While both the 2002 Farm Bill and the EQIP Final Rule describe ranking application criteria, there is little standardization between (and sometimes within) states in how these criteria are applied. To ensure that the pertinent environmental concerns are being addressed in each state (or perhaps watershed), maintaining flexibility in how states determine these is important. However, criteria on how these environmental concerns are taken into account or how applications are ranked should be standardized nationally. For instance, quantitative measures or estimates of environmental performance are used wherever possible rather than qualitative measures, or simply asking applicants whether they agree to undertake a specificaction. This promotes uniformity in how environmental concerns are addressed and ranked within a county, amongst counties and between states. Greater consistency can also be achieved by standardizing the technologies and methods used to estimate and measure the environmental outcomes. Furthermore, explicitly requiring all ranking forms to include and use the ranking factors in the EQIP Final Rule (e.g., ranking applicants according to cost-effectiveness) is important.