New Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) for Agriculture Routine Inspections, Complaint Investigation, and Follow-up

Posted: June 6, 2025

The new Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) for Agriculture Routine Inspections, Complaint Investigation, and Follow-up (BWRNSM-INSP-006) has been officially approved and is now available. They are linked the on Agriculture Resources Page of the Clean Water Academy (CWA).

The CWA links include:

To support its successful implementation, a new training course is now live on Clean Water Academy and can be found here: Course: Standard Operating Procedure for Agriculture Routine Inspections, Complaint Investigation, and Follow-up.

This course offers detailed guidance on conducting agricultural routine inspections, investigating complaints, and carrying out follow-up activities under Chapter 102 and the Nutrient and Manure Management delegation agreements. Manure Management complaint response procedures have been incorporated into the Nutrient and Manure Management Admin Manual through a record of change.

This SOP and training promote consistent and parallel complaint response procedures across the Agriculture 102 and Manure Management Programs and across all watersheds in the Commonwealth.

After completing the CWA training, please take a moment to fill out the Post-Training Feedback Survey, located at the bottom of the course page. Any feedback offered will help DEP develop in-person trainings proposed for the fall of 2025.

If you have any questions regarding the SOP, training, or survey, please reach out to Allyson Hanawalt at ahanawalt@pa.gov.

Thank you all for your assistance with the implementation of these critical water quality programs.