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Chesapeake Bay States Tackle Water Quality Issues

Maryland and the bay states of Pennsylvania and Virgina have undertaken significant efforts to improve their waterways. Though all life needs nutrients to grow, too much of a good thing harms aquatic life in local streams and grand estuaries, the nurseries for most ocean fish.

To clean up our water, we need to reduce nutrients at their sources;

• farmland, fertilizers and manure
• municipal sewage systems that must expand due to growing populations
• and the great American lawn where fertilizers (often applied at rates much higher than needed) run off into storm drains

Here is what Maryland is doing to help:

• In 2008 legislators passed the Chesapeake Bay Trust fund, providing $25 million in the first year and $50 million annually thereafter to address the needs of agriculture and municipalities to implement sound environmental practices.
• The so-called “Flush Tax” was passed in 2004, imposing a $2.50 a month fee on sewer bills and a $30 annual fee on septic system owners. Funds are distributed to utilities to upgrade wastewater treatment plants, to upgrade or replace failing septic systems and to provide financial assistance to farmers to help plant cover crops to prevent nutrient runoff from agricultural land.
• Maryland Department of Agriculture has a new education program encouraging homeowners to take tips from farmers about how to manage their land. For example, homeowners are encouraged to apply fertilizers at the rates based on soil tests just as farmers do in this new fact sheet. Check out the full “Backyard Actions for a Cleaner Chesapeake Bay.”