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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
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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.
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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
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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
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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
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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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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
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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
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Plans for GrowthPool
Questions and Discussion