Want to know how your state intends to help with the next — and ostensibly final — stage of the long-running Chesapeake Bay restoration effort?
All six states in the Bay watershed and the District of Columbia have drafted “watershed implementation plans,” and are taking public comments on them through early June.
The third in a series of cleanup plans, these documents are supposed to spell out how each jurisdiction will complete the pollution reductions called for by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency in 2010. That’s the year the EPA established a Baywide “total maximum daily load” that requires each jurisdiction to take sufficient steps by 2025 to reduce the nutrients and sediment fouling the Bay’s water.
The public may submit comments on each plan through June 7, except in West Virginia, where comments may be sent in until June 10. Here are links to the draft plans for each jurisdiction. In most cases, the links also offer opportunities to submit comments.
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Maryland Information Sessions
Maryland residents also have a chance to learn about their state’s cleanup plan at a series of information sessions taking place around the state, as well as through a webinar for those who could not attend the meetings. Officials with the state Department of the Environment and the state Department of Agriculture will present overviews of the plan and answer questions.
The sessions are sponsored by the Harry R. Hughes Center for Agro-Ecology of the University of Maryland and funded by the Town Creek Foundation.
The first session occurred on April 29 in Hagerstown. Two more sessions are planned on the Eastern Shore and in Central Maryland. The dates and times follow. There is no cost to attend, but preregistration is requested.
- Eastern Shore: 9:30–11:30 a.m. Friday, May 3 at Chesapeake College, Todd Performing Arts Center, 1000 College Circle, Wye Mills, MD 21658. To register, visit go.umd.edu/eswipsession.
- Central MD: 1–3 p.m. Monday, May 6 at Harford Community College, Chesapeake Dining Rooms, 401 Thomas Run Rd., Bel Air, MD 21015. To register, visit go.umd.edu/cmdwipsession.
- Webinar: 1–3 p.m. Friday, May 17. To register, visit go.umd.edu/wipwebinar.
These sessions come after a series of workshops that took place in 2018, when state officials presented region-specific information and gathered feedback from local governments and the agricultural, environmental and business communities.