Original Nutrient Reduction Goal

In 1987, the Bay Program partners set a 40 percent loading reduction goal for nitrogen and phosphorus to improve low oxygen conditions in the deep trench of the mainstem Bay. The goal from the 1987 Chesapeake Bay Agreement (32 kb) was later defined to apply only to "controllable" sources, and only to loads from the states of Maryland, Virginia, Pennsylvania, and the District of Columbia. Any nutrient loading from West Virginia, Delaware, or New York was not considered "controllable." This reduction translated into an actual basinwide nitrogen goal of 20 percent reduction, while the basinwide phosphorus goal manifested as about a 31 percent reduction from a 1985 baseline. A cap on nitrogen and phosphorus loads were allocated to each of the ten major tributary basins through the 1992 Amendments to the Chesapeake Bay Agreement (16 kb). The states developed tributary strategies which laid out schedules for taking the specific reduction actions needed to achieve this goal. Over the past decade significant nutrient reduction progress has been made.

Commitment to Restore Bay Water Quality

With the signing of the Chesapeake 2000 Agreement, the Chesapeake Bay Program partners have committed to go beyond setting new loading caps for nutrient and sediment and developing local stakeholder-based implementation plans. They have committed to, by 2010, "correct the nutrient- and sediment-related problems in the Chesapeake Bay and its tidal tributaries sufficiently to remove the Bay and the tidal portions of its tributaries from the list of impaired waters under the Clean Water Act." New York, Delaware and West Virginia are being brought in as watershed partners through a six state memorandum of understanding (35 kb) with the EPA.

The Chesapeake Bay Program's success to date is widely attributed to the cooperative nature of the partnership approach. The signatory states have also used this partnership approach when working with local governments, farmers, industry, wastewater treatment plant owners and other stakeholders in developing and implementing their tributary nutrient reduction strategies. However, recent actions taken under Section 303(d) of the Clean Water Act have emphasized the regulatory framework of the Act along with the ongoing cooperative efforts of the Bay Program as the means to address the nutrient enrichment problems within the Bay and its rivers. Most of the mainstem Chesapeake Bay and many of its tidal tributaries have been listed as impaired waters. Additionally, many local water segments throughout the Bay watershed are also listed as impaired tidal waters.

All listed impaired waters are scheduled to have a Total Maximum Daily Load or TMDL developed. A TMDL defines the pollutant load that a waterbody can assimilate without causing violations of water quality standards and allocates the loading to contributing point sources and non-point source categories. Once a TMDL is established by a state and approved by EPA through regulatory action, it is implemented through regulatory and non-regulatory programs. A regulatory TMDL covering the entire 64,000 square mile Bay watershed will be put in place by 2011 if Bay water quality is not restored by 2010.

Keeping A Cooperative Approach to Bay Restoration

To avoid potential negative impacts that a regulatory TMDL process might have on the successful, cooperative efforts being used by the states' tributary strategy programs, the Chesapeake 2000 Agreement lays out a series of commitments directed towards seeking a cooperative solution to restoring Bay water quality by 2010.

• The Bay watershed partners will define the water quality conditions necessary to support Bay living resources–fish, crabs, oyster, Bay grasses by 2001. These required conditions will be defined through a series Chesapeake Bay water quality criteria for dissolved oxygen, water clarity, and chlorophyll a currently under development.
• Important, distinct Bay and tributary tidal water habitats are being identified and characterized as designated uses, where the above Bay water quality criteria will be applied to fully protect the aquatic living resources.
• The states with Bay tidal waters–Maryland, Virginia, Delaware, and the District of Columbia–have all committed to adopting these Bay water quality criteria and refined tidal water designated uses into their individual state water quality standards by 2003.
• Critical to supporting the states' adoption of the Bay criteria and refined tidal waters designated uses will be a bay-wide use attainability analysis.
• Loading caps on nutrients and sediments needed to meet the Bay water quality criteria across all tidal Bay habitats will be allocated to nine major tributary basins and each individual state within those basins.
• Tributary strategies, detailed implementation plans to reach the allocated loading caps, will be developed by each state in cooperation with local watershed stakeholders.
• A reevaluation planned for 2007, will provide an opportunity for any necessary mid-course corrections on the road to restoring Bay water quality by 2010.

Become Informed, Get Involved

There are many Bay watershed partners involved in undertaking this decade long effort to restore Bay water quality by bringing back required oxygen levels, clearer water, and better quality algae as fish food. There are also many opportunities for the general public to become involved in helping make decisions that will guide local watershed nutrient and sediment reduction policies and actions in the coming decade. A wide array of information for large river basins to smaller subwatershed streams is directly accessible through the Chesapeake Bay Watershed Profiles. A detailed schedule shows the specific actions being taken to meet the goal of restoring Bay water quality by 2010.

Table of Contents

• Defining Restored Bay Water Quality
  • Bay Criteria - Dissolved Oxygen, Chlorophyll a, water clarity
  • Excessive Nutrient and Sediment Loads
  • Relationship with National Efforts to Develop Nutrient Criteria
• Dissolved Oxygen Criteria
  • Working Draft Chesapeake Bay Dissolved Oxygen Criteria (July 3, 2001)
  • Information on Your Watershed
• Water Clarity Criteria
  • Working Draft Chesapeake Bay Water Clarity Criteria (July 3, 2001)
  • Information on Your Watershed
• Chlorophyll a Criteria
  • Working Draft Chesapeake Bay Chlorophyll a Criteria.(July 3, 2001)
  • Information on Your Watershed
• Bay Tidal Water Designated Uses
  • Migratory Fish Spawning and Nursery
  • Shallow-Water Designated Uses
  • Open-Water Designated Uses
  • Deep-Water Designated Uses
  • Deep-Channel Designated Uses
  • Information on Your Watershed
• Setting and Allocating New Cap Loads
  • Nutrient Allocations
  • Sediment Allocations
  • Distribution by Basin by Jurisdiction
  • Information on Your Watershed
• Bay-wide Use Attainability Analysis
• Tributary Strategies: Local Watershed Implementation
  • Information on Your Watershed
• Adopting Bay Criteria as State Water Quality Standards
  • Why New State Standards
  • Existing State Water Quality Standards
  • Schedule for Water Quality Standards Adoption
  • More Information on Water Quality Standards
• Cap Re-evaluation: Mid-term Opportunity for Refinements
• Watershed Partners: Who's Involved
  • Watershed States as Partners
  • Bay Water Quality Restoration Planning Committee Structure
• Opportunities to Get Involved
• Schedule for Restoring Chesapeake Bay Water Quality
  • Chesapeake Bay Water Quality Criteria and Designated Use Review Schedule
• General Summary Information

To bookmark this page, please use this URL: http://www.chesapeakebay.net/wqcriteriatech.htm

For more information, contact the Chesapeake Bay Program Office:
410 Severn Avenue, Suite 109, Annapolis, MD 21403 / Tel: (800) YOUR-BAY / Fax: (410) 267-5777.

Terms of Use | Privacy Policy | Contact Us
Directions to the Bay Program Office

Last modified: 03/15/2005