The Chesapeake Bay: What Ails It and What is Being Done About It

1. THE CHESAPEAKE BAY:
What Ails It and What is
Being Done About It
Cosmos Club
September 24, 2015

2. • Largest estuary in the country
• 64,000-square-mile watershed
• 11,684 miles of shoreline
• 17 million people and growing
The Chesapeake Bay Watershed
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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”)
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4. Fish Kills
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5. • Block sunlight
• Smother benthic organisms
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Sediments

6. Main Sources of Pollution to the Bay
Stormwater
Industrial
and
Municipal
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7. What Are We Doing?
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8. What Are We Doing?
• To clean up the Bay we need to
change behavior.
o Of developers
o Of farmers and CAFO operators
o Of wastewater treatment operators
o Of municipalities
o Of the rest of us
• There are two ways to change
behavior.

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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 2017
Achieve 100% by 2025
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11. Targeting the Main Sources
 Targeting the Main Sources
 Farm Runoff, esp. factory farms
 Contaminated Stormwater
 Wastewater Treatment Plants
 Land Use: Conservation & Zoning
 Others

12. What the Clean Water Act
Regulates
• Discharges from “point sources”

13. What the Clean Water Act
Regulates
• Discharges from “point sources”
o Factories
o Wastewater treatment plants
o Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations
(CAFOs)
o Municipal Separate Storm Sewer Systems
(MS4s)
o Construction sites

14. What the Clean Water Act
Doesn’t Regulate
Discharges from non-point sources

15. What the Clean Water Act
Doesn’t Regulate
Discharges from non-point sources
Death by a
thousand
cuts

16. What the Clean Water Act
Doesn’t Regulate
Discharges from non-point sources
Death by a
thousand
cuts
The most
important
problem
we face

17. What the Clean Water Act
Doesn’t Regulate
Discharges from non-point sources
The most
important
problem
we face
The hardest
problem to
solve
Death by a
thousand
cuts

18. Milestones
Goal 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
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19. Many Players
State, County and Local Governments
NGOs: American Rivers, Chesapeake
Bay Foundation, Sierra Club, Rock
Creek Conservancy, many others
Choose Clean Water Coalition
Individual Volunteers
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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
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21. CLA Resources
Pool 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
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22. The Cases We Handle
Agriculture 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
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23. Plans for Growth
Pool
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24. Questions and Discussion
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