Publications

The Chesapeake Bay Program completed a document delineating nutrient trading guidelines entitled Nutrient Trading Fundamental Principles and Guidelines - Draft and made this document available to the public for review on September 8, 2000. A series of public meetings were held during the months of September and October in a variety of locations around the Chesapeake Bay watershed for the purpose of providing the public with an explanation of the meaning and purpose of the trading guidelines, and to give the public a chance to comment on them. This document is a compilation of the public meeting proceedings prepared for each of the 16 public meetings.

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This document presents fundamental principles and guidelines for nutrient trading in the Chesapeake Bay Watershed. This document is not a regulation. Rather, it is intended to be used on a voluntary basis as a guide for those Bay jurisdictions that choose to establish nutrient trading programs. The document is based on the Negotiation Team's comprehensive consideration of numerous other trading programs and approaches, substantial research, and corresponding lengthy negotiations.

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Three models are at the heart of the Chesapeake Bay Environmental Model Package (CBEMP). Distributed flows and loads from the watershed are computed with a highly modified version of the HSPF model. Nutrient and solids loads are computed on a daily basis for 94 sub-watersheds of the Chesapeake Bay watershed. The CH3D-WES hydrodynamic model computes three-dimensional intra-tidal transport on a grid of 13,000 cells. Computed loads and transport are input to the CE-QUAL-ICM eutrophication model which computes algal biomass, nutrient cycling and dissolved oxygen, as well as numerous additional constituents and processes. The eutrophication model incorporates a predictive sediment diagenesis component. Ten years, 1985-1994 are simulated continuously using time steps of 5 minutes (hydrodynamic model) and 15 minutes (eutrophication model). This report comprises the primary documentation of the eutrophication component of the 2002 CBEMP.

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The major objective of the Coordinated Split Sample Program is to establish a measure of comparability between sampling and analytical operations for water quality monitoring basin wide. The second objective is to evaluate the in-matrix dilution of standard EPA reference materials. These standard reference materials are analyzed in appropriate matrix, fresh to saline, and concentration level to match the sample.

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The TSD was developed by the EPA and its watershed partners to be a companion document to the Regional Criteria Guidance. Because it describes the development and geographical extent of the designated uses to which the refined water quality criteria may apply, the TSD serves as a resource to the states to assist them in the development and adoption of refined water quality standards.

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The Benthic Process Model Review Team, assembled by the Modeling Subcommittee during Fall 2000, reviewed the benthic model developed for the Chesapeake Bay Water Quality Model, a component of Chesapeake Bay Estuary Modeling Package. Review of the model presented in the technical, report, Development of a Suspension Feeding and Deposit Feeding Benthos Model for Chesapeake Bay (USCE 0410) was guided by questions provided by the Modeling Subcommittee. The Review Team was further charged with advising the Modeling Subcommittee regarding the future directions in benthic process modeling that will be needed in order to satisfy the goals and objectives stated in the Chesapeake 2000 Agreement.

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In this report, observations of dissolved oxygen concentrations, chlorophyll concentrations, and light attenuation are compared to model estimates taken at the same time and location in model space. The comparison includes scatter plots, cumulative plats, regressions, and summary statistics. The method of adapting the model for application to the proposed water quality criteria through the use of regressions, spatial interpolation, and cumulative frequency plots of criteria exceedences is described.

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The goal of the Chesapeake Bay Black Drum Management Plan is to protect the black drum resource in the Chesapeake Bay, its tributaries, and coastal waters, while providing the greatest long-term ecological, social and economic benefits from their usage over time.

The Chesapeake Bay Environmental Model Package is a combination of interactive models. The Community Multi-Scale Air Quality Model and a set of regression models compute daily atmospheric nitrogen and phosphorus loads to the Chesapeake Bay watershed and to the water surface. The Watershed Model (WSM) provides daily computations of flow, solids loads, and nutrient loads at the heads of major tributaries and along the shoreline below the tributary inputs. Flows from the WSM are one set of inputs to the CH3D (Computational Hydrodynamics in Three Dimensions) hydrodynamic model. CH3D computes surface level, three-dimensional velocities, and vertical diffusion on a time scale measured in minutes. Loads from the WSM and transport processes from CH3D drive the CE-QUAL-ICM (Corps of Engineers Integrated Compartment Water Quality Model) eutrophication model. ICM computes, in three dimensions, physical properties, algal production, and elements of the aquatic carbon, nitrogen, phosphorus, silica, and oxygen cycles.

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The consumate purpose of the Chesapeake Bay restoration and Protection Program is to improve and protect the water quality and living resources of the Chesapeake Bay estuarine system to restore and maintain the Bay's ecological integrity, productivity and beneficial uses and to protect public health.

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