New guidelines to help reduce water pollution on federally owned land in the Chesapeake Bay watershed area were released on Monday by the Environmental Protection Agency aimed at encouraging governments, as well as citizens who own land in the area, to clean up their acts.
“EPA expects the tools and practices described in this draft guidance to help the federal government lead by example at its facilities and on its land in the Chesapeake Bay watershed,” said Assistant Administrator for Water Peter S. Silva.
The federal government owns 8 percent of lands in the Bay watershed, with facilities that include military bases and research complexes.
The guidelines will provide federal land managers with techniques to help clean up the Bay’s notoriously contaminated waterways, which are currently plagued by nitrogen, phosphorous, and sediment buildup.
The most egregious sources of Chesapeake Bay pollution are local farming practices and stormwater runoff from urban areas, the EPA says. The guidance includes recommendations for cutting down on the use of certain fertilizers and manure in local agriculture, which the EPA points to as the largest source of nutrient and sediment build up in the Chesapeake Bay watershed. “To meet the 2025 nutrient goals for the Chesapeake Bay, the agricultural community will need to broadly adopt new markets and alternative manure uses,” read the guidelines.
To cut down on stormwater runoff from urban areas, the guidelines also call for greater regulation of new building projects. Development or redevelopment projects over 5,000 square should implement “site planning, design, construction, and maintenance strategies” that will reduce runoff into the watershed, the EPA says.
Other guidelines include creating forest buffers along 70 percent of the watershed’s shorelines and building cleaner wastewater treatment systems.
The federal government stepped in to help regulate the Chesapeake Bay watershed cleanup efforts last spring after state and local government proved ineffective at restoring the area. The EPA guidelines are in the draft stage, and will be open to public comment before they are finalized in May.
