Strategies for Financing Chesapeake Bay Restoration in Virginia
- Published:
- August 31, 2017
Virginia has demonstrated a strong commitment to restoring the health of the Chesapeake Bay as well as the state’s own local waterways.1 Since the Chesapeake Bay Total Maximum Daily Load (TMDL) was enacted in 2010, Virginia has invested more than $350 million in nonpoint source pollution reduction projects statewide.2 The Commonwealth has made steady progress toward implementing its Chesapeake Bay Watershed Implementation Plan (WIP) and achieving target load reductions. It has advanced particularly impressive gains in abating point source pollution, and the Commonwealth’s nutrient credit trading program is a model for the region.
However, Virginia has recognized a need for greater levels of investment in Bay restoration, especially for practices that support attainment of goals in the state’s agriculture and stormwater sectors, which are making slower-than-needed progress in order to meet final 2025 TMDL targets. Virginia has also identified a need to amend its existing Bay financing mechanisms so that funding is more predictable and stable from year to year, and so that state water quality investments are as efficient and effective as possible.
The Chesapeake Bay Program Office (CBPO) asked the University of Maryland Environmental Finance Center (EFC) to help Virginia identify creative financing solutions that will meet these needs. Through interviews with Virginia state agency staff as well as a review of the Commonwealth’s existing funding streams for Chesapeake Bay restoration activities, EFC has identified opportunities for the Commonwealth to both close its Bay restoration funding gap as well as improve the way in which it finances restoration. These strategies focus on state-level opportunities because, though Bay cleanup is funded by various public and private actors, it is state governments that are ultimately accountable for meeting TMDL mandates.
It is EFC’s hope that the ideas presented in this report will inform Virginia’s efforts to (1) increase revenue flow for water quality restoration in a way that is stable and sufficient, (2) take advantage of opportunities to leverage private sector investment in Bay restoration, and (3) find efficiencies as the Commonwealth accelerates compliance with restoration targets. Virginia’s success in these regards would make it a model for other Bay jurisdictions seeking to make the best use of public funds for water restoration.