Chesapeake Bay Restoration -- it might really happen!

October 14, 2009 | Clean Water

Katherine Baer
Senior Director, Clean Water Program

The Chesapeake Bay has long been a symbol of good intentions with little result. Despite the billions of dollars spent by state and federal governments on cleanup efforts, the Bay is still ailing, threatened by excess nutrients and sediment. Fortunately, the Bay got its own “czar” and a series of Executive Orders from President Obama directing federal agencies to really make something happen to restore the health of the Bay. The draft reports released last month detail some strong actions that are good news for the streams and rivers that flow into the Bay. For example, the Environmental Protection Agency is considering:

• Expanding the areas required to get stormwater permits;
• Using a standard similar to the one American Rivers has worked on for federal facilities that requires most water to be used on site through infiltration, evaporation, and reuse; and
• Requiring areas that are redeveloping to install improved stormwater controls.

As always, the “devil is in the details,” but the Executive Orders seem to be a giant step in the right direction. On top of that, there are efforts to reauthorize the Chesapeake Bay Program (under the Clean Water Act) and provide some real teeth to achieve clean water, including strong provisions to reduce polluted stormwater runoff, the only growing source of pollution (more on the reauthorization later).

In the meantime, American Rivers is working hard to ensure that Maryland’s good stormwater law that requires environmental site design to prevent pollution and keep rain on-site is fully implemented at the local level and can serve as a model. To find out how to pass a strong stormwater ordinance in your community, see our recent publication Clean Water for Maryland: Local Ordinances for Environmental Site Design.

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