Theme Overview: Innovating Policy for Chesapeake Bay Restoration

The Chesapeake Bay is North America's largest and most biologically diverse estuary. It has provided a rich bounty of crabs, shellfish, and fish, and high quality recreational opportunities. However, the Bay living systems have been increasingly stressed over time by the pressures of growing populations—there are over 20 million people in the 166,534 km 2 mile watershed—industrial pollution, atmospheric deposition of air pollutants, and conversion of forests to farms—especially animal intensive farming—and to urban development. Significant reductions in polluting discharges from sewage treatment plants, factories, and other point sources of pollution have been achieved in the Bay watershed since the 1970s. But these reductions have not been enough to meet established water quality goals because point sources are only part of the problem. Nonpoint sources, especially agricultural ones, are a major remaining source of the nutrients and sediments degrading the Bay.