Chesapeake Bay and pollution
Chesapeake Bay, located on the eastern coast of the United States, is the largest estuary in the country and spans parts of Maryland and Virginia, with rivers feeding into it from several states. This vital ecosystem supports a diverse range of over 3,600 species, including fish, shellfish, and various birds and mammals. However, since the 1970s, Chesapeake Bay has faced significant challenges due to pollution and environmental stressors, largely attributed to overpopulation and urban development in its watershed, which is home to more than 18 million people.
The primary sources of pollution include agricultural runoff, industrial discharges, and urban stormwater, leading to issues such as nutrient overloads, sedimentation, and the creation of "dead zones" where aquatic life struggles to survive. The health of fish populations and other wildlife has declined, prompting efforts to restore the bay's ecosystem through improved land-use management, habitat restoration, and pollution reduction initiatives. In 2014, a collaborative agreement among the watershed states and federal authorities set ambitious goals to enhance water quality, which were updated in 2022 to address ongoing environmental concerns. Despite these efforts, progress has been slow, highlighting the complex interplay between human activities and ecological health in the Chesapeake Bay region.
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Chesapeake Bay and pollution
IDENTIFICATION: Atlantic Ocean inlet bordered by the states of Maryland and Virginia
Since the 1970s, the health of Chesapeake Bay and its marine inhabitants has been threatened increasingly by pollution related to environmental stressors in the surrounding watershed. By the early years of the twenty-first century, efforts to reverse the problems were underway.
The Chesapeake Bay, the largest estuary in the United States, spans from northeastern and central Maryland down to southeast Virginia, where it meets the Atlantic Ocean. The rivers and streams that feed the bay extend into the surrounding states of New York, Delaware, Pennsylvania, Virginia, and West Virginia, as well as Washington, DC. The largest rivers flowing directly into Chesapeake Bay include the Susquehanna, the Chester, the Potomac, the Rappahannock, and the James.
The bay includes habitats of sandy beaches, intertidal flats, piers, rocks and jetties, shallow waters, seagrass meadows, wetlands, oyster bars, and open waters, all of which house a wide array of animals, plants, and aquatic life. Additionally, its surrounding is home to a number of land-dwelling animals that feed on organisms that live in the bay. More than 3,600 species live within Chesapeake Bay and its surrounding watershed, including approximately 350 species of fish, 173 species of shellfish, and numerous species of birds, mammals, reptiles and amphibians, bay grasses, and lower-food-web species, including both bottom-dwelling and free-floating plant and animal communities.
The Chesapeake Bay is widely known for its thriving seafood industry, which focuses primarily on the harvest of blue crabs, eastern oysters, clams, and rockfish (also known as striped bass). Since the 1970s, however, overfishing and deteriorating environmental conditions in the bay have caused decreases in the populations of fish, other wildlife, and plants in the watershed.
The Chesapeake Bay has experienced environmental pressures related to growth, land-use policies, air and water pollution, overfishing, invasive species, and climate change. More than 18 million people lived within Chesapeake Bay watershed as of 2022, and this large population contributes to environmental stress through the development of homes, businesses, and infrastructure, which adds impervious surfaces that contribute to stormwater runoff, destroys habitat, and increases the pollutants entering the bay. The population is expected to reach 20 million by the year 2030. Excess nutrients and sediment from agricultural and industrial have contributed to marine dead zones in the bay, areas where oxygen has been depleted, and vital sunlight cannot reach bottom-dwelling organisms. Efforts have been undertaken to improve the health of Chesapeake Bay by restoring water quality through more careful management of land use and reduction of harmful pollutants in agriculture and development, restoring bay grass and wetland habitats, improving fishery management, establishing stewardship and education programs, and enacting protective legislation.
The US Environmental Protection Agency collected data revealing that, as of 2020, 78 percent of Chesapeake Bay’s tidal waters contained toxic contaminants. These contaminants include pesticides, pharmaceutical products, polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), mercury, nitrogen, phosphorus, and sediment in the form of sand, silt, and clay. On June 16, 2014, officials from the six watershed states, the District of Columbia, and the federal government signed Chesapeake Bay Watershed Agreement, which established shared goals for reducing contamination in the bay and improving its water quality. The goals were assessed and amended in October 2022 and addressed the continuing environmental concerns of Chesapeake Bay while aligning with federal, state, and local goals. Some progress is being made, though it is slow. The Chesapeake Bay Foundation assesses Chesapeake Bay’s health by monitoring three categories: pollution, habitat, and fisheries.
Bibliography
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"The Chesapeake Bay Earns a D+ in Latest Report." State Impact PA, National Public Radio (NPR), 5 Jan. 2023, www.bayjournal.com/news/pollution/what-s-next-for-the-chesapeake-bay/article‗cf39e97a-476f-11ee-83bd-ef3bb77071f2.html. Accessed 16 July 2024.
Ernst, Howard R. Chesapeake Bay Blues: Science, Politics, and the Struggle to Save the Bay. Lanham, Md.: Rowman & Littlefield, 2003.
Lippson, Alice Jane, and Robert L. Lippson. Life in the Chesapeake Bay. 3d ed. Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 2006.
“Population.” Chesapeake Bay Program, 2018, www.chesapeakebay.net/state/population. Accessed 16 July 2024.
"Population Growth." Chesapeake Bay Program, www.chesapeakebay.net/issues/threats-to-the-bay/population-growth. Accessed 16 July 2024.
"2022 State of the Bay Report." Chesapeake Bay Foundation, www.cbf.org/about-the-bay/state-of-the-bay-report/. Accessed 16 July 2024.