Publications

To monitor the bacteriological quality of Maryland's shellfish harvesting waters to assure adequate public health protection from shelstock unsafe for human consumption. To assist in the identification and elimination of pollution sources in the Chesapeake Bay and its tributaries.

View document [PDF, 15.5 MB] Chesapeake Bay Basin Monitoring Program Atlas _Voulme II 1989

This report is part of Virginia's ongoing effort to measure progress toward Bay restoration and to assess the quality of Virginia's rivers and streams. The information in this report offers an insight into the monitoring of our waters and the science that tells us how these standards of water quality affect the health and status of aquatic resources. This information also underpins our work with local officials, stakeholders and interest groups as we cooperatively developstrategies for reducing nutrients into the Bay and its tributaries.

View document [PDF, 2.0 MB] Chesapeake Bay and its Tributaries_Results of Monitoring Programs and Status of Resources 1998

Chemical contaminants in the water and sediment of Chesapeake Bay can effect ecosystem functions as well as pose a direct threat to human health via drinking water and the consumption of aquatic organisms (e.g., fish and Shellfish). The recently-published Chesapeake Bay Basinwide Toxics Reduction Strategy Reevaluation Report (Chesapeake Bay Program, 1994d) described the results of a multi-year effort to evaluate the nature, exten, and magnitude of the Bay's Chemical contaminant problems. While this study continued the Chesapeake Bay Program's effort to account for the sources of chemical cotaminants, a more exacting examination of both the sources and sinks is needed.

View document [PDF, 5.0 MB] A Chemical Contamin ant Mass Balance Framework for Chesapeake Bay 1997

The Nutrient Management Task Force's Crosswalk Report was approved by the Agriculture Workgroup (AgWG) on 2/17/16, with subsequent approval by the Water Quality Goal Implementation Team (WQGIT) on 2/22/16. This version of the report contains an additional summary BMP Annual Implementation Data Table that was requested by both the AgWG and the WQGIT.

View document [PDF, 3.6 MB] Nutrient Management Task Force Crosswalk Report

The data in Bay Barometer reflect the Chesapeake Bay’s health over the course of many years and, in some cases, decades. The publication offers a snapshot of the best available information from 2014 and 2015 on ecological health and our efforts to protect and restore the nation’s largest estuary, as well as our progress toward achieving the goals and outcomes of the Chesapeake Bay Watershed Agreement.

View document [PDF, 4.3 MB] Bay Barometer: Health and Restoration in the Chesapeake Bay Watershed (2014-2015)

During the period between the 1983 and 1987 Chesapeake Bay Agreements, the Bay Program developed a relatively simple mathematical model that was used to devise a strategy for reducing the amount of nitrogen and phosphorus entering the Bay. This model evaluated the water quality reponse of the Bay too a variety of nutrient reduction scenarios. The model's results predicted that if nutrient loads were reduced 40% nutrient enrichment would be reduced sufficiently to stop the depletion of dissolved oxygen (particularly in the deep, central region of the Bay), thereby encouraging the recovery of the Bay's living resources to earlier, higher population levels.

View document [PDF, 4.3 MB] Progress Report of the Baywide Nutrient Reduction Reevaluation 1992

The Chesapeake Bay 2007 Health and Assessment is presented this year as one document with four chapters, stressing the health of the Bay, the stressors to our environment, restoration efforts and, new this years, a summary of local water quality assessments which will help you learn about the health of the streams and rivers in your portion of the Bay watershed. We hope that, by presenting data in this manner, watershed residents can better understand the health of the Bay relative to what is needed for a balanced ecosystem.

View document [PDF, 4.3 MB] A Report to the Citizens of the Bay Region 2008

The 1987 Chesapeake Bay Federal Facilities Commitment states that "by July 1988, the Environemntal Protection Agency, acting for the federal government, will develop, adopt, and begin implementation of a strategy for the control and reduction of point and nonpoint sources of nutrient, toxic and conventional pollution from all federal facilities."

View document [PDF, 2.1 MB] Federal Facilities Strategy 1988

The purpose of this study is to develop a general strategyto study and manage the impacts of low freshwater inflows, and reduction of low freshwater inflows, from the Susquehanna River on the salinity distribution, water quality, available habitat, and living resources of the Chesapeake Bay. The goals of the Chesapeake Bay Program (CBP) include restoration and protection of the living resources, their habitats, and ecological relationships. One of the objectives of the bay program is to maintain low freshwater flow regimes.

View document [PDF, 10.5 MB] Chesapeake Bay Low Flow Strategy Study 1996

This Strategy establishes the baseline nutrient loading conditions and the year 2000 nutrient loading target for each jurisdiction. The Strategy outlines a phased aapproach toward meeting the 40% reduction of nutrients by the year 2000 so that the most environmentally effective and cost effective control programs are implemented. The Strategy also identifies additional information that is needed during the next seeveral years in order to refine the strategy in the coming years. A Basinwide Nutrient Strategy Progress Report will be produced on an annual basis to report on progress and incorporate any necessary refinements to the Strategy.

View document [PDF, 7.2 MB] Baywide Nutrient Reduction Strategy 1988