EPA releases 2-year milestone evaluations on Chesapeake Bay cleanup effort; cites challenges, progress and potential

PHILADELPHIA (Aug. 14, 2024) – The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency announced the results of its evaluation of the Chesapeake Bay jurisdictions’ two-year milestones today, noting that although most of the Bay states are behind, they are catching up to meet the 2025 water quality restoration goals, 2023 saw new significant successes at the state level that will improve the restoration trajectory.

The two-year milestone reports are prepared by the Chesapeake Bay jurisdictions – Delaware, the District of Columbia, Maryland, New York, Pennsylvania, Virginia, and West Virginia. These reports represent key check-in points on the way to having all pollutant reduction measures in place by 2025, a goal established by the Chesapeake Bay Program (CBP) partnership. The CBP partnership is composed of the seven Bay jurisdictions, and dozens of local governments, federal partners, organizations and academic institutions.

Watershed-wide, the partnership continues to make incremental progress toward the 2025 Goal. The partnership has already implemented practices to achieve 100% of the targeted sediment reductions, and practices are in place to achieve 57% of the nitrogen reductions and 67% of the phosphorus reductions. However, more progress is needed to meet the 2025 nitrogen and phosphorus targets. Successes to highlight in water quality efforts include Pennsylvania and Virginia increasing the reductions achieved from the agriculture sector in 2023, and partners continuing to invest in accelerating implementation​. EPA is helping lead the partnership in discussions about the efforts beyond 2025 and how we move forward in meeting the needs of the Bay ecosystem and the people in the Bay watershed.

"Enforcement, engagement, investments & accountability - these efforts have helped us accelerate progress across the Bay and in all sectors - especially agriculture," said EPA Mid-Atlantic Regional Administrator Adam Ortiz. "The dedication of all our partners working together is paying off and making a difference in the Bay watershed." 

"By analyzing the monitoring data in 2023 we can see the Chesapeake Bay improving in most areas of the watershed," said Bill Dennison,  professor and vice president at the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science. "This improvement is a testament to efforts to reduce nutrients through a variety of reduction strategies while enhancing riparian buffers throughout the watershed.”

For more details on the milestone reports and ongoing Bay cleanup efforts, visit our Chesapeake Bay website.