Chesapeake Legal Alliance recently was featured in an article in The Capital highlighting our progress in providing pro bono legal services to individuals and groups working to protect the Chesapeake Bay.
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On December 29, 2010, EPA published the largest Total Maximum Daily Load (“TMDL”) for pollutant loadings ever under the Clean Water Act, covering the Chesapeake Bay and its 92 tidal segments. Think of it as a “pollution budget”, placing limitations on the 3 pollutants primarily responsible for poor water quality in the Bay: nitrogen, phosphorus and sediment. The budget cannot be exceeded without bad effects on the health of the water body and the creatures who live in it or use it—including humans. The TMDL applies to the entire Chesapeake Bay watershed, which covers 64,000 square miles in Delaware, Maryland, New York, Pennsylvania, Virginia, West Virginia and the District of Columbia. Thousands of rivers and streams carry pollutants from numerous activities—most of them human—to the Bay. While our demands on the Chesapeake and its tributaries continue to grow, the ability of the Bay and its tributaries to absorb these pollutants does not.
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