Published:
October 1, 1997
Originator:
Chesapeake Bay Program
EPA Number:
EPa 903-R-97-030

Since 1983, the Chesapeake Bay Program has been working in cooperation with local governments, industry, farmers, environmentalists, conservation associations, citizen groups, and others throughout the Bay region to restore the water quality in the Bay and its rivers by reducing pollution through management efforts. To help guide these efforts and mark progress toward a cleaner, healthier Chesapeake, the Bay Program set a series of challenging goals to achieve its top priority-the restoration of the lving resources including finfish, shellfish, underwater grasses and other aquatic life and wildlife. The most important water quality goal set by the Bay Program was the 1987 goal of a 40% reduction of the controllable loads of the nutrients nitrogen and phsophorus entering the Bay between 1985 and the year 2000. In 1992, the Bay Program agreed to maintain the reduced nutrient loading levels beyond 2000 a huge challenge in the face of population growth in the region.

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