Water Quality Goal Implementation Team (GIT 3)

Researcher holds a device that he's about to lower into the water from a bridge.
David Brower from the U.S. Geological Survey conducts water sampling on a bridge over the Patuxent River near Bowie, Md. (Photo by Will Parson/Chesapeake Bay Program)
The Water Quality Goal Implementation Team works to evaluate, focus and accelerate the implementation of practices, policies and programs that will restore water quality in the Chesapeake Bay and its tributaries to conditions that support living resources and protect human health.

Upcoming Meetings

‍View Past Meetings View Group Calendar‍

Scope and Purpose

The charge of the Water Quality Goal Implementation Team (WQGIT) is to evaluate, focus, and accelerate the implementation of practices, policies, programs that will restore water quality in the Chesapeake Bay and its tributaries to conditions that support living resources and protect human health. The Team reports to the Management Board and Principals’ Staff Committee. Functions include:

  • Provide a forum for discussion, exchange of information, and evaluation among federal, state, and local agencies, river basin commissions, industry groups, universities, and other interested parties on water quality goals, data, modeling, authorities, and restoration efforts.
  • Evaluate and promote strategies to reduce nutrient, sediment, and chemical contaminant loads from municipal, industrial and onsite wastewater; agricultural lands and animal operations; urban and suburban stormwater; forested lands; tidal and in-stream sediment; and air emissions.
  • Promote consistent, uniform and transparent processes to model, track, report, and verify water quality restoration efforts.
  • Identify, define, quantify, and incorporate pollutant reduction and conservation practices into the Chesapeake Bay Program decision support system.
  • Provide technical expertise and leadership to support the development, implementation, and tracking of the Chesapeake Bay TMDL, Watershed Implementation Plans, and two-year milestones that support long-term Bay restoration goals.

Projects and Resources

WQGIT Governance Protocols, Membership, and Orientation Materials

The WQGIT Governance Protocols articulate the decision-making procedures and cross-sector communication processes observed by the WQGIT and its Workgroups. The WQGIT Governance Protocols are consistent with the governance decisions made by the Chesapeake Bay Program partnership's Principals' Staff Committee

Water Quality Management Strategy and Logic and Action Plan

The Water Quality Management Strategy provides broad, overarching direction for how to monitor, assess and report progress towards reaching the 2017 Watershed Implementation Plan (WIP) Outcome, the 2025 WIP Outcome, and the Water Quality Standards Attainment & Monitoring Outcome from the 2014 Watershed Agreement. The strategy is further supported by a two-year Logic and Action Plan that summarizes the specific commitments, short-term actions and resources required for success.

Chesapeake Bay Watershed Data Dashboard

The Watershed Data Dashboard is a visualization tool to consolidate and provide accessibility to Chesapeake Bay watershed monitoring, modeling, trends, projections and explanations for use in watershed management planning and implementation.

Access the WIP Data Dashboard here: https://gis.chesapeakebay.net/wip/dashboard/

Chesapeake Bay TMDL 2017 Midpoint Assessment

The December 2010 Chesapeake Bay Total Maximum Daily Load (Bay TMDL) calls for an assessment in 2017 to review our progress toward meeting the nutrient and sediment pollutant load reductions identified in the 2010 Bay TMDL, Phase I and Phase II Watershed Implementation Plans (WIPs) and two-year milestones.

For a comprehensive overview of the Midpoint Assessment, schedule, and supporting documents, please visit our Chesapeake Bay TMDL Midpoint Assessment web page: https://mpa.chesapeakebay.net/

For an overview of the priorities and project leads related to the Scenario Builder and Watershed Model plan for the Midpoint Assessment, please visit our page dedicated to that effort: https://mpa.chesapeakebay.net/Details.html

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Publications

A systematic review of Chesapeake Bay climate change impacts and uncertainty: watershed processes, pollutant delivery and BMP performance

Published on January 21, 2022

Climate change in the Chesapeake Bay will affect the effort to reach the TMDL, and maintain needed nutrient and sediment reductions. In an effort to determine how baseline nutrient and sediment loads will likely change in response to climate, and the best management practices (BMPs) being used to reduce them will function, a modified systematic review process was undertaken. Using this process we reviewed research literature and studies related to two primary questions: 1. How do climate change and variability affect nutrient/sediment cycling in the watershed?; and 2. How do climate change and variability affect BMP performance?

Acknowledgements:

We want to thank and acknowledge the incredibly helpful and constructive comments from Julie Reichert-Nguyen, our steering committee (Raymond Najjar, Julie Shortridge, Kurt Stephenson, Lisa Wainger) and other reviewers including Lew Linker, David Wood, Alex Gunnerson, and Ken Staver. We are also grateful to Gary Shenk and Denice Wardrop for their valuable input. We also wish to thank members of the various Chesapeake Bay Program Goal Implementation Teams and workgroups that listened, and provided valuable input in response, to the numerous presentations dating back to 2020, particularly the Water Quality Goal Implementation Team, Climate Resiliency Workgroup, Modeling Workgroup, and Urban Stormwater Workgroup.

Suggested Citation: Hanson, J., E. Bock, B. Asfaw, and Z.M. Easton. 2022. A systematic review of Chesapeake Bay climate change impacts and uncertainty: watershed processes, pollutant delivery and BMP performance. CBP/TRS-330-22.

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Understanding Chesapeake Bay Modeling Tools

Published in Report

The Chesapeake Bay Program uses state-of-the art science and monitoring data to replicate conditions of the Chesapeake Bay watershed. This information is then used by decision-makers at the federal, state and local levels to determine how best to restore and protect local waterways, and ultimately, the Chesapeake Bay. By combining advanced modeling tools and real-world monitoring data, we gain a comprehensive view of the Chesapeake ecosystem—from the depths of the Bay to the upper reaches of the watershed.

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Related Links

Watershed Agreement

Vital Habitats Goal

Workgroups and Action Teams
Agriculture Workgroup BMP Expert Panels BMP Verification Ad-hoc Action Team Best Management Practices (BMP) Verification Committee Federal Facilities Workgroup Forestry Workgroup Land Use Workgroup Local Planning Goals Task Force Milestones Workgroup Reevaluation Technical Workgroup Sediment Workgroup Toxic Contaminants Workgroup Trading and Offsets Workgroup Urban Stormwater Workgroup Wastewater Treatment Workgroup Watershed Technical Workgroup

Members
Ed Dunne (Chair), District of Columbia Department of Energy & Environment (DOEE)
Address:
1200 First Street NE
Washington D.C., districtOfColumbia 20002

Email:  ed.dunne@dc.gov
Phone:  202-535-2990
Suzanne Trevena (Vice Chair), U.S. Environmental Protection Agency - Region 3
Address:
1650 Arch Street
Philadelphia, pennsylvania 19103

Email:  trevena.suzanne@epa.gov
Phone:  (215) 814-5701
Jeremy Hanson (Coordinator), Coordinator, Water Quality Goal Implementation Team, Chesapeake Research Consortium
Address:
1750 Forest Drive Suite 130
Annapolis, maryland 21401

Email:  hansonj@chesapeake.org
Phone:  (410) 267-5753
Jackie Pickford (Staffer), Water Quality Goal Implementation Team Staffer, Chesapeake Research Consortium
Address:
1750 Forest Drive Suite 130
Annapolis, maryland 21401

Email:  pickford.jacqueline@epa.gov
Sushanth Gupta (Staffer), Water Quality Goal Implementation Team Staffer, Chesapeake Research Consortium
Address:
1750 Forest Drive Suite 130
Annapolis, maryland 21401

Email:  gupta.sushanth@epa.gov
Lauren Townley, New York State Department of Environmental Conservation
Address:
625 Broadway
Albany, newYork 12233

Email:  lauren.townley@dec.ny.gov
Phone:  (518) 402-8283
Jill Whitcomb, Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection
Address:
400 Market Street
Harrisburg, pennsylvania 17101

Email:  jiwhitcomb@pa.gov
Marel King, Chesapeake Bay Commission
Address:
c/o Senate of Pennsylvania
G-05 North Office Building
Harrisburg, pennsylvania 17120

Email:  mking@chesbay.us
Phone:  (717) 772-3651
Dinorah Dalmasy, Maryland Department of the Environment
Address:
1800 Washington Boulevard
Baltimore, maryland 21230

Email:  dinorah.dalmasy@maryland.gov
Phone:  (410) 537-3699
Kevin Du Bois, U.S. Department of Defense (DOD)
Address:
1510 Gilbert Street
Norfolk, virginia 23511

Email:  kevin.r.dubois.civ@us.navy.mil
Phone:  (757) 650-2720
KC Filippino, Hampton Roads Planning District Commission
Address:
723 Woodlake Dr
Cheasapeake, virginia 23320

Email:  kfilippino@hrpdcva.gov
Emily Dekar, Upper Susquehanna Coalition
Address:
183 Corporate Drive
Owego, newYork 13827

Email:  dekare@co.tioga.ny.us
Phone:  (607) 972-2346
Joe Wood, Chesapeake Bay Foundation
Address:
1108 E. Main St
Richmond, virginia 23219

Email:  jwood@cbf.org
Jen Walls, Delaware Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control
Address:
89 Kings Highway
Dover, delaware 19901

Email:  Jennifer.Walls@state.de.us
Phone:  (302) 739-9062
George Onyullo, District of Columbia Department of Energy & Environment (DOEE)
Address:
1200 First St. NE
5th Floor
Washington, districtOfColumbia 20002

Email:  george.onyullo@dc.gov
Teresa Koon, West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection
Address:
601 57th St SE
Charleston, westVirginia 25304

Email:  Teresa.M.Koon@wv.gov
Phone:  (304) 926-0499 x1020
Lucinda Power, Implementation and Evaluation Team Leader, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
Address:
1750 Forest Drive Suite 130
Annapolis, maryland 21401

Email:  power.lucinda@epa.gov
Phone:  (410) 267-5722
Mike LaSala
Address:
315 North Street
Lititz, pennsylvania 17543

Email:  Mike@landstudies.com
Jeff Cornwell, University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science
Address:
P.O. Box 775
Cambridge, maryland 21613

Email:  cornwell@umces.edu
Phone:  (410) 221-8445
Bryant Thomas, Virginia Department of Environmental Quality
Address:


Email:  bryant.thomas@deq.virginia.gov