Toxic Contaminants Workgroup Publications

This fact sheet describes the co-benefits that are possible when nutrient and sediment best management practices are selected in a thoughtful manner with site-specific conditions in mind. This fact sheet includes contact information for each state for more information. Additional information on best management practices and co-benefits for the Phase III WIPs is available here.

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Exposure to toxic contaminants can result in adverse effects on biological resources within the Chesapeake Bay and its watershed. In 2010, the Chesapeake Bay Program (CBCP), a federal-jurisdictional partnership, reported that 72 percent of the Bay's tidal-water segments are fully or partially impaired as a result of the presence of toxic contaminants. In some areas of the Bay watershed, fish-consumption advisories have been established as a result of concentrations of toxic contaminants. In recognition of these issues, the CBP developed the Toxics 2000 Strategy, in which commitments were made to prevent and reduce inputs of chemical contaminant and to eliminate toxic impacts on living resources that inhabit the Bay and its tributaries.

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This study was designed to evaluate ambient toxicity in the Chesapeake Bay watershed by using a battery of water column and sediment toxicity tests. A team of scientists from two Chesapeake Bay research laboratories and Maryland Department of the Environment worked jointly to complete this goal. Water column toxicity studies and overall project management was directed by the University of Maryland's Agricultural Experiment Station. SEdiment toxicity tests and selected sediment chemistry was managed by Old Dominion University Applied Marine Research Laboratory. Maryland Department of the Environment was responsible for selected sediment chemistry. This report summarizes data from the fourth year of a four-year ambient toxicity testing program.