Publications

Available in digital format and hardcopy. The Chesapeake Bay Programs Chesapeake 2000 agreement commitment number 4.2.2 calls for the partners to identify and remove state and local impediments to low impact development designs to encourage the use of such approaches and minimize water quality impacts. The Scientific and Technical Advisory Committee (STAC) organized a series of workshops designed to identify important impediments to the use of low impact development and environmentally sensitive design for improving water quality in the Chesapeake Bay watershed and to recommend ways to overcome or remove these impediments. The workshop report presents a summary list of the most important impediments. These issues are deemed to be the priority and critical issues that must be addressed immediately.

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Heavy fishing pressure, habitat degradation and high disease mortality have driven native oyster (Crassostrea virginica) populations to historic low levels in Chesapeake Bay. In response, the states of Maryland and Virginia are considering introducing the Asian Suminoe oyster (C. ariakensis) with the goal of establishing a naturalized, self-sustaining population.

Neither the potential risks nor the potential benefits of such an introduction are adequately known at this time. The scientific community agrees that an introduction of diploid C. ariakensis is likely to be irreversible (NRC 2004), and that the spread of C. ariakensis beyond the borders of Chesapeake Bay is inevitable if a self-sustaining population is established. Further, the potential for novel interactions between oyster pathogens? those resident in the Bay and others that may emerge?and C. ariakensis is uncertain and impacts may be unpredictable both for this oyster and for other species over time. Given the long-term implications of an introduction, sound scientific information must form the basis of the environmental impact statement (EIS) that will assess the proposed introduction as well as other alternatives.

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Available in digital format and hardcopy. Streams are in integral part of the Chesapeake Bays natural infrastructure. Stream networks interconnect the land, water, living resources and human communities of the Bay watershed (Chesapeake 2000). As such, improving, restoring, and protecting stream ecosystems assumes a pivotal point in moving the Bay and its watershed resources towards the ideal condition. The primary goal of this Scientific and Technical Advisory Committee (STAC) workshop was to promote science-based approaches to assist the Chesapeake Bay Program partner jurisdictions and their local partners in creating new or enhancing existing efforts to develop stream corridor restoration goals based on local watershed management planning. The workshop served as an opportunity to present alternative approaches for setting integrated stream corridor restoration goals and as a forum for discussion on how to identify common elements and determine how jurisdictions will begin or continue working towards setting these goals.

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A report on nutrient loadings from septic systems to ground and surface water resources & the Chesapeake Bay.

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Available in digital format and hardcopy. The Scientific and Technical Advisory Committees (STAC) workshop on Urban Tree Canopy was created in partnership with the Forestry Workgroup to help jurisdictions implement the urban canopy cover goals of the Riparian Forest Buffer Directive No. 03-01, signed by the Chesapeake Executive Council in December 2003. This expanded riparian buffer directive ...recognizes that urban tree canopy cover offers stormwater control and water quality benefits for municipalities in the Chesapeake Bay watershed and can extend many riparian forest buffer functions to urban settings. This workshop and the resulting proceedings are technology transfer tools intended to help jurisdictions accomplish their goals by assisting them in understanding the role of urban tree canopy cover in addressing the goals of the Chesapeake 2000 agreement, learning about various data sources for, and methods of, quantifying tree canopy cover, learning how to set appropriate goals, and strategies for implementing those goals.

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In April 2003, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) published the Ambient Water Quality Criteria for Dissolved Oxygen, Water Clarity and Chlorophyll a for the Chesapeake Bay and Its Tidal Tributaries (Regional Criteria Guidance) in cooperation with and on behalf of the six watershed statesNew York, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Delaware, Virginia and West Virginiaand the District of Columbia. At the time of publication of the Regional Criteria Guidance document, a number of technical issues still remained to be worked through, resolved and documented. This first EPA published addendum to the 2003 Ambient Water Quality Criteria for Dissolved Oxygen, Water Clarity and Chlorophyll a for the Chesapeake Bay and Its Tidal Tributaries documents the resolution of and recommendations for addressing a number technical issues and criteria attainment procedures. This document should be viewed by readers as supplemental chapters and appendices to the original published Regional Criteria Guidance document. The publication of future addendums by EPA is likely as continued scientific research and management application reveal new insights and knowledge to be incorporated into revisions of state water quality standards regulations in upcoming triennial reviews.

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Available in digital format and hardcopy. Globally and nationally, persuasive arguments have been developed to promote increased implementation of spatial measures to conserve and protect marine ecosystems, to preserve or restore biodiversity, to protect habitats, and to be applied as tools that are alternatives or supplements to conventional fisheries management. The Scientific and Technical Advisory Committee (STAC) recognized that it was important to define what might be achieved through designation of Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) and other spatial management tools in the Bay and its watershed that could not be achieved through conventional management, or could be achieved with greater probability of success and more economically through spatial management. Workshop participants represented a diverse group of stakeholders, management agencies, and academia and several concerns were identified and recommendations made which are included in this workshop report.

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In December 1983 seven hundred legislators, administrators, scientists and Bay users met in Fairfax, VA to develop an action agenda for Chesapeake Bay. This historic conference was convened by the Governors of VA, MD, and PA and the mayor of DC, Administrator of the EPA and the Chesapeake Bay Commission.

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Available in digital format and hardcopy. Better quantifying the lag time between changes in nutrient and sediment sources in the Chesapeake Bay watershed and improvement in the Bays water quality and submerged aquatic vegetation (SAV) is critical to help resource managers to implement the most effective nutrient and sediment reduction strategies and for scientists to improve monitoring and modeling. There is a large degree of uncertainty about the lag time between implementing nutrient and sediment best management practices and detecting an actual improvement of water quality and SAV in the Bay. Results from this Scientific and Technical Advisory Committee (STAC) workshop suggest that lag times associated with implementation of management practices, impacts of watershed properties, and response of the Bay water quality will make it very difficult to meet water-quality criteria in the Bay by 2010. However, the information about lag times can be used by resource managers to prioritize implementation of practices that provide the most rapid improvement in water quality and improve models and monitoring.

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This document includes the seven appendices to the report Chesapeake Bay: A frame work for action developed by the US Environmental Protection Agency's Chesapeake Bay Program. The report and its appendices describe the state of the Bay, pollutant sources and loadings, and alternative management strategies for improving the environmental quality of the Bay.

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