Backgrounder
410 Severn Avenue, Suite 109
Annapolis, Maryland 21403
voice 410-267-5700 • toll free 800-YOUR-BAY • www.chesapeakebay.net
Meeting Chesapeake 2000 Water Quality Commitments
Through Innovative Technologies
&
Chesapeake Bay Program
A Watershed Partnership
New technologies for monitoring the Bay and its
tributaries have been developed and tested over the
past several years by the Maryland Department of
Natural Resources (DNR), the University of Maryland,
the Virginia Institute of Marine Sciences, the District of
Columbia and other Chesapeake Bay Program
partners. These technologies are critical for
understanding and assessing living resource habitats
in the Bay, especially shallow waters that are a key to
restoring bay grasses, fish and shellfish.
Continuous monitors can provide "real-time" data
collected every 15 minutes on a wide spectrum of
water quality measurements including salinity,
temperature, dissolved oxygen, pH, water clarity and
algal levels (see map for monitoring site locations).
One reason that it is important to have continuous
records is because of the dramatic daily fluctuations in
dissolved oxygen that traditional monitoring misses.
These large fluctuations often lead to fish kills in Bay
tributaries affected by algal blooms due to excess
nutrients.
Another new monitoring technology is capable of
mapping water quality throughout a tributary,
including its shallow waters, in a matter of hours. This
technology allows data to be collected every four
seconds while the boat is traveling at speeds up to 25
knots. The water and habitat quality maps produced
by this technology can then be used to
comprehensively assess habitats throughout a
tributary where conditions typically undergo large
changes from headwaters areas to the mouth.
New Mapping
Technologies Sampling
Tributaries
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Maryland DNR's new web site - eyesonthebay.net - has a map of the Bay that allows users to
click on any of the stations and call up the latest new technologies data as well as monthly data
from the long-term Chesapeake Bay Monitoring Program.
The Chesapeake Bay Program is restoring the Bay through a partnership among the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency representing the federal
government, the*State of Maryland, the- Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the Commonwealth of Virginia, the District of Columbia, the Chesapeake Bay
Commission, and participating citizen advisory groups.

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Meeting Chesapeake 2000 Water Quality Commitments Through Innovative Technologies
Page 2
These new innovations fill a large gap in our ability to assess the new water quality criteria being developed to
protect living resources as required by the Chesapeake 2000 agreement. The shallow water areas that will be
assessed with these new technologies have largely been unmonitored by traditional programs due to the cost and
time needed to take measurements across the Bay's vast areas and rapidly changing environments. Chesapeake
2000 commits partners to meeting these criteria by 2010.
In addition to meeting Chesapeake 2000 commitments, these new technologies allow the public, scientists and
managers to view the latest data over the Internet. The Maryland Department of Natural Resources has developed
a comprehensive web site that displays near real-time data from the new monitoring technologies as well as the
most recent data from the broader long-term Chesapeake Bay Monitoring Program. For the Executive Council
meeting, a continuous monitoring station has been established on the Anacostia River within 100 yards of the
meeting location and is currently transmitting data to the web site. The web site, accessed at
www.evesonthebav.net, provides easy-to-understand background information to help interpret the importance of
different data types; it also provides links to recent Chesapeake Bay data from other sources.
Continuously recorded dissolved oxygen measurements in the Anacostia River, near the Executive Council
meeting site at Anacostia Park, show long periods this summer and early fall during which concentrations
dropped below the healthy level for most living resources of 5 mg/l.
In summary, these new technologies allow the Bay Program partners to:
•	Better understand the link between, pollution, water and habitat conditions, and our primary restoration goal
- the Bay's living resources;
•	Determine whether or not we are meeting the water quality criteria defining a restored Bay as called for in
the Chesapeake 2000 agreement;
•	Provide agencies with near real-time data to assess fish kills, harmful algal blooms, effects of storms and
other short-term events; and
•	Provide citizens, students and researchers with an opportunity to explore the dynamic nature of the Bay and
become more knowledgeable about its problems and their solutions.
For more information, contact Maryland DNR's Bruce Michael at bmichael@dnr.state.md.us
The Chesapeake Bay Program is restoring the Bay through a partnership among the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency representing the federal
government, the State of Maryland, the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the Commonwealth of Virginia, the District of Columbia, the Chesapeake Bay
Commission, and participating citizen advisory groups.

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