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For more than two decades, Maryland and its partners in the Chesapeake Bay region have struggled to reduce pollution in the Bay and its tributaries while parts of the watershed continued to grow.
To achieve the collective vision for a restored Bay, President Obama issued the 2009 Chesapeake Bay Executive Order directing EPA to coordinate an intensified federal effort aimed at accomplishing the restoration. Each partner State and the District of Columbia must do its part in the most ambitious effort yet to save the Bay.
The strategy is the development of a “pollution diet,” or a series of Total Maximum Daily Loads (TMDL), to establish numerical limits for nutrients and sediments entering Bay. These TMDLs for nutrients and sediment, the pollutants of primary concern, set legal limits for pollution entering the Chesapeake Bay. The project is to be completed by December 2010.
With technical advancements in recent years and sufficient data, it’s possible to mathematically calculate acceptable levels of pollution and establish a science-based estimate of the pollutant load levels that will not interfere with the Bay’s ecosystem.
To achieve measurable results, Bay partners must take concerted steps to both roll back existing pollution levels to the acceptable TMDLs and sustain these levels so that pollution “creep” doesn’t cause Bay water quality to backslide. Going from a set of calculated TMDLs to in-the-Bay results is the focus of a new joint federal/state/local watershed implementation planning process.
Partner states and D.C. must develop and submit initial Watershed Implementation Plans (WIPs) that lay out the steps necessary to achieve the adopted TMDLs. The initial WIPs are expected to be further refined to focus the effort on specific local implementation actions and will have ramifications for MDE permit and related decisions.
MDE has formed “WIP Action Teams” with our sister agencies to coordinate this complex task and address the various elements of the WIP as outlined by EPA. For each element, agency leads have been identified and work plans have been developed. Meeting the implementation goals will likely require state and local governments, citizens, watershed groups, and stakeholders to take action at every level to limit pollution. Measures will include best management practices across the agricultural and urban sectors of the State, upgrading septic systems, and reducing the use of fertilizer on residential property.
While the TMDL is still being developed, EPA recently issued preliminary target loads of nutrients for the Bay watershed states and District of Columbia. These draft loading targets for major tributary basins will help the jurisdictions get started with developing more detailed nutrient limits. MDE and our WIP Action Team members are moving forward to complete a preliminary plan on schedule, under the tight timeline set by the Bay TMDL partners:
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June 1, 2010 - Preliminary WIP due to EPA
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August 1, 2010 - Draft WIP (with any necessary revisions) due to EPA
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August 15 to October 15, 2010 – tentative public comment period for the Draft Bay TMDL and Draft WIPs
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December 31, 2010 – EPA establishes Chesapeake Bay TMDL
For the latest information, visit the MDE TMDL page at:
http://www.mde.state.md.us/programs/Water/TMDL and EPA’s Bay TMDL website: http://www.epa.gov/chesapeakebaytmdl/
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