Chesapeake Bay (Finally) Gets a C+, What Come Next

 ABC, Overall health of Chesapeake Bay gets C-plus grade in annual report by scientists

The overall health of the Chesapeake Bay, the nation’s largest estuary, received its highest grade since 2002 in an annual report released by scientists Tuesday: a C-plus.

Scientists at the University of Maryland's Center for Environmental Science made special note of Pennsylvania’s efforts to block pollution from entering state waterways.

Pennsylvania has faced criticism in the past for not doing enough to stop pollution from flowing into the bay, and the improved report comes after lawsuits accused Pennsylvania of failing to meet its obligations.

In a news conference overlooking the Susquehanna River, Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro credited years of efforts to help farmers prevent runoff laced with fertilizer from making it into waters that, like the Susquehanna, drain into the Chesapeake, and to upgrade municipal sewer systems that overflow into rivers during heavy rainfall.

Shapiro brushed aside a reporter's suggestion that a C-plus is middling grade and said the focus should be on the commitment to improve.

The (slight) improvement is likely due to the low levels of hypoxia in the Bay in 2023, which, in turn, was due to favorable weather (low rain) in the spring, when it would set the conditions for hypoxia. This year hypoxia is expected to come in only a little worse than the long term average, so I would expect a lower grade again next year.

Bay Journal,  What’s next for the Chesapeake Bay? Draft goes out for public input

After 30 years of stubbornly slow progress toward restoring the health of the Chesapeake Bay and its rivers, federal agencies and watershed states in 2014 adopted a far-reaching strategy.

Their agreement formally expanded the Chesapeake Bay Program partnership to include three more states — Delaware, New York and West Virginia — so that the entirety of the 64,000-square-mile drainage basin would finally be covered by the pact. It incorporated enforceable pollution caps set by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency for nutrients and sediment. And it set goals for restoring oyster habitat, planting streamside buffers, improving fish passage, and a host of other actions. The partners imposed a voluntary 2025 deadline for getting the work done.

But the effort will fall far short of accomplishing many of the agreement’s most critical targets.

Now, as 2025 approaches, scientists, policymakers and conservationists are grappling with what to do next. On July 1, the Bay Program released a draft report that proposes keeping, but updating, the 2014 agreement. Detailed changes would be made as early as the close of 2026.

Public feedback is invited on the 18-page report through Aug. 30 via comments@chesapeakebay.net. A web page providing an overview of the draft, as well as relevant links, is available here.

Gotta keep the grift going, countless government, academic and NGO jobs depend on it.