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How Does It Work? Ensuring Results

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  • Ensuring Results
  • Watershed Implementation Plans
  • Establish TMDL
  • Two - Year Milestones
  • Monitor Progress
  • Federal Steps
  • Timeline

Click on a Box for more info about how EPA and the States are ensuring that progress is made in cleaning up the Chesapeake Bay and Local waters.

Graphic for Ensuring Results. Click on each box for more information about each step in the process. Potential actions or "consequences" Establishing the Bay TMDL Read about the 2-Year Milestones Monitoring Progress Get more about the Watershed Implementation Plans
Learn about Watershed Implementation Plans
  • Overview of WIPS
  • Phase I WIPs
  • Phase II WIPs
EPA Reviews Trading & Offset Programs

EPA has completed its first review of the Chesapeake Bay watershed jurisdictions’ offset and trading programs to meet target load reductions of nitrogen, phosphorus and sediment, as part of the Bay TMDL. EPA provided drafts of its reviews to the jurisdictions and interested stakeholders in December 2011. Get the final reports (PDF Portfolio) (7 documents, 3M), letters to jurisdictions (PDF Portfolio) (7 documents, 825K) and comments received on the drafts (PDF Portfolio) ( 19 documents, 3M) . EPA continues to work with the Bay jurisdictions to address areas of concern identified in the final reports.
Click for Watershed Implementation Plan Guidance & Resources
The PDF links on this page can be viewed with the Adobe PDF reader.
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  • The Chesapeake Bay TMDL Watershed Implementation Plans identify how the Bay jurisdictions are putting measures in place by 2025 that are needed to resore the Bay, and by 2017 to achieve at least 60 percent of the necessary nitrogen, phosphorus and sediment reductions compared to 2009. Much of this work already is being implemented by the jurisdictions consistent with their Phase I WIP commitments, building on 30 years of Bay restoration efforts.


  • EPA will maintain close oversight over each of the states' and the District's programs in all sectors to make sure they are implementing the pollution control plans, are on schedule for meeting water quality goals and are achieving two-year milestones. This ongoing partnership is restoring clean water to the thousands of streams and rivers that make up the Chesapeake Bay watershed and improving the quality of life and economy for the 17 million people who live in it.



  • The Chesapeake Executive Council, Principals' Staff Committee AND EPA have all expressed a need for acceleration of progress toward restoration of the Chesapeake Bay, a sharper emphasis on explicit actions, and greater transparency and accountability in these efforts. The Watershed Implementation Plans are a key element of this approach.



  • In combination with the two-year milestones and follow-up progress reports to the public, these plans also fulfill the heightened expectation within the President's Executive Order 13508: Chesapeake Bay Protection and Restoration to create a new accountability framework that guides local, state and federal water quality restoration efforts.


  • EPA is providing technical and financial support and has set clear expectations to help watershed states and the District develop their plans.

  • The Chesapeake Bay TMDL allocations for each sector are based largely on the Phase I WIPS.


  • Final Phase I Watershed Implementation Plans were submitted to EPA by the six watershed states and the District of Columbia beginning November 29, 2010. The WIPs were designed to provide a roadmap for how and when a jurisdiction intends to meet its pollutant allocations under the Bay TMDL. View the Final Phase I WIPS for Exit EPA Click for Disclaimer Delaware, District of Columbia, Maryland, New York, Pennsylvania, Virginia, West Virginia.


  • The Phase I WIPs were reviewed by a team of EPA sector specialists based on detailed expectations provided by EPA in November 2009 and supplemented in April 2010 and extensive interaction with the jurisdictions since the submittal of draft WIPs in early September 2010. The WIPs needed to meet the lower pollution limits for that jurisdiction and provide reasonable assurance that the actions identified would achieve the reductions, particularly for non-permitted sources like runoff from agricultural lands and stormwater from urban and suburban lands. The final WIPs represented significant improvements over the draft WIPs, enabling EPA to reduce and remove most federal "backstops" that had been included in the draft TMDL. View the Phase i Evaluations for Delaware, District of Columbia, Maryland, New York, Pennsylvania, Virginia and West Virginia.

  • The Phase II WIPs identify how jurisdictions are working with local partners to achieve the goals of the Bay TMDL.


  • EPA received Final Phase II Watershed Implementation Plans (WIPs) from Bay jurisdictions on March 30, 2012, as progress continues throughout the watershed to restore clean water to the Chesapeake Bay and its vast network of local waters. View the final plans for District of Columbia, Delaware , Maryland, New York (pending), Pennsylvania, Virginia, West Virginia. EPA will assess the final plans to ensure they meet EPA expectations. For their Phase II WIPs, EPA asked jurisdictions to make key stakeholders — local governments, conservation districts, farmers, builders and others — aware of their roles in cleaning up the region's waterways, to strengthen pollution-reduction strategies for any sectors subject to federal enhanced oversight or backstop actions based on the Phase I WIPs and the Bay TMDL issued in 2010.


  • EPA evaluated the jurisdictions’ Draft Phase II Watershed Implementation Plans (WIPs) and 2012-2013 two-year milestones and provided feedback on Feb. 15, 2012. The Phase II WIPs and the two-year milestones are important elements in helping to meet the Chesapeake Bay Program Executive Council’s goal of having all practices in place by 2025 to meet water quality standards in the Chesapeake Bay. View the Letters (PDF Portfolio) (7 documents, 4.6M) and Evaluations for District of Columbia (PDF) (4pg, 30K), Delaware (PDF) (4pg, 32K), Maryland (PDF) (5pg, 32K), New York (PDF) (5pg, 151K), Pennsylvania (PDF) (6pg, 171K), Virginia (PDF) (5pg, 33K), West Virginia (PDF) (5pg, 33K).

Learn How EPA established the Bay TMDL

  • On December 29, 2010, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency established the Chesapeake Bay Total Maximum Daily Load (TMDL), a historic and comprehensive “pollution diet” with rigorous accountability measures to drive sweeping actions to restore clean water in the Chesapeake Bay and the region’s streams, creeks and rivers. Read more about the Bay TMDL

  • The Chesapeake Bay TMDL is the largest and most complex TMDL ever developed, involving six states and the District of Columbia and the impacts of pollution sources throughout a 64,000-square-mile watershed.

  • The Bay TMDL – actually a combination of 92 smaller TMDLs for individual Chesapeake Bay tidal segments – includes limits on nitrogen, phosphorus and sediment sufficient to achieve state clean water standards for dissolved oxygen, water clarity, underwater Bay grasses and chlorophyll-a, an indicator of algae levels.

Read about the TMDL's Two Year Milestones

  • On January 6, 2012, EPA received the first set of two-year milestones from Chesapeake Bay jurisdictions as part of the “pollution diet” or Bay TMDL. The milestones outline steps the Bay jurisdictions will take in the next two years to reduce nitrogen, phosphorus and sediment pollution to the Chesapeake Bay, and what reductions those measures will achieve. Read the jurisdiction’s milestones:

  • Also on January 6, six federal agencies on the Federal Leadership Committee for the Chesapeake Bay, including EPA, issued their own two-year water quality milestones to support jurisdictions in meeting their reduction goals. Read the federal agencies’ milestones.

  • The two-year milestones represent key check-in points on the way to having all pollution reduction measures in place by 2025 to restore the Bay and its tidal rivers, with controls in place by 2017 that would achieve 60 percent of the necessary reductions. The milestones are a critical part of an accountability framework agreed upon by EPA and the jurisdictions to assure progress.

  • EPA evaluated the jurisdictions’ 2012-2013 two-year milestones and their Draft Phase II Watershed Implementation Plans and provided feedback on Feb. 15, 2012. View the Evaluations for District of Columbia (PDF) (4pg, 30K), Delaware (PDF) (4pg, 32K), Maryland (PDF) (5pg, 32K), New York (pending), Pennsylvania (PDF) (6pg, 171K), Virginia (PDF) (5pg, 33K), West Virginia (PDF) (5pg, 33K)

  • The first round of Bay TMDL-related milestones continues the Chesapeake Executive Council's commitment to accountability for near-term progress established with an initial set of milestones in 2009.
Read the Two-Year Milestone Guide (PDF) (9pg, 473K)

Learn how EPA will Monitor Progress

    • EPA will have ongoing oversight of all state programs to assure they are on track to meet the goals of their Watershed Implementation Plans and their two-year milestones.

    • EPA on January 28, 2011 launched a new feature of ChesapeakeStat a website developed by the Chesapeake Bay Program to assess Bay restoration activity. This new feature, the Chesapeake Bay TMDL Tracking and Accounting System (BayTAS), will track and verify progress in meeting cleanup commitments under the Chesapeake Bay Total Maximum Daily Load, or “pollution diet.”

      Bay TAS initially included the 2009 baseline levels of nitrogen, phosphorus and sediment pollution to the Bay, and the allocations of pollutant reductions called for in the final Bay TMDL. This information is displayed geographically by jurisdiction (six states and the District of Columbia), by water body segment and by source sector. Jurisdiction-specific data reflecting progress – measured against the 2009 figures – is being added to the system on an ongoing basis.

      BayTAS meets a commitment of the federal strategy to implement President Obama’s Chesapeake Bay Executive Order and EPA’s 2010 settlement agreement with the Chesapeake Bay Foundation. BayTAS will help ensure that the Chesapeake Bay partners and the public have a transparent means of tracking, accounting and verifying pollution reductions as the Bay TMDL is implemented.

EPA will employ steps if progress is inadequate

  • EPA will carefully review programs and permits in all jurisdictions. EPA’s goal is for jurisdictions to successfully implement their WIPs, but the agency is prepared to take necessary actions in all jurisdictions for insufficient WIP implementation or pollution reductions. Federal actions can be taken at any time, although EPA will engage particularly during two-year milestones and refining the TMDL in 2012 and 2017. Potential actions include:

    • Expanding coverage of NPDES permits to sources that are currently unregulated.
    • Increasing oversight of state-issued NPDES permits.
    • Requiring additional pollution reductions from federally regulated sources.
    • Increasing federal enforcement and compliance.
    • Prohibiting new or expanded pollution discharges.
    • Redirecting EPA grants.
    • Revising water quality standards to better protect local and downstream waters.
    • Discounting nitrogen, phosphorus and sediment reduction progress if jurisdiction cannot verify proper installation and management of controls.
Timeline for the Chesapeake Bay Action plan. Click on each segment for more information. See the Events in 2009 See the Events in 2010 See the Events in 2011

2009

2010



  • July 1 - EPA assigns nitrogen and phosphorous allocations to the six watershed states and the District of Columbia by major river basin, and includes a temporary reserve for any shift in loads that may occur from two model updates (nutrient management effectiveness and suburban land characteristics).


  • August 15 - EPA assigns sediment allocations to the states and the District by major river basin.


  • September 1 - The states and the District complete their draft Phase I Watershed Implementation Plans.


  • September 24 - EPA issues a draft Bay TMDL for 45-day public comment.

  • September 24- November 8 - Bay TMDL public comment period includes a series of public meetings and webinars throughout the watershed.

  • November 29 - The states and the District complete their final Phase I Watershed Implementation Plans.


  • December 29 - EPA establishes the Bay TMDL.


2011

  • December 15 - Jurisdictions submit draft Phase II Watershed Implementation Plans.


  • December 31 - The first set of two-year milestones is completed.

2012

  • February 15 - EPA provides formal comments on draft Phase II Watershed Implementation Plans.


  • March 30 - Jurisdictions submit final Phase II Watershed Implementation Plans.

Future Actions

  • Prior to 2017, EPA reviews the full suite of the partnership’s Bay models based on the best available science and decision-support tools and considers whether updated models should be developed to support Phase III implementation plans and potential modifications to Bay TMDL allocations.

  • In 2017, the states and the District submit draft Phase III Watershed Implementation Plans by June 1 and final plans by Nov. 1 with a focus on ensuring that all practices are in place by 2025 as need to fully restore the Bay and its tidal waters.

  • EPA modifies the Bay TMDL, if necessary, in December 2017.

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