Bay jurisdictions continue to chip away at pollution

With only a few months to go before our calendars turn to 2025, the Chesapeake Bay watershed jurisdictions continue to progress in meeting their pollutant reduction goals under the Chesapeake Bay Total Maximum Daily Load (Bay TMDL).

When the Bay TMDL was established in 2010, it was decided that each jurisdiction should have 100% of practices in place to reduce pollution by 2025, which would enable the Chesapeake to achieve water quality standards. The Environmental Protection Agency assesses water quality standards by three main criteria–the amount of dissolved oxygen in the water, the acreage of underwater grasses across the Bay as a measure of water clarity and chlorophyll a, a measure of algae growth.

Each of the watershed jurisdictions–Delaware, Maryland, New York, Pennsylvania, Virginia, West Virginia and the District of Columbia–have strategies in place called Watershed Implementation Plans (WIPs) that lay out how each will install 100% of practices by 2025 to reduce nitrogen, phosphorus and sediment pollution flowing into the Bay. The jurisdictions then input the installed conservation practices into the Chesapeake Bay Program’s Watershed Model.

The Watershed Model takes this information, and combined with such inputs as land use and water quality monitoring data, is able to estimate how each jurisdiction is doing in meeting their Bay TMDL goals. When the most recent Chesapeake Bay Watershed Agreement was signed in 2014, progress toward the Bay TMDL was included in the form of the 2025 WIPs outcome.

The following estimated pollution reductions occurred between 2009–the baseline year for the Bay TMDL–and 2023:

• Overall nitrogen entering the Bay decreased 17% from 297.8 million pounds in 2009 to 247.6 million pounds in 2023, meeting 57% of the goal to reduce nitrogen by 2025.

• Overall phosphorus entering the Bay decreased 17% from 17.2 million pounds in 2009 to 14.2 million pounds in 2023, meeting 67% of the goal to reduce phosphorus by 2025.

• Overall sediment entering the Bay decreased 6% from 18.9 billion pounds in 2009 to 17.8 billion pounds in 2023, meeting 100% of the goal to reduce sediment by 2025.

In late 2022, it was determined that the jurisdictions would not meet the 2025 deadline, but that has not stopped Delaware, the District of Columbia, Maryland, New York, Pennsylvania, Virginia and West Virginia from making progress. For instance, both West Virginia and the District of Columbia are on track to meet their 2025 Bay TMDL goals.

• Delaware has achieved 9% of its 2009-2025 reduction goal for nitrogen, 39% of its reduction goal for phosphorus and 64% of its reduction goal for sediment. The state did not meet its 2023 pollution reducing targets for nitrogen, phosphorus and sediment.

• The District of Columbia has achieved 100% of its 2009-2025 reduction goals for nitrogen, phosphorus and sediment. The District is on track to meet each one of its 2023 pollution reducing goals.

• Maryland has achieved 83% of its 2009-2025 reduction goals for nitrogen, 100% of its reduction goal for phosphorus and 100% of its reduction goal for sediment. The state did not meet its 2023 pollution reducing targets for nitrogen.

• New York has achieved 65% of its 2009-2025 reduction goals for nitrogen, 66% of its reduction goal for phosphorus and 26% of its reduction goal for sediment. The state did not meet its 2025 reduction targets for nitrogen, phosphorus and sediment.

• Pennsylvania has achieved 29% of its 2009-2025 reduction goal for nitrogen, 50% of its reduction goal for phosphorus and 58% of its reduction goal for sediment. The Commonwealth did not meet its 2023 pollution reducing targets for nitrogen, phosphorus and sediment.

• Virginia has achieved 80% of its 2009-2025 reduction goal for nitrogen, 62% of its reduction goal for phosphorus and 100% of its reduction goal for sediment. The Commonwealth did not meet its 2023 pollution reducing targets for nitrogen and phosphorus.

• West Virginia has achieved 100% of its 2009-2025 reduction goal for nitrogen, 91% of its reduction goal for phosphorus and 100% of its reduction goal for sediment. The state is on track to meet each one of its 2023 pollution reducing targets.

The Watershed Model estimates that between 2022-2023, the agricultural sector was responsible for reducing 43% of nitrogen and 26% of phosphorus, while the wastewater sector was responsible for reducing 53% of nitrogen and 67% of phosphorus.

Innovative solutions have helped to reduce pollutants from both wastewater, a point source, and agricultural runoff, a nonpoint source.

AlexRenew is a wastewater treatment authority operating within portions of northern Virginia. In 2017, the organization set out to replace the sewer system in Alexandria, Virginia that dated back to the 1800s. Earlier this year, they completed a two-mile long, 100-foot deep tunnel underneath the Potomac River that will eventually combine four existing combined sewer outfalls with the wastewater treatment plant once the project is finished.

“The RiverRenew project will prevent over 120 million gallons of combined sewage from entering the Potomac River and Bay each year,” said Justin Carl, general manager and chief executive officer of AlexRenew. “This once-in-a-generation project is anticipated to be complete by 2026 to support a fishable and swimmable future.”

The Alliance for the Chesapeake Bay, a regional nonprofit, works with farmers and agricultural corporations to help improve their long-term sustainability while helping the agricultural industry create stronger environmental standards in general.

“By supplying diverse funding, expertise perspectives, capabilities and clean water solutions across dairy and poultry farms, we are proud to play a significant role in helping to lower the pollution that is entering not only the Chesapeake Bay but also our local waters in communities upstream,” noted Kate Fritz, chief executive officer of the Alliance for the Chesapeake Bay.

Even if you aren’t part of a nonprofit or run a wastewater treatment plant, you can do your part to help decrease the pollution that is entering the waters in your community and the Chesapeake Bay. Whether it’s cutting back on your fertilizer use, or redirecting the downspouts on your home, the smallest actions add up! Check out more useful ways to help the Bay at chesapeakebay.net.