Chesapeake Bay Program
A Watershed Partnership
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On June 28, 2000, the
Chesapeake Executive Council
signed Chesapeake 2000 - a new
and far-reaching agreement that
now guides Maryland,
Pennsylvania, Virginia, the District
of Columbia, the Chesapeake Bay
Commission and the U.S.
Environmental Protection Agency
in their combined efforts to
restore and protect the
Chesapeake Bay.
As part of that agreement, Bay
Program partners agreed to work
with the headwaters states of
Delaware, New York and West
Virginia to develop a new process
for setting and achieving nutrients
and sediment load reductions
necessary to restore Bay water
quality.
This process requires Bay
Program partners to continue to
build on previous nitrogen and
phosphorus reduction goals, but
instead of measuring
improvement against broad
percentage reduction goals, they
must now establish and meet
specific water quality standards
based on the needs of the Bay's
plants and animals.
Chesapeake bay
Program
1983-2003
Chesapeake Bay Water Quality Protection
and Restoration: An Innovative Approach
This new approach to improving Bay water quality incorporates elements
traditionally found in the regulatory TMDL process, such as criteria, standards and
load allocations, but has been developed and applied through a cooperative
process involving six states, the District of Columbia, local governments and
involved citizens. For the first time, Delaware, New York and West Virginia are
formally partnering with EPA, Maryland, Pennsylvania, Virginia and the District to
improve water quality throughout the Bay watershed.
Regulations Guiding Bay Water Quality
In 1998, the Chesapeake Bay and many of its tidal tributaries were added to the
list of impaired waters, thus requiring the development of a TMDL to comply with
the Clean Water Act. A TMDL is the maximum amount of a pollutant that a
waterbody can receive and still meet water quality standards. It is calculated by
totaling all the allowable loads of a single pollutant entering a body of water from
all contributing point and nonpoint sources.
TMDLs also allocate the amount each pollutant source is allowed to release while
still attaining water quality standards set by individual states and approved by
EPA. These allocations are then regulated through enforcement of permit limits,
principally directed at point source dischargers and the implementation of Best
Management Practices (BMPs) for nonpoint sources.
Chesapeake Bay Impairments and TMDLs
The Chesapeake Bay's main water quality impairment is its low dissolved oxygen
(DO). Current state water quality standards require 5 mg/L of dissolved oxygen
throughout all of the Bay's waters - from deeper waters near the Bay's mouth to
the shallows at the head of the Bay. Even though the 5 mg/L standard is baywide,
scientists believe natural conditions dictate that in some sections of the Bay, such
as the deep channel, Bay waters cannot achieve the current 5 mg/L standard.
Additionally, scientists believe other areas, such as prime spawning areas, require
higher levels of dissolved oxygen to sustain life. In addition to dissolved oxygen,
other Chesapeake Bay impairments include reduced light conditions and too
much algae.
more •
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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Chesapeake Bay Water Quality Protection and Restoration: An Innovative Approach
2
The Transition to New Water Quality Criteria
Because conditions throughout the Bay differ
based on depth, salinity and season, a uniform
Baywide standard does not take into account
the varying needs of different plants and ani-
mals. As a result, current state water quality
standards need to be revised to account for the
natural variability in conditions found through-
out the Bay. The Bay criteria the Chesapeake
Bay Program has proposed differ from one
region of the Bay to another, as determined by
the plants and animals residing in that area.
The Bay Program also proposes that the new
standards also remain constant for similar
habitats across all jurisdictions.
The new water quality standards the will be
based on three criteria: dissolved oxygen,
water clarity and chlorophyll a. All plants and
animals in the Bay need oxygen to live. Water
clarity is a measure of the amount of sunlight
that penetrates the Bay's waters and reaches
the leaves of underwater bay grasses. All
plants, even those underwater, need light to live
and produce oxygen for other Bay creatures.
Chlorophyll a is used to measure the abun-
dance and variety of microscopic plants or
algae that form the base of the food chain.
Excessive nutrients can stimulate nuisance
algae blooms resulting in reduced water clarity,
reduced amount of fish food and depleted
oxygen levels in deeper water.
A "Parallel" TMDL
In a standard regulatory approach, TMDLs
would need to be completed for the
Chesapeake Bay and its tributaries by 2011.
TMDLs require a very specific implementation
plan, with "reasonable assurances" (e.g. en-
forceable permit limits) that load allocations will
be achieved. Under the TMDL framework, new,
innovative or untried solutions are not likely to
be approved as part of the implementation
plan.
However, due to the success of the Bay Pro-
gram partnership over the past two decades,
Bay Program partners have agreed to develop
and carry out a cooperative approach to re-
move water quality impairments by 2010. This
cooperative approach will allow the states and
the District of Columbia more flexibility on how
to reduce pollutant loads. Maryland, Pennsylva-
nia, Virginia, New York, Delaware, West Virginia
and the District of Columbia are jointly develop-
ing the new water quality criteria, designated
uses and cap load allocations needed to re-
store Bay water quality.
The cooperative process for removing the Bay
from the impaired waters list includes load
allocations to sources — point, nonpoint and
atmospheric — just as a TMDL would. The
states and the District of Columbia determined
those allocations which are based on local tidal
water quality as well as meeting the new Bay
criteria. Each tributary basin has been given a
load allocation based on each river's effect on
the Bay's water quality.
In order to coordinate the regulatory TMDL
framework with the Bay Program's cooperative,
consensus-based approach, this process will
incorporate local tributary regulatory TMDLs
within the larger, basinwide cooperative frame-
work.
Like TMDLs, the states and the District will have
to describe a plan for the implementation of
load allocations. However, unlike traditional
TMDLs, the Bay Program process will allow
innovative, new methods to be tried as part of
the implementation and will involve significant
local stakeholder involvement through the tribu-
tary strategy process.
For additional information about restoring Chesapeake Bay water quality, visit www.chesapeakebay.net.
4/2003

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