BALTIMORE — The Maryland Department of the Environment (MDE) announced that an evaluation of 22 sets of goals for local water restoration activities showed that Maryland’s communities are committed to improving the water quality of their drinking water reservoirs, rivers, streams and lakes, according to a press release.
MDE’s assessment of two-year milestone goals is part of the landmark Chesapeake Bay Total Maximum Daily Load (TMDL), a set of federal pollution limits on the amount of nutrient pollution and sediments that can enter the Bay and its tidal rivers to meet water quality standards, established by the EPA in 2010, stated the release.
The Bay jurisdictions created individual Watershed Implementation Plans (WIPs), or restoration blueprints guiding local and state Bay restoration efforts, that detail specific steps each will take to meet the pollution reduction goals by 2025, and they then utilize their two-year milestone objectives to track and assess progress towards completing their WIP restoration actions, noted the release.
MDE is evaluating the progress of the local communities to assess advancements toward the completion of the state’s Bay restoration blueprint in the following areas: Resource enhancements, legal authority and organizational enhancements, planning, public engagement and addressing appropriate pollution source sectors, continued the release.
“From crabs and oysters to boats and beaches and most important, clean drinking water supplies in our groundwater, streams, rivers and reservoirs, Maryland has the most to gain from our Bay restoration efforts,” said MDE Secretary Robert M. Summers. “This effort is a federal, state and local partnership to improve our local water quality, natural habitats and ecosystems and ultimately the Chesapeake Bay.”
