Water Quality
Goal
Reduce pollutants to achieve the water quality necessary to support the aquatic living resources of the Bay and its tributaries and protect human health.
Importance
Many parts of the Chesapeake Bay contain excess nitrogen, phosphorous and sediment, and are listed as impaired under the Clean Water Act. The Chesapeake Bay Total Maximum Daily Load (TMDL), or “pollution diet,” uses Watershed Implementation Plans (WIPs) to drive nutrient and sediment reductions in each of the watershed states and the District of Columbia. These plans set pollution reduction targets for sources like agricultural runoff, stormwater runoff and wastewater. Reducing pollution is critical to restoring the watershed because clean water is the foundation for healthy fisheries, habitats and communities across the region.
Outcomes
Watershed Implementation Plans (WIP) - 2017
Watershed Implementation Plans, created by watershed jurisdictions under the Chesapeake Bay “pollution diet” or Total Maximum Daily Load (TMDL), are instrumental in the restoration of tidal water quality. Improving water quality will support other restoration goals and benefit human health.- Outcome:
- By 2017, have practices and controls in place that are expected to achieve 60 percent of the nutrient and sediment pollution load reductions necessary to achieve applicable water quality standards compared to 2009 levels.
- Lead Goal Implementation Team:
- Water Quality Goal Implementation Team (GIT 3)
- Contact:
- Bo Williams
- Management Strategy:
- IV d 2025 WIP Logic and Action Plan [PDF, 250.5 KB]
- Strategy Review System Update:
- Narrative | Presentation
- Archived Strategy Review System Documents:
- View Archived Strategy Review System Documents
Watershed Implementation Plans (WIP) - 2025
Watershed Implementation Plans, created by watershed jurisdictions under the Chesapeake Bay “pollution diet” or Total Maximum Daily Load (TMDL), are instrumental in the restoration of tidal water quality. Improving water quality will support other restoration goals and benefit human health.
- Outcome:
- By 2025, have all practices and controls installed to achieve the Bay’s dissolved oxygen, water clarity/submerged aquatic vegetation and chlorophyll a standards as articulated in the Chesapeake Bay TMDL document.
- Lead Goal Implementation Team:
- Water Quality Goal Implementation Team (GIT 3)
- Contact:
- Bo Williams
- Management Strategy:
- IV d 2025 WIP Logic and Action Plan [PDF, 250.5 KB]
- Strategy Review System Update:
- Narrative | Presentation
- Archived Strategy Review System Documents:
- View Archived Strategy Review System Documents
Water Quality Standards Attainment and Monitoring
Monitoring the attainment of water quality standards will give us the information needed to track trends in nutrient and sediment pollution and assess whether or not Chesapeake Bay water quality is high enough to support aquatic living resources.- Outcome:
- Continually improve the capacity to monitor and assess the effects of management actions being undertaken to implement the Bay TMDL and improve water quality. Use the monitoring results to report annually to the public on progress made in attaining established Bay water-quality standards and trends in reducing nutrients and sediment in the watershed.
- Lead Goal Implementation Team:
- Water Quality Goal Implementation Team (GIT 3)
- Contact:
- Breck Sullivan (410) 267-5788
- Strategy Review System Update:
- Presentation
- Archived Strategy Review System Documents:
- View Archived Strategy Review System Documents