"Every drop of rain that runs off these lands flows toward the bay. So does the discharge from every sewage pipe, industrial outfall, and uncontained oil spill, every styrofoam coffee cup casually tossed into a drainageway. When soil erodes from farmland, or from a forest bulldozed for development, the sediment can head only in one direction -- bayward. This is what we mean by the drainage basin, or watershed, of Chesapeake Bay. And on such a map the bay appears neither dominant nor long and broad; just a smallish pool of water on the receiving end of all our activities, wise and foolish, across the vast lands of the watershed." - Tom Horton, Turning the Tide

The Chesapeake Bay Partnership

Successful watershed management requires interagency/intergovernmental cooperation and coordination beyond what has typically been practiced. Such collaboration has much to do with the successful efforts to address the health of Chesapeake Bay using a watershed approach.

Chesapeake Bay, largest of the United States' 130 estuaries and second largest in the world, is a shallow estuary receiving water from a 64,000 square mile drainage basin that includes portions of the states of New York, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, West Virginia, Virginia, and all of the District of Columbia.

With a population of 13 million people living within its watershed, the bay's waters support 295 species of finfish, 45 species of shellfish, and 2,700 plant species. The bay also is home to 29 species of waterfowl and is a major resting ground along the Atlantic Migratory Bird Flyway. Approximately one million waterfowl winter in the bay's basin each year. The Chesapeake is also a major recreational and commercial resource, with two of the five major North Atlantic ports in the United States located on its shores.

The rivers and streams draining into the bay, and the bay itself, have suffered from the effects of more than two centuries of steady growth, from increasing pollution and runoff, and from accumulation of sediment and industrial wastes. The first signals of ecosystem imbalance in the bay were precipitous declines in populations of its fish, shellfish and waterfowl noted in the late 1960s. By 1988 a sharp decline in submerged aquatic vegetation (SAV), especially in the bay's upper reaches, also indicated that the bay was in trouble. Studies concluded that nutrient enrichment, much of which is contributed by agricultural activities both upland and nearshore, was the primary factor in the decline of SAV beds. In addition to excess nutrients, low dissolved oxygen levels, loss of habitat, and other stressors, toxic substances also contribute to the deterioration of the bay. Because of toxic pollutants present in the bay's water column and sediments, many organisms do not survive to become adults breeders, accelerating declines in stocks and continuing the downward spiral in the living resources of the Chesapeake Bay watershed.

The Chesapeake Bay Program was formed in 1983 with representatives from Virginia, Maryland, Pennsylvania, the District of Columbia, EPA, and the Chesapeake Bay Commission signing the first Chesapeake Bay Agreement to restore the bay as a single ecosystem. The partnership also involves the active participation of other federal agencies (such as FWS, NOAA, and SCS), local governments, citizens, and businesses. A second Agreement, signed in 1987, contained a commitment by the parties to reduce the amount of nutrients reaching the bay by 40 percent by the turn of the century. On a broader level, the Agreement clearly established that the productivity, diversity, and abundance of the estuary's aquatic plants and animals would be used as the ultimate measurement of the bay's condition. In 1992, amendments to the Agreement reaffirmed the 40 percent commitment and directed that specific nutrient reduction goals be set for each of the bay's major tributaries and that strategies be developed to achieve those goals as well as protect and improve aquatic habitats in the rivers.

The aim of the Chesapeake Bay Program is to produce actions that restore the bay. Installing fish ladders, planting trees, enacting growth management legislation, improving sewage treatment plants, and building oyster reefs are all activities that occur through the program. The program guides and coordinates the restoration actions of literally hundreds of federal, state, and local government agencies, and works with dozens of business, civic, agricultural, scientific and technical, and environmental organizations throughout the entire watershed of the Chesapeake to create or place their endeavors in an effective pattern. The results have been very positive. More than 175 miles of fish habitat have been made accessible through fish passage improvements; phosphorous levels have been reduced by 16 percent and nitrogen levels have been stabilized; rockfish populations have been stabilized through moratoria; major pollution prevention efforts have been effectively implemented; noncompliance rates among water quality permittees have dropped by 70 percent; and toxic emissions and releases have been reduced by 43 percent.

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