Monitoring nutrients in the major rivers draining to Chesapeake Bay

Content Provider	Semantic Scholar
Author	Belval, Donna L. Sprague, Lori A.
Copyright Year	1999
Abstract	Chesapeake Bay is the largest estuary in the United States, supporting an abundant and diverse wildlife population and providing thousands of jobs in fishing, shipping, and recreation. Intensive agriculture and continued development in the reg io n , ho weve r, h ave degraded the water quality of the Bay, threatening its value as an economic and recreational resource. Nutrients such as nitrogen and phosphorus are the pollutants of greatest concern affecting the Bay. Although nutrients are necessary for plant and animal life, in excess quantities they overnourish algae, causing algal blooms. These blooms deprive deeper waters of the sunlight and oxygen needed by aquatic organisms. Suspended sediment is another pollutant of concern; it decreases water clarity and transports bound nutrients. In response to the environmental problems of the Bay, representatives of the Chesapeake Bay Commission, the District of Columbia, the States of Maryland, Pennsylvania, and Virginia, and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency signed the Chesapeake Bay Agreement in 1987. This agreement committed Federal, State, and other agencies to work toward a 40-percent reduction in controllable nitrogen and phosphorus inputs (based on 1985 levels) to the Bay by the year 2000. In the mid-1980's, the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), the Maryland Department of the Environment (now part of the Maryland Department of Natural Resources), the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality (VDEQ), and the Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments (MWCOG) established the HIGHLIGHTS
File Format	PDF HTM / HTML
DOI	10.3133/wri994238
Alternate Webpage(s)	https://va.water.usgs.gov/online_pubs/WRIR/99-4238/wrir_99_4238_text.pdf
Alternate Webpage(s)	https://doi.org/10.3133/wri994238
Language	English
Access Restriction	Open
Content Type	Text
Resource Type	Article