Water Quality

<body> <p>Home > Water Quality -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- All living things need water. In the Chesapeake Bay region, waterways support more than 3000 species of plants and animals. Healthy water contains a balanced amount of nutrients and normal fluctuations in salinity and temperature. It also has plenty of oxygen and little sediment so that underwater living resources can breathe or receive enough sunlight to grow. Monitoring changes to the Bay's waterways is important, and the data that is collected can help scientists make determinations about water quality. Water Quality Factors: Nutrients are essential for plants and animals, but too much can cause harmful effects. Sediments can cloud the water which can hamper the growth of aquatic plants. Water temperature affects when animals and plants feed, reproduce, and migrate. Salinity greatly determines where plants and animals live within the Bay. Dissolved oxygen is essential for animals living within the Bay. Restoring Bay Water: In order to restore the Chesapeake Bay watershed, Bay Program partners agreed in Chesapeake 2000 to improve water quality to provide healthier habitat for the Bay's living resources. These actions will lead to a resurgence in Bay finfish, shellfish and underwater grasses, as well as the eventual removal of the Bay from the federal list of impaired waters by 2010....(Learn More) Tidal Bay & Rivers: General Overview Non-tidal Rivers: General Overview Groundwater: General Overview Urban Storm Water: What is Urban Storm Water? | Why is it Important? | How is it Water Managed? | How Does the Bay Program Address Storm Water Management? Restoring Bay Water Quality: Overview | Brief Overview of Process | Chesapeake 2000 | Restoring the Bay: How We Get There | Developing New Water Quality Standards | Dissolved Oxygen | Chlorophyll a & Water Clarity | Modeling | Watershed Partners | Opportunities to Get Involved | Detailed Technical Overview of Process Restoring and Protecting Chesapeake Bay and River Water Quality: 64 slide presentation with speaker notes available for viewing on the web or downloading as a Microsoft PowerPoint file. (2.9 MB) Bay Restoration: Bay Program unveils draft criteria for clean Bay. (Re-print from Bay Journal July - August 2001) .pdf file (287 kb) Watershed Profiles: Learn about water quality in the Bay region. Water Quality Status and Trends Viewer: : The Water Quality Status & Trends Viewer creates a map of water quality status and trends. Select a water body and enter the monitoring criteria of interest to produce a custom map. Submerged Aquatic Vegetation: There are 16 species of SAV (submerged aquatic vegetation) commonly found in the Chesapeake Bay or nearby rivers. These Bay grasses contribute to water quality as they function to remove excess nutrients, such as nitrogen and phosphorus, that could fuel unwanted growth of algae in the surrounding waters. (learn more) Other Sites of Interest: Water Quality - Chesapeake Bay Region - USGS Clean Water Action Plan - EPA Office of Water National Water Quality Monitoring Council Conference USGS National Water Quality Assessment (NAWQA) Program </body>