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Chesapeake Bay Journal
What’s next for the Chesapeake Bay? Draft goes out for public input
After 30 years of stubbornly slow progress toward restoring the health of the Chesapeake Bay and its rivers, federal agencies and watershed states in 2014 adopted a far-reaching strategy. Their agreement formally expanded the Chesapeake Bay Program partnership to include three more states — Delaware, New York and West Virginia...
Chesapeake Bay cleanup faces headwinds in reducing nutrient pollution
Cleaning up the Chesapeake Bay is a lot like trying to sail into the wind. The heavy breeze keeps pushing back against efforts to make progress. That’s illustrated by recent data from the state-federal Bay Program, which shows that roughly half of the efforts by states to reduce nitrogen pollution during the last 14 years have been offset by headwinds created by growth, climate change and the filling of the reservoir behind the Conowingo Dam.
Will a focus on stream health help boost the Chesapeake?
Editor’s Note: State and federal leaders have acknowledged that the Chesapeake Bay region will not meet its most fundamental 2025 cleanup goal: reducing nutrient pollution in the Bay and its rivers. Now, people are asking, “How did we get here?” and “What’s next?” This article is part of an ongoing series that tackles that question.
Chesapeake Bay restoration leaders, advocates divided on best path forward
For decades, Chesapeake Bay policies and funding have largely focused on making sure that creatures in the deepest part of the estuary get enough air to breathe. Should they pay greater attention to habitats more important to overall aquatic health and to waterways more important to the people living on its watershed?
Scientists ponder: How well are ag practices helping the Chesapeake Bay?
Editor’s Note: State and federal leaders have acknowledged that the Chesapeake Bay region will not meet its most fundamental 2025 cleanup goal: reducing nutrient pollution in the Bay and its rivers. Now, many people are asking, “How did we get here?” and “What’s next?” This article is part of an ongoing series that tackles that question.
Farmers question whether Chesapeake Bay model reflects reality
Editor’s Note: State and federal leaders have acknowledged that the Chesapeake Bay region will not meet its most fundamental 2025 cleanup goal: reducing nutrient pollution in the Bay and its rivers. Now, many people are asking, “How did we get here?” and “What’s next?” This article is part of an ongoing series that tackles that question.
Lack of people power is barrier to reducing farm runoff in Chesapeake Bay
Editor’s Note: This article is part of an ongoing series that looks at water quality goals for the Chesapeake Bay and the fundamental challenges, which have persisted for decades, in reducing nutrient pollution from agriculture. Policy and science leaders have said that the Chesapeake region will not meet its 2025 nutrient goals for the Bay, largely because of an inability to sufficiently reduce nutrient pollution from farms in Maryland, Pennsylvania and Virginia. Also in this series: Chesapeake Bay cleanup faces difficult trade-offs with agriculture and Should new Chesapeake cleanup goals have a greater dose of reality?
What’s next for the Chesapeake Bay?
As the Chesapeake Bay Program turns 40 this year, with a history that includes both significant achievements and outright failures, it faces one of its biggest challenges ever: What comes next?. The Bay Program is a partnership between Chesapeake states and the federal government that has driven the regional restoration...
EPA launches more-collaborative assessments of PA farms
In a Pennsylvania county with 5,100 farms, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency visited four this spring to assess any potential for water quality problems locally or for the Chesapeake Bay. That may seem like a drop in the bucket. Nonetheless, work in Lancaster County constitutes something of a sea change...
Lawsuit over Pennsylvania's role in Chesapeake cleanup comes to settlement
A settlement that ensures the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency will maintain stepped-up oversight of Pennsylvania’s Chesapeake Bay efforts was finalized this week, resolving a three-year-old suit. A request to formally dismiss the suit, filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia on July 12, ends a...
New era begins for ‘dead zone’ tracking in Chesapeake Bay
A lonely gray boat bobbed like a cork in the Chesapeake Bay where its brackish waters converge with the Choptank River on Maryland’s Eastern Shore. On deck, four men reluctantly set aside their last-minute preparations and posed together for a photograph. The day had finally arrived. “I started proposing...
Should new Chesapeake cleanup goals have a greater dose of reality?
Editor’s Note: This article is the second in an ongoing series that looks at water quality goals for the Chesapeake Bay and the fundamental challenges, which have persisted for decades, in reducing nutrient pollution from agriculture. Policy and science leaders have said that the Chesapeake region will not meet...
In major new report, scientists outline path to a better Chesapeake Bay – but it’s a slow one
For decades, efforts to restore a healthy Chesapeake Bay have operated under a relatively simple assumption: Ongoing actions to reduce nutrient pollution on the landscape would improve water quality which, in turn, would bring back the bountiful populations of fish, crabs and oysters once seen in the Bay. But a...
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The Bay Journal is published by Bay Journal Media, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization, to inform the public about issues and events that affect the Chesapeake Bay.
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