrient Management Plans (NMPs) and NMP amendments (amendment) for Appendix 1 and for Appendix 8 when manure is exported from the Act 38 operation to a known landowner for agricultural land application scenarios.
As per the Nutrient Management Rules and Regulations in 83.261 and the Nutrient Management Act Program Technical Manual (NMTM) Appendix 1 Nutrient Management Plan Agreement and Responsibilities, the nutrient management specialist who develops the plan must sign the plan, thereby certifying that the NMP has been developed in accordance with Act 38 criteria and that the contents of the NMP and planned practice implementation schedule has been reviewed with the operator. The planner must sign and date Appendix 1. The operator’s signature in the NMP indicates the operator concurs that the information in the NMP is accurate, that the NMP has been reviewed with them by the planner and that they accept responsibility for implementing the plan including any listed BMP’s. The operator or an operation representative must sign, date and list their title in Appendix 1.
As per the Nutrient Management Rules and Regulations in 83.301 and the NMTM Appendix 8 Importer/Broker Agreements and NBS, excess manure utilization plans also require signatures. When manure is exported from the Act 38 operation to a neighbor or other known landowner for agricultural land application, both the exporter and importer must sign and date an agreement. The agreements need to be updated and re-signed whenever a significant change occurs to the agreement. Examples of significant changes could include changes to manure amounts, types of manure, acreage available and application seasons. Signed agreements are required for all the various export scenarios. For additional information regarding export scenarios (i.e. brokered manure, etc.) and agreements see Appendix 8 and Supplement 11 in the NMTM.
Unless the importer has an approved current Act 38 NMP, signed Nutrient Balance Sheets (NBS) must be included in Appendix 8. The NBS included in an Act 38 NMP, or amendment must be completed using the most recent version of the NBS planning tool. The certified specialist who develops the NBS must sign the cover page of the NBS confirming that the information in the NBS is accurate and in accordance with Act 38 criteria.
Act 38 NMP’s can be submitted electronically. For initial electronic plan and plan amendment submissions, all signature pages shall be scanned and included with the electronic plan submission. A submission without the appropriate signatures and dates in Appendix 1 and Appendix 8 shall be deemed to be administratively incomplete by the reviewing entity.
Additional information can be found in the NMTM (Appendix 1 pages 35 – 37 and Appendix 8 beginning on page 103).
