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Maryland is partnering with local governments and stakeholders to improve waterways throughout the State and restore the Chesapeake Bay.
Following the establishment of the Chesapeake Bay Total Maximum Daily Load and Maryland’s Phase I Watershed Implementation Plan (WIP), Maryland began developing a Phase II WIP that will build on Phase I to provide a more detailed, county-level roadmap for how the State will achieve the “pollution diet” goals of the Bay TMDL. The development of Maryland’s Phase II WIP offers a unique opportunity for the State to partner with elected officials and government staff in our counties and municipalities and work with other decision-makers and stakeholders toward a mutually beneficial goal: the restoration of the Chesapeake Bay.
Sticking to this pollution diet will also restore water quality in Maryland streams, rivers, and reservoirs, protect drinking water and public health, reduce flooding, and create jobs.
On Sept. 14, MDE made available information on “target loads” – the amount of nutrients that can be delivered to a waterway and maintain water quality standards – on county-area scales.
Maryland will submit to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency a draft Phase II WIP in mid-December and a final plan in March 2012. State agencies will continue to work with local governments after March to ensure that final, approved local plans, which are due in July 2012, will meet water quality standards.
The EPA’s expectations for the Phase II WIP include describing how the State engaged its local partners to develop more detailed and geographically specific nutrient and sediment reduction targets and implementation practices, following development of the broad statewide strategies described in the Phase I WIP. Maryland has fully embraced this concept, helping to organize local WIP development teams at the county level, including representatives of county governments, municipalities, stakeholders, and soil conservation districts, with State agency liaisons who work with the teams to coordinate their efforts. Federal government partners are also working with the State and the local WIP teams.
The federal, state and local partnership allows local governments and stakeholders to participate in the decision-making process to formulate specific implementation strategies that are the most practical, efficient and cost-effective. These decisions could include consideration of the predominant land uses and pollutant sources within a county area, as well as local development plans, resources, and existing water quality issues and initiatives. Since the beginning of 2011, staff in MDE’s Science Services Administration has been providing informational briefings about the Phase II WIP process to numerous local government representatives and departmental staff, as well as various stakeholder groups and business interests. In addition to creating a Phase II WIP web page for the teams and general public, MDE, along with other state agencies, also provided webinars on specific technical and policy issues related to Phase II WIP development.
MDE is also providing training sessions on the use of Maryland’s Assessment and Scenario Tool (MAST). MAST is an online tool recently developed by MDE that will enable each local WIP team to build implementation strategy scenarios and determine whether these result in meeting local pollution reduction goals. All county input to MAST will be compiled to create a statewide scenario that can be directly entered into EPA’s Chesapeake Bay Program Model to verify that Maryland’s Phase II WIP will result in meeting water quality standards for the Bay.
State agency staff members are working with all Bay partners to overcome funding concerns and other barriers to local government acceptance and commitment to the implementation practices necessary to achieve required load reductions. Maryland will also provide as much flexibility as possible to the county teams in devising strategies that work best for each jurisdiction. However, the State is required to deliver a Phase II WIP to EPA that meets Maryland’s allocation targets so compromise is anticipated. If necessary, Maryland will provide default strategies for any county area that is unable or unwilling to do so in partnership with the State.
MDE hopes that, through the ongoing development of the Phase II WIP and the coordinated implementation efforts that follow to meet Maryland’s pollution reduction goals by 2020, a strong and lasting partnership is forged between the State and the local jurisdictions, based on a shared responsibility and an understanding that Maryland will be rewarded for its efforts to restore the waters of the Chesapeake Bay and, in the process, improve the quality of the numerous rivers and streams in Maryland’s portion of the Bay watershed.
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