THE CHESAPEAKE BAY:

What Ails It and What is Being Done About It

Cosmos Club

September 24, 2015

• Largest estuary in the country

• 64,000-square-mile watershed

• 11,684 miles of shoreline

• 17 million people and growing

The Chesapeake Bay Watershed

2

3

Nutrients• Primarily nitrogen and phosphorus• Promote growth of algae

– Decaying algae deplete dissolved oxygen, creating “dead zones” and killing marine life

– Algae block sunlight, killing sub-aquatic vegetation (“SAV”)

Fish Kills4

5

• Block sunlight • Smother benthic organisms

Sediments

Main Sources of Pollution to the Bay

Stormwater

Industrial and

Municipal

6

7

What Are We Doing?

What Are We Doing?• To clean up the Bay we need to

change behavior.o Of developerso Of farmers and CAFO operatorso Of wastewater treatment operatorso Of municipalitieso Of the rest of us

• There are two ways to change behavior.

9

10

The Pollution Diet (EPA 2010)

 

Baywide Caps (per year) Reduction from 2009 Nitrogen 185M lbs 25% Phosphorus 12.5M lbs 24% Sediment 5.5B lbs 20% Achieve 60% by 2017Achieve 100% by 2025

Targeting the Main Sources

Targeting the Main Sources

Farm Runoff, esp. factory farms

Contaminated Stormwater

Wastewater Treatment Plants

Land Use: Conservation & Zoning

Others

What the Clean Water Act Regulates

• Discharges from “point sources”

What the Clean Water Act Regulates

• Discharges from “point sources”oFactoriesoWastewater treatment plantsoConcentrated Animal Feeding Operations

(CAFOs)oMunicipal Separate Storm Sewer Systems

(MS4s)oConstruction sites

What the Clean Water Act Doesn’t RegulateDischarges from non-point

sources

What the Clean Water Act Doesn’t RegulateDischarges from non-point

sourcesDeath by a thousand

cuts

What the Clean Water Act Doesn’t RegulateDischarges from non-point

sourcesDeath by a thousand

cuts

The most important problem we face

What the Clean Water Act Doesn’t RegulateDischarges from non-point

sourcesThe most important problem we face

The hardest problem to

solve

Death by a thousand

cuts

18

MilestonesGoal is to have all measures necessary to

meet water quality standards in place by 2025

WIPs contain schedules of when each step is to be accomplished

Biannual reports to EPA

Mid-point assessment in 2017

19

Many PlayersState, County and Local

Governments

NGOs: American Rivers, Chesapeake Bay Foundation, Sierra Club, Rock Creek Conservancy, many others

Choose Clean Water Coalition

Individual Volunteers

20

Big or Small, They All Need Lawyers

Federal and State Laws and Regulations; Permit Requirements; Zoning Codes; Ordinances; Guidelines; Contracts, and more . . . .

Who Ya Gonna Call?

Chesapeake Legal Alliance – Lawyers for the Bay

CLA is the only organization whose only mission is to provide pro bono legal services on cases relating to the restoration or protection of the Bay or its watershed

21

CLA ResourcesPool of 160 volunteer lawyers and growing

Annapolis Office: 4 people

Board of Directors

In 2014 we handled 85 cases

Annual budget of $250k produces nearly $2 million worth of legal services

22

The Cases We HandleAgriculture and Contaminated Stormwater

Illegal discharges - Permit violations

Support TMDL (region-wide)

Local zoning and pollution cases

Programmatic solutions, e.g., incentives for farmers to reduce runoff

23

Plans for GrowthPool

Questions and Discussion