Publications

this document is a Strategy or approach to achieve the 40% nutrient reduction goal for the Patapsco/Back River watershed. It represents a collective effort over the past year among all levels of government, and extensive input by various interest groups and citizens. The local governments, in particular, have spent considerable time and effort and provided numerous comments on the drat Strategies. This Strategy is meant to be flexible in order to icorporate these changes so that the goal can be met in the most efficient and practical manner.

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This document is a Strategy or an approach to achieve the 40% nutrient reduction goal for the Middle Potomac watershed. It represents a collective effort over the past year among all levels of government, and extensive input by various interest groups and citizens. The local governments, in particular, have spent consideraable time and effort and provided numerous comments on the draft Strategies. This Strategy is meant to be flexible in order to incorporate these changes so that the goal can be met in the most efficient and practical manner.

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This document is a Strategy or approach to achieve the 40% nutrient reduction goal for the Lower Western Shore watershed. It represents a collective effort over the past year among all levels of government, and extensive input by various interest groups and citizens. The local governments, in particular, have spent considerable time and effort and provided numerous comments on the draft Strategies. The Strategy is meant to be flexible in order to incorporate these changes so that the goal can be met in the most efficient and practical manner.

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This document is a Strategy or an approach to achieve the 40% nutrient reduction goal for the Lower Potomac watershed. It represents a collective effort over the past year among all levels of government, and extensive input by various interest groups and citizens. The local governments, in particular, have spent considerable time and effort and provided numerous comments on the draft Strategies. This Strategy is meant to be flexible in order to incorporate these changes so that the goal can be met in the most efficient ad practical manner.

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this document is a Strategy or an approach to achieve the 40% nutrient reduction goal for the Lower Eastern Shore watershed. It represents a collective effort over the past year among all levels of government, and extensive input by various interest groups and citizens. The local comments on the draft Strategies. The Strategy shows how the goal may be achieved through specific programs and practices, called "nutrient reduction options". In implementing the Strategy over the coming years, new information on methods to reduce nutrient pollution will undoubtedly come to light, available fundin gwill change, available funding will change, more detailed data on watershed condition and needs will become available, and priorities will shift.

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The purpose of this report is to: 1) present flow-adjusted trends in nutrients and suspended solids for five major tributariesto Chesapeake Bay in Virginia near the Fall Line; 2) discuss possible factors that affect trends in water quality at these rivers, and 3) assess quality assurance/quality control results. Water quality samples were collected at the James and Rappahannock Rivers from July 1, 1988 through June 30, 1995; at the Appomatox and Pamunkey Rivers from July 1, 1989 through June 30, 1994; and at the Mattaponi River from September 1, 1989 through June 30, 1995. The samples were collected on a twice-per-month scheduled basis, most often during base-flow conditions, and also during high-flow events to cover a range in discharge conditions.

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Data from 30 stream sites in nontidal portions of the Chesapeake Bay Watershed were analyzed tp dpcument annual nutrient and sediment loads and trends for the period 1985 through 1998 as part of an annual water-quality update for the Chesapeake Bay Program. Annual loads were estimated by use of the U.S. GeologicalSurvey ESTIMATOR model and are available upon request. Trends were estimated by use of either linear regression, Seasonal Kendall or Kendall-Their tests. Trends were reported for monthly-mean flow, monthly load, flow-adjusted concentration, and flow-weighted concentration. Trends in flow-adjusted concentrations were downward at nearly all sites for sediment and dissolved solids in the Susquehanna and Potomac River Basins and generally were not significant in the Virginia river basins.

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Exposure to toxic contaminants can result in adverse effects on biological resources within the Chesapeake Bay and its watershed. In 2010, the Chesapeake Bay Program (CBCP), a federal-jurisdictional partnership, reported that 72 percent of the Bay's tidal-water segments are fully or partially impaired as a result of the presence of toxic contaminants. In some areas of the Bay watershed, fish-consumption advisories have been established as a result of concentrations of toxic contaminants. In recognition of these issues, the CBP developed the Toxics 2000 Strategy, in which commitments were made to prevent and reduce inputs of chemical contaminant and to eliminate toxic impacts on living resources that inhabit the Bay and its tributaries.

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The Rappahannock, York and James Rivers each exhibit response in their estuarine receiving waters to inputs at their fall lines. However, these response are not identical in each of the rivers, nor are they identical to Patuxent River in their response. Chlorophyll-a in the tidal fresh portions of both the York and James Rivers exhibited the same decline with increased river flow and TN loading as was observed in the tidal fresh Patuxent River. similarly, NO23 concentrations obsserved in the lower James river at any given TN loading rate atthe fall line. Some of the water quality patterns in these estuaries are very remarkable and merit further investigation. In particular, it would be worthwhile to investigate the extent of the light-limitation of phytoplankton growth rates and the role of flusing processes in regulating water quality in the estuaries.

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In June 2000, Chesapeake Bay Program (CBP) partners adopted the Chesapeake 2000 agreement, a strategic plan that calls for defining the water quality conditions necessary to protect aquaitc living resources. These water quality conditions are being defined through the development of Chesapeake Bay specific water quality criteria for dissolved oxygen, water clarity, and chlorophyll a to be implemented as state water quality standards by 2005. One element of the newly defined standards is an assessment tool that addresses the spatial and temporal variability of these water quality measures in establishing compliance. This tool has become known as the Cumulative Frequency Diagram (CFD).