Chesapeake Bay
Estuary in the U.S. states of Maryland and Virginia
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| April 2025 | The Maryland Department of the Environment announced grants to improve Baltimore treatment plants and install a trash interceptor on the Back River. |
| 2024 | A heavy rainfall caused the Back River Wastewater Treatment Plant to discharge 14 million gallons of sewage into local Baltimore waterways and the Chesapeake Bay, releasing a year's worth of sewage overflow in a single day. |
| 2023 | University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science rated the Chesapeake Bay's overall health at 55% (C-plus), its highest score since 2002. |
| 2023 | CBF and EPA reached a settlement on the 2020 lawsuit, with EPA agreeing to increase efforts to reduce farm and stormwater runoff pollution in Pennsylvania through compliance and enforcement actions. |
| 2021 | Baltimore completed the $124 million 'Headworks Project' at the Back River wastewater treatment plant, providing additional underground storage to address sanitary sewer overflow (SSO) problems. |
| 2021 | Sewage plants were found to contribute 11% of nitrogen and 15% of phosphorous levels in the Chesapeake Bay. |
| 2021 | Slight improvements in water quality were observed compared to the previous year's indicators. |
| 2020 | Water quality baseline measurement used for comparing subsequent environmental changes. |
| 2020 | Baseline year for water quality measurements used in subsequent environmental assessments. |
| 2020 | The Chesapeake Bay Foundation filed another lawsuit against EPA for not requiring New York and Pennsylvania to comply with TMDL pollution reduction goals. |
| 2019 | Release of 'Expedition Chesapeake, A Journey of Discovery', a film starring Jeff Corwin, created by The Whitaker Center for Science and the Arts to explore and showcase the Chesapeake Bay region. |
| 2018 | Earl Swift published 'Chesapeake Requiem', a New York Times bestselling non-fiction book about the crabbing community of Chesapeake Bay. |
| 2016 | EPA reported that sewage treatment plant upgrades resulted in significant reductions in nitrogen and phosphorus pollution, despite increases in human population and wastewater volume. |
| 2015 | The health of the Chesapeake Bay showed significant improvement, marking three consecutive years of gains over a four-year period. |
| 2014 | Long et al. publish research highlighting how nutrient runoff leads to algal blooms and subsequent oxygen depletion in the bay's waters. |
| 2013 | DC Water began constructing large stormwater storage facilities as part of the 'Clean Rivers' project to address combined sewer overflow (CSO) problems in Washington, D.C. |
| 2012 | Release of 'The Bay', a found footage-style eco-horror film highlighting environmental issues related to Chesapeake Bay, depicting a pandemic caused by pollution from chicken factory farm run-off and mutant aquatic parasites. |
| 2011 | Maryland and Virginia enacted laws to reduce lawn fertilizer effects by restricting nitrogen and phosphorus content. Virginia additionally banned deicers containing urea, nitrogen, or phosphorus. |
| 2011 | The Oyster Recovery Partnership placed 6 million oysters in the Trent Hall sanctuary as part of ongoing restoration efforts. |
| 2011 | The last recorded visit of the manatee 'Chessie' to the Chesapeake Bay, having made multiple trips between 1994 and this year. |
| 2011 | A report is released suggesting future information disclosure about underwater grasses in the Chesapeake Bay, highlighting their ecological importance. |
| January 2011 | Reports of millions of fish dying, with officials attributing the event to extremely cold weather. |
| 2010 | Bay health improved slightly, earning an ecosystem health rating of 31 out of 100, up from 28 in 2008. |
| 2010 | Dead zones in the Chesapeake Bay were estimated to kill 75,000 tons of bottom-dwelling clams and worms annually, severely impacting the bay's food chain and blue crab population. |
| 2010 | A report criticized Amish farmers in Pennsylvania for inadequate manure control, highlighting the significant environmental impact of agricultural practices on the bay's ecosystem. |
| December 29 2010 | EPA issued its most complex Total Maximum Daily Load (TMDL) document for nitrogen, phosphorus, and sediment pollution in the Chesapeake Bay, settling the 2009 lawsuit with the Chesapeake Bay Foundation. |
This contents of the box above is based on material from the Wikipedia article Chesapeake Bay, which is released under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.