Maryland, Delaware, New York Cheating on 'Bay Diet'

Chesapeake Bay Makes Progress, But Still Hindered By Illegal Discharges

Efforts to reduce Chesapeake Bay nitrogen pollution from industrial and municipal sources continued to make progress in key Bay states in 2012, according to researchers at the Environmental Integrity Project (EIP). Nitrogen discharges from point sources dropped significantly in Virginia, the District of Columbia, West Virginia and Pennsylvania between 2011 and 2012, while Maryland, Delaware, and New York actually increased nitrogen pollution. Unfortunately, progress is slowed due to illegal discharges continuing at a regular pace across the Bay watershed. EIP recently announced newly compiled data for the entire year of 2012, serving as an update to its December 2012 report, which examined 2011 nitrogen and phosphorus loadings from industrial and municipal facilities as a major source of Chesapeake Bay pollution.

The new data show that Maryland’s reversed its progress on nitrogen pollution from these facilities in 2012, increasing its loadings by more than 400,000 pounds. Virginia continued to show progress on its reductions throughout 2012, reducing nitrogen loadings from these sectors by more than 1 million pounds. In another bright spot, Pennsylvania went from increasing its municipal and industrial nitrogen loads by 4 percent between 2010 and 2011 to decreasing them by 16 percent in 2012. This encouraging trend will help the state meet the Bay water quality goals that begin to take effect in 2017, if the momentum can be sustained.

While Maryland continues to focus on agriculture as the main area for improvement in it's 'Bay Diet' goals, it turns out the municipalities and their supporting industries continue to pump more and more nitrogen into the Bay.