Although two recent reports portray a Bay ecosystem that remains severely degraded despite years of restoration efforts, recent policy initiatives may mark a turning of the tide in favor of Chesapeake Bay improvements.

Reports Indicate Poor Bay Quality

For the second year in a row, the state-federal Bay Program partnership released its Health and Restoration Assessment report in tandem with the release of the Chesapeake Bay 2007 Report Card produced by the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science. The Report Card gave the Bay an overall score of a C- for 2007, a slight improvement from the D+ score in 2006. But because of the dry conditions that prevailed in 2007, scientists had expected better conditions. Dry conditions usually mean fewer nutrients and sediments are washed into the Bay. Factors such as extensive algal blooms and continued poor water clarity kept last year's score from making a more significant rebound, despite some improvements.

In the past year, scientists have assembled information from the last 18 years to piece together a longer-term view of the Bay's health. Their analysis showed no trend, but provided evidence that the Chesapeake would score better if more actions were taken to control nutrient and sediment runoff. A related analysis conducted by the scientists showed that tributaries with the greatest amounts of agriculture and development had the poorest scores. http://www.bayjournal.com/article.cfm?article=3333 

Recent Initiatives May Guide Improvements

Several recent policy initiatives, both on the state and national level, show promise for improving conditions in the Chesapeake Bay:

• The Senate recently overrode President Bush’s veto of the Food, Conservation and Energy Act of 2008 (the Farm Bill). Chesapeake Bay Foundation President William C. Baker issued a statement saying, “Congressional passage of federal funds for Bay restoration in the Farm Bill is the single most important federal initiative in the last 30 years to reduce pollution and restore a healthy and productive Chesapeake Bay. This may well be the turning point for the Bay we have all been working toward." http://www.cbf.org/site/News2?abbr=SB_News_&page=NewsArticle&id=34143 

• EPA recently established a national Council of Large Aquatic Ecosystems. The new council, made up of the director of each of ten existing large aquatic ecosystem programs and other senior managers, will work to support implementation of these ecosystem programs, facilitate communication among them, and improve links to core programs, budget and strategic planning processes, and research planning. The Chesapeake Bay is one of the aquatic ecosystem programs included on the council, along with the Great Lakes, Gulf of Mexico, Long Island Sound, South Florida, Lake Champlain, Puget Sound, Columbia River, San Francisco Bay, and Pacific Islands. http://www.epa.gov/owow/pdf/large_aquatic_ecosystems_memo.pdf

• In Pennsylvania, 40 bipartisan co-sponsors recently introduced legislation to make state government a partner in helping sewer system ratepayers and farmers meet federal and state mandates to reduce nutrients going into Pennsylvania’s streams and rivers. The bill,  known as the Chesapeake Bay Strategy Improvement Act, calls for greater accountability, organization and cohesiveness in the deployment of the Chesapeake Bay Tributary Strategy. The proposed legislation would: provide an appropriation of up to $500 million over a period of seven years to help local governments fund the needed wastewater treatment plant upgrades to reduce nutrient discharges; appropriate up to $250 million over a five-year period to help fund agricultural best management practices to reduce nutrient and sediment runoff; create the Pennsylvania Chesapeake Bay Nutrient Trading Board; and establish in statute the Chesapeake Bay Advisory Council as an advisory body to the department.  http://www.cbf.org/site/News2?abbr=SB_News_&page=NewsArticle&id=32495.

• A coalition of environmental, farm, businesses and municipal groups developed the Pennsylvania Fair Share for Clean Water Plan to help wastewater plant ratepayers and farmers finance improvements needed to address Chesapeake Bay and statewide water quality improvement mandates while preserving economic opportunity for future homeowners and businesses. The Pennsylvania Fair Share for Clean Water Plan proposes to invest $170 million in 2008-09 in several ways to reduce the financial burden on ratepayers and farmers: $100 million to help wastewater plants finance required improvements; $50 million in direct cost share aid to farmers to install conservation practices (increase the cap on REAP farm tax credits to $35 million and $15 million in cost share grants); $10 million to county conservation district to expand technical assistance to farmers; $10 million to restore cuts to the Department of Agriculture budget in farm programs; and reforms to the state’s nutrient credit trading program that will help to make it a viable alternative to provide for both environmental improvements to water quality and sufficient future sewage capacity for new development. http://www.cbf.org/site/News2?abbr=SB_News_&page=NewsArticle&id=33487&security=2404&news_iv_ctrl=234

• Maryland lawmakers beefed up waterfront zoning laws and settled on a plan to spend an extra $25 million a year to clean up the Chesapeake Bay as they wound up their 2007 session in April. Included in the new legislation was: the Critical Area Protection Program that will bar new development within 200 feet of the water; the Chesapeake Bay 2010 Trust Fund that will determine the most cost-effective distribution of the $50 million funds; a bill to allow utilization of the portion of the Bay Restoration Fund (Flush Fee) collected from septic system owners to connect multiple individual septic systems to an Enhanced Nutrient Removal (ENR) community system if it is more cost-effective than upgrading individual systems in a community one-by one; and the Living Shoreline Protection Act of 2008 that requires, where feasible, shorefront lot owners to use non-structural erosion control techniques like “soft” shorelines and marsh creation to protect the shore from erosion instead of bulk-heads or rip-rap. http://www.cbf.org/site/PageServer?pagename=state_sub_md_legislation