For months, federal officials have been saying that the Bay will be going on a pollution diet.
On July 1, with the clock ticking toward an end-of-the-year deadline, the EPA told states how many pounds the Bay needs to shed to become healthy again.
It appears it will need to shed about 63 million pounds of nitrogen, and 3.1 million pounds of phosphorus.
Curbing the Bay's diet is expected to drive billions of dollars of spending between now and the 2025 deadline to get it in shape. And after two failed efforts to meet goals set in the last 23 years, the EPA plans to issue a new regulatory plan to enforce the diet by the end of the year.
"Restoring the Chesapeake Bay and its tributaries will not be easy," said EPA Region III Administrator Shawn Garvin in a statement. [Full Story].
Groups target invaders lest we can't see the forest for the weeds: A small army advances on the grounds of Little Paint Branch Park in Beltsville, MD, armed with gloves and gardening tools. They have come to defend the woods.
Federal government exempts itself from DC water fees: The federal government has told the District of Columbia water and sewer authority and the city's environment department that it will not pay new fees assessed on all residents-a move that could shift the burden of paying for federally required upgrades to the sewage system to city residents who can least afford it.
Phone app features flora, fauna of Bay watershed: The Chesapeake Bay Trust has released a first-of-its-kind app, Field Guide to the Chesapeake Bay, that can be used to access data about the full range of plants and animals-not just a sampling-in the Chesapeake Bay watershed.
VA to study menhaden fishery: A 26-member panel of Virginia legislators, environmentalists and watermen will study fishing pressures on menhaden, a small fish in big demand for use in health supplements and a critical food source for other Chesapeake Bay fish.
Outdoors initiative aims to conserve landscape, make it accessible: The United States has a great outdoor legacy inherited from past generations that includes national parks, forests, rivers and wild lands.
Gateways, John Smith water trail groups merge to form Chesapeake Conservancy: Two Bay region nonprofit organizations recently merged under the name Chesapeake Conservancy to further their common goals of promoting public access, land conservation, education and stewardship of the Bay and its rivers.
Despite massive restoration efforts, American shad have not rebounded: This year's American shad run was more of the same for most rivers around the Chesapeake region: frustration and disappointment about the inability to rebuild large populations of the migratory fish.
Scientists suspect decline of herring is result of bycatch in other fisheries: Herring were so common in the Potomac River in the spring of 1832 that a single seine net captured a few more than 950,000 "accurately counted," according to a report at the time. A few decades later, Spencer Baird, head of the U.S. Fish Commission, estimated that during the 1830s, the herring in the river must have numbered 3 billion fish.
Wherever a diadromous fish swims, danger is always lurking: Millennia ago, long-range migrations provided benefits for many species of fish. By spawning in freshwater areas, species such as shad and river herring lessened predation on their young. And, by migrating into the ocean as adults, they were able to take advantage of the greater food resources of the marine environment.
Feral swine poised to run hog wild over landscape if not stopped soon: Decades ago, an exotic menace with spores eliminated the region's most common tree, the American chestnut. Gypsy moths, a foreign species with wings, have hammered the watershed's oaks. More recently, the nonnative woolly adelgid, a tiny insect with a voracious appetite for hemlock sap, has killed huge numbers of these majestic evergreens and threatens their entire range.
Senate committee reaches compromise on Bay legislation: Senate negotiators reached a compromise over landmark Chesapeake Bay legislation in June to win enough Republican support in the Environment and Public Works Committee to allow the bill to be sent to the Senate floor.
