Chesapeake Bay TMDL

The Chesapeake Bay Total Maximum Daily Load (TMDL) is a federal "pollution diet" to restore the Chesapeake Bay and its vast network of streams, creeks and rivers.

Tree leaves emerge from the top of a protective tree tube, just one of hundreds planted on a stretch of stream winding through a community park.
Young trees planted along East Branch Octoraro Creek in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, will improve stream health and prevent the type of nutrient and sediment pollution that is the basis of the Total Maximum Daily Load (TMDL). (Photo by Will Parson/Chesapeake Bay Program)

The Chesapeake Bay Total Maximum Daily Load (TMDL) is a comprehensive “pollution diet” to restore the health of the Bay and its local streams, creeks and rivers.

The Chesapeake Bay TMDL—the largest such cleanup plan ever developed by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency—sets limits on nitrogen, phosphorus and sediment pollution necessary to meet water quality standards in the Bay and its tidal rivers.

Maryland, Virginia, New York, Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Delaware and Washington, D.C., are all required to meet these pollution limits, because they all have rivers and streams that drain into the Chesapeake Bay. The jurisdictions develop “Watershed Implementation Plans (WIPs)” that detail how they will meet their pollution reduction goals, and submit 2-year milestones based on their progress.

More information on the information related to the Chesapeake Bay TMDL can be found on the EPA website.