Chesapeake Bay ‘Pollution Diet’ - EPA to Hold Public Meetings

October 26, 2009 - 7:50pm — GettingOutside
Anglers Need Clean Water (source: Chesapeake Bay Foundation)

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency will hold a series of public meetings to discuss the Chesapeake Bay Total Maximum Daily Load (TMDL) – a strict “pollution diet” to restore the Chesapeake Bay and its network of local rivers, streams and creeks.

According to the Chesapeake Bay Foundation (CBF), the Bay is in critical condition. In their most recent State of the Bay report, CBF rated the Bay a 28 out of 100, indicating that the Bay is at a little over one-quarter of its fullest potential. Compared to historic levels, it has lost 88 percent of the Bay’s oysters, 90 percent of the underwater grasses, 58 percent of the wetlands, and 46 percent of the forested buffers lining the Bay’s streams and tributaries. Without these natural resources, the Bay cannot recover.

Nitrogen pollution, primarily from agricultural runoff and sewage treatments plants, is the Chesapeake Bay's number one problem. This overload of pollution seriously impairs the water quality in the Chesapeake Bay along with the rivers and streams that feed it.

Voice Your Opinion & Save the Bay at the Public Meetings

The EPA held 14 public meetings throughout the watershed’s six states – Maryland, Virginia, Pennsylvania, Delaware, West Virginia, New York – and the District of Columbia from early November through mid-December 2009.

The Bay TMDL will establish the pollution reductions necessary for meeting Bay clean water standards. EPA officials will outline the Bay TMDL and receive public input during the sessions. A draft TMDL will be issued in August 2010, followed by a public comment period. A final TMDL will be established by EPA in December 2010.

We are happy to report that many people took the opportunity to make a stand for a once great, but struggling, and some say, even dying eco system.

Supporting the Chesapeake Bay Foundation is one way you can protect the environment!

Do Your Part to help Keep the Bay Safe for swimming and water recreation!

Here's a link to another important, related environmental issue: The Air Quality (and pollution) in our cities.

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Comments

Nitrogen soilure, primarily

May 22, 2012 - 12:08am — jacqueline13

Nitrogen soilure, primarily from farming flowing and sewage treatments plants, is the Chesapeake Bay's enumerate one problem.  This burden of soiling earnestly impairs the h2o quality in the Chesapeake Bay along with the rivers and streams that treat it.

I am so glad to see the

December 6, 2011 - 7:08pm — jb4522jb

I am so glad to see the protests here. There is so much great work that the people are doing. I am glad to see it.

The Chesapeake Bay

August 14, 2011 - 8:57pm — fionahuang
5

The Chesapeake Bay is the largest estuary in the United States. It lies off the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by Maryland and Virginia. The Chesapeake Bay is approximately 200 miles (300 km) long, from the Susquehanna River in the north to the Atlantic Ocean in the south.

The Chesapeake Bay is the Nation's largest and most productive estuary. The economic, commercial, and recreational values of the Chesapeake Bay are threatened, however, by pollution entering it from its major tributaries. Each year, runoff from city streets, fertilizer-laden waters from farmlands, outflows from sewage-treatment plants, and airborne pollution carry large amounts of nitrogen and phosphorus into the rivers and ultimately the Bay.

Nitrogen and phosphorus, also termed "nutrients," are pollutants because they nourish algal blooms that deprive Bay grasses of sunlight and deplete water of oxygen. This, in turn, kills fish and other plants and animals that make their home in the Bay, thereby affecting the commercial and recreational industries of Chesapeake Bay.