Nutrient reduction policies and management strategies of the Chesapeake Bay water quality restoration program

The Chesapeake Bay Program is a unique, regional, federal-state-local partnership established in 1983 by a formal Agreement between six signatories, the states of Maryland, Pennsylvania and Virginia, the District of Columbia, the US EPA, and the Chesapeake Bay Commission, to protect and restore the Bay's ecosystem. The system of governance adopted provides for dynamic interaction between the signatories, and provides for input from the interested citizens, the local governments, and the scientific and technical community. The Agreement is periodically reviewed, amended and added to by new agreements, with the most recent being the 2000 Agreement, referred to as “Chesapeake 2000: A Watershed Partnership”. The new agreement, signed 28 June 2000, sets numeric goals to be accomplished during the next ten years, and includes land use policies and restrictions.