This agreement contains five themes that consist of 10 objectives that will promote the restoration and protection of the bay basin. The 2014 agreement sets 2025 as the deadline to achieve the targets. A mid-term evaluation carried out in 2017 revealed significant progress in reducing pollution, mainly through the reduction of nutrients from wastewater treatment plants. But the assessment showed that polluted runoff from suburbs and urban areas is increasing, and also found that Pennsylvania generally lags behind other states. The 2014 Chesapeake Watershed Agreement`s pioneering new agreement contains a number of new objectives that will support the restoration and protection of the bay, its tributaries and the country surrounding the watershed. But the first agreements were voluntary, with little responsibility. These agreements have made progress, but the states and the district have not met their own pollution reduction targets. Until 2009, all participants understood that a new type of approach was needed, one that lived up to the promises of the participants. Since the creation of the Chesapeake Bay program in 1983, its partners have entered into written agreements to guide the restoration of the country`s largest mouth and basin. Setting goals and continuing to make progress make partners accountable for their work, while developing new agreements over time ensures that our goals are in line with the best available science to achieve restoration success.
Read more about the Bay Agreement on www.chesapeakebay.net/watershedagreement In 2009, it became clear that we need a new agreement that accelerates the pace of restoration and adapts federal guidelines to public and local goals to create a healthy bay. Bay Program partners collected input from residents, interest groups, academic institutions, local governments and more to develop an inclusive and focused document that addresses current and emerging environmental issues. But saving the bay means more than less pollution. These include healthier fish and oyster populations, improved wildlife habitat, cleaner water and healthier ecosystems upstream, as well as in the main trunk of the bay and other goals. In 2014, representatives from across the watershed signed the Chesapeake Bay Watershed Agreement. For the first time, Delaware, New York and West Virginia have committed to a full partnership under the Bay program. The agreement includes the objectives of the Chesapeake Clean Water Blueprint, but also defined objectives for habitat restoration and conservation, improved fisheries, improved public access to the public and environmental skills. The agreement cited adaptive management as a central principle. Adaptive management is a process that supports decision-making in the face of uncertainty, reduces uncertainty over time, and responds to change. The Chesapeake Bay program implements this process through the Strategic Assessment System, which is available on ChesapeakeDecisions.
It is clear that the Bay Agreements are a development effort to turn ambitious goals into real results. Concretely, the 2014 Chesapeake Bay Watershed Agreement identified critical objectives on five topics: a series of four 1983 agreements led to the clean-up of the Chesapeake Bay. From the outset, the agreements emphasized the importance of shared responsibility between the federal government, the federal states of Bay-Wasserscheide and the District of Columbia. No other approach would work since the bay`s drainage area spans 64,000 square miles over six states. This pioneering agreement, signed in 2014, sets goals and results for the restoration of the bay, its tributaries and the land that surrounds it.