WAY is a coalition of stakeholders being innovative leaders encouraging watershed-based planning, restoration and protection in York County, Pennsylvania, and beyond.
On the same day the federal government announced a comprehensive strategy to protect and restore the Chesapeake Bay, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced guidance to help federal facilities reduce their pollution to the bay. EPA is delivering to federal land managers in the Chesapeake Bay watershed the most effective tools and practices to reduce water pollution from a variety of nonpoint sources, including agricultural lands, urban and suburban areas and septic systems. This guidance to provide the technical tools that will be needed to restore the bay is in response to the Chesapeake Bay executive order issued by President Obama in May 2009.
The guidance provides federal land managers with the help they need to implement the best proven tools and practices to restore and protect the region’s waterways and the bay. This guidance presents the most effective tools and practices to address nonpoint source pollution that is currently contributing nutrients and sediments from federal land management activity in the Chesapeake Bay watershed. This guidance, organized in six chapters by category of activity, and they are:
Agriculture – Best management practices can implement practices based on source, in-field and edge of field controls to protect water quality.
Riparian Area Management – Riparian areas are the natural buffers between uplands and adjacent waterbodies.
Urban and Suburban Areas – Development incorporating watershed planning, smart growth, low-impact designs and practices, and retrofits is critical to protect the Bay from urban and suburban runoff.
Decentralized Wastewater Systems – Septic systems serve millions of homes in the Bay watershed, adding ~12.5 million pounds of nitrogen to the Bay each year.
Forestry – Well-managed forests are the most beneficial land use for clean water. Large areas of healthy forest and streamside forests are essential to keeping nutrient and sediment pollution out of the rivers and Bay.
Hydromodification – The term hydromodification refers to the alteration of the hydrologic characteristics of waterbodies, which in turn could cause degradation of water resources.
The cost-effective tools and practices outlined in the document are indicated by current scientific and technical literature to be the most state-of-the-art approaches to reduce water pollution from nitrogen, phosphorus and sediment.
The same techniques can be utilized by states, local governments, conservation districts, watershed organizations, developers, farmers and citizens in the Chesapeake Bay watershed.
It’s raining here today in York, Pennsylvania. I’m reading with interest the new federal strategy for the Chesapeake region. It focuses on protecting and restoring the environment in communities throughout the 64,000-square-mile watershed and in its thousands of streams, creeks and rivers.
The strategy includes using rigorous regulations to restore clean water, implementing new conservation practices on 4 million acres of farms, conserving 2 million acres of undeveloped land and rebuilding oysters in 20 tributaries of the bay. To increase accountability, federal agencies will establish milestones every two years for actions to make progress toward measurable environmental goals. These will support and complement the states’ two-year milestones.
The “Strategy for Protecting and Restoring the Chesapeake Bay Watershed” was developed under the executive order issued by President Obama in May 2009, which declared the Chesapeake Bay a national treasure and ushered in a new era of shared federal leadership, action and accountability.
The strategy deepens the federal commitment to the Chesapeake region, with agencies dedicating unprecedented resources, targeting actions where they can have the most impact, ensuring that federal lands and facilities lead by example in environmental stewardship and taking a comprehensive, ecosystem-wide approach to restoration. Many of the federal actions will directly support restoration efforts of local governments, nonprofit groups and citizens and provide economic benefits across the Chesapeake region.
To restore clean water, EPA will implement the Chesapeake total maximum daily load (a pollution diet for the Chesapeake Bay and local waterways), expand regulation of urban and suburban stormwater and concentrated animal feeding operations and increase enforcement activities and funding for state regulatory programs.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) will provide farmers and forest owners throughout the bay watershed with the resources to prevent soil erosion and keep nitrogen and phosphorous out of local waterways. USDA will target federal funding to the places where it will have the greatest water quality impact and ensure that agricultural producers’ conservation efforts are accurately reported. USDA will also lead a federal initiative to develop a watershed-wide environmental services market that would allow producers to generate tradable water quality credits in return for installing effective conservation practices.
Conserving 2 million acres of natural areas, forests and farmland preserves the environmental, recreational, cultural and economic benefits these lands provide. To protect priority lands, the Department of the Interior will launch a collaborative Chesapeake Treasured Landscape Initiative and expand land conservation by coordinating federal funding and providing community assistance. Interior will also develop a plan for increasing public access to the bay and its rivers.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers will launch a bay-wide oyster restoration strategy in close collaboration with Maryland and Virginia that focuses on priority tributaries expands commercial aquaculture and bolsters research on oyster stock, habitat and restoration progress. Oysters are among the bay’s most struggling species and restoration in 20 tributaries will yield great environmental and economic benefits.
Several overarching approaches in the strategy are also important.
oTo accelerate the pace of restoration and protection, many actions occur in the next few years, and many of the actions are “on-the-ground” and “in-the-water” all around the Chesapeake watershed.
oThe strategy is designed to directly support the restoration activities of local governments, watershed groups, county conservation districts, landowners and citizens.
oMany actions will provide economic benefits, including conservation of working farms, expanded oyster aquaculture, support for conservation corps programs and green jobs, and development of an environmental marketplace for selling, buying and trading credits for pollution reductions.
oAgencies will be aggressively targeting resources where they can have the most impact – areas with the most pollution and potential for runoff, with the highest potential for restoring fish and wildlife, and with habitats and lands most in need of protection.
I hope the strategy’s federal commitment to the Chesapeake region deepens, with agencies dedicating resources and targeting actions where they can have the most impact.
What is needed most are actions that will directly support restoration efforts of local governments, watershed groups and citizens, and provide economic benefits across York County, Pennsylvania, and beyond.
After all, what’s good for clean water in YorkCounty is good for the Bay. Don’t you agree? I’d like to hear from you.
Wednesday, May 12, 2010
Bay Barometer
The Bay Program's 2009 Bay Barometer shows that the Bay continues to be degraded and illustrates a clear need to continue to accelerate restoration efforts across the region. The “Bay Barometer: A Health and Restoration Assessment of the Chesapeake Bay and Watershed” is the annual assessment of the Chesapeake Bay Program partnership's progress toward meeting its health and restoration goals.
Bay Barometer is divided into four distinct parts:
Bay Health, which provides information about the status of Bay water quality, habitats and lower food web, and fish and shellfish abundance.
Watershed Health, a summary of the health of freshwater streams throughout the Bay watershed and pollution trends in those streams.
FactorsImpactingBay and Watershed Health, which explains contributors to pollution in the Bay and its rivers.
Restoration and Protection Efforts, a summary of the Bay Program’s efforts to reduce pollution, restore habitats, manage fisheries, protect watersheds and foster stewardship.
Additionally, Bay Barometer includes sections on the health of freshwater streams and rivers throughout the 64,000-square-mile watershed, factors that affect the health of our waters, and what the 17 million residents of the Bay watershed can do to make a difference in the restoration effort.
Last year (2009) was indeed a banner year for the Chesapeake Bay in many ways.
At its annual meeting in May, the Chesapeake Executive Council began charting a new course for recovery of the Bay and its watershed by setting short-term goals to accelerate cleanup and increase accountability. Under these “milestones,” the six Bay watershed states and the District of Columbia will put actions into place to reduce a projected 15.8 million pounds of nitrogen and 1.1 million pounds of phosphorus by the end of 2011.
We also saw the beginning of a new era of federal leadership on the Chesapeake Bay with the signing of President Obama’s Executive Order on Chesapeake Bay Restoration and Protection. Eleven federal agencies are working together to reduce pollution to our waterways; restore fish, wildlife and habitats; conserve land; and expand public access.
And so we must keep moving on the path of forward-thinking actions and expansive involvement. These and other critical initiatives will help us continue marching toward our
restoration goals with each passing year. But we can’t do it alone.
I urge everybody reading this report to get involved today in restoring our Bay and its thousands of streams, creeks and rivers. Let’s all take the small steps listed on page 11 of this report to reduce pollution from our homes and backyards and make a difference in our communities. Most importantly, tell your friends and families that they, too, can bring positive change for the Bay by lending a hand to help restore and protect it.
To learn more about the ongoing efforts to restore and protect the Chesapeake Bay and its Watersheds, you may read and download the “Bay Barometer: A Health and Restoration Assessment of the Chesapeake Bay and Watershed in 2009” at
