Welcome to the home of West Virginia’s Chesapeake Bay Initiative. This site is intended to serve as a resource to all those interested in how West Virginia is doing its part to help restore local streams and the Chesapeake Bay.
Fourteen percent (14%) of West Virginia drains into the Potomac River and on to the Chesapeake Bay. In June of 2002, Governor Bob Wise signed the Chesapeake Bay Program Water Quality Initiative Memorandum of Understanding. By signing this memo, West Virginia agreed to develop goals and objectives to reduce nutrient and sediment loading. Reductions of 33% for nitrogen, 35% for phosphorus, and 6% for sediment are needed between the years 2002 and 2010. These reductions are anticipated to come from a variety of sectors including point sources such as municipal wastewater treatment plants and industry, and nonpoint sources such as agriculture, forestry, urban, and suburban land uses. This means that each one of us can act locally to help achieve the goals.
A plan for meeting these reductions can be found in West Virginia’s Potomac Tributary Strategy. Many of the actions outlined there are expensive and/or are not part of any regulations. To overcome these hurdles, Project teams have begun working in targeted watersheds. These groups build partnerships, gather funding, and identify priority projects that are most important to their local communities. Reducing nitrogen, phosphorus, and sediment in local creeks and rivers will mean healthier water resources that are better able to sustain tourism, fishing, drinking water supplies, wildlife habitat, and other uses.
The West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection, West Virginia Conservation Agency and West Virginia Department of Agriculture are the lead agencies charged with carrying out these program goals. The Conservation Fund- Freshwater Institute and Cacapon Institute are also contracted and serving as technical resources. Contact us, get involved now!
