The Environmental Protection Agency established a “pollution diet” for the Chesapeake Bay Wednesday, a plan that will guide efforts to restore the Bay’s health for the next 15 years.
The diet sets limits for the amount of pollutants – such as nitrogen, phosphorous, and sediments – seeping into the Chesapeake Bay each year.
The pollution diet represents a partnership between the EPA and local jurisdictions, which this fall submitted plans for reducing pollution in six states and the District. The EPA said its diet is primarily shaped by those plans, which allow jurisdictions to uniquely approach the pollution problems each faces. However, the EPA is implementing some of its own backstop measures in New York, Pennsylvania and West Virgina.
Overall, the diet calls for a 25 percent reduction in nitrogen, 24 percent reduction in phosphorous and 20 percent reduction in sediment pollution entering the Chesapeake Bay watershed.
Some notable local measures include restricting pollution at a wastewater treatment plant on the James River, pursuing state legislation to fund wastewater treatment plant upgrades in Maryland and Virginia, and implementing a storm water permit program in the District.
Maryland, Virginia and the District avoided any of the backstop measures, which The Examiner reported could be more costly than the states’ own plans. However, Virginia will receive enhanced oversight of plans to improve urban stormwater systems. If it falters, the EPA could step in and implement its own controls in areas such as wastewater treatment plants.
The EPA wants 60 percent of the plans to be implemented by 2017, and all efforts to be implemented by 2025.
