Chesapeake Executive Council Annual Meeting on July 9, 2012

On July 9, 2012, the Chesapeake Executive Council held its annual meeting at Gunston Hall in Fairfax County, Virginia (the historical home of George Mason).  The Council, established by the 1983 Chesapeake Bay Agreement and revised by the 1987 Agreement, includes the governors of Maryland, Pennsylvania, and Virginia; the administrator of the U.S. EPA; the mayor of the District of Columbia; and the chair of the Chesapeake Bay Commission, a group of state legislators from Maryland, Pennsylvania, and Virginia.  At the meeting, the Executive Council received progress reports on each Bay jurisdiction’s progress towards meeting two-year “milestones,” which are interim targets for various actions to reduce nitrogen, phosphorus, and sediment inputs to Bay waters.  The interim targets are to build toward ultimate reduction goals to be reached by 2025.  Virginia’s progress toward its 2009-2011 milestones is shown in the table below, taken from “Part II: 2009-11 Milestones Final Progress” in the meeting materials, available along with other meeting materials online at http://www.chesapeakebay.net//about/ecmeeting/2012_executive_council_meeting (the Part II document includes similar tables for all the other Bay jurisdictions).  Links to materials from previous annual meetings (1998 to 2011) are available at http://www.chesapeakebay.net//groups/group/chesapeake_executive_council.

An analysis of the interim results in Virginia and other Bay states is provided by the September 2012 Bay Journal, “States Meeting Most of TMDL Milestones,” online at http://www.bayjournal.com/article/states_meeting_most_of_tmdl_milestones.

News accounts of the July 9 meeting: Virginia making progress on bay cleanup goals, groups say, Richmond Times-Dispatch, 7/10/12; Consensus: Chesapeake Bay cleanup plan on track, Associated Press, as published in Norfolk Virginian-Pilot, 7/9/12; Chesapeake Bay cleanup on track, officials say, Baltimore (Md.) Sun, 7/9/12; Maryland On Track to Meet Chesapeake Bay Goals, Patch.com, 7/10/12; DEP Chief Heralds Pennsylvania’s Accomplishments at Annual Chesapeake Bay Executive Council Meeting, PR Newswire, as published at http://marketwatch.com, 7/9/12; and Milestone analysis shows progress for 2011 Virginia, Md., and Pa., Delmarva.com, 7/12/12.

 

	Original 2011 Commitment	2011 Reported(1)	% Achieved Original Commitment	Adapted 2011 Commitment(2)	% Achieved Adapted Commitment(3)
AGRICULTURE
Animal Waste Management Systems (systems)	241	1,724	715%	1,719	100%
Animal Waste Management Systems, runoff control (systems)	32	935	2,922%	461	203%
Conservation Tillage, NRCS (acres/yr)	47,500	96,297	203%	N/A	N/A
Continuous No-Till, State Cost Share (acres)	81,000	95,882	118%	80,900	119%
Cover Crops (acres/yr)	119,000	58,746	49%	118,800	49%
Cover Crops, small grain commodities, harvestable (acres/yr)	38,000	21,955	58%	37,900	58%
Forest Buffers (acres)	10,000	18,691	187%	23,045	81%
Grass Buffers (acres)	2,000	54,823	2,741%	11,723	468%
Land Retirement (acres)	19,000	89,165	469%	93,317	96%
Nutrient Management, agricultural (new acres)	258,000	668,692	259%	875,600	76%
Pasture Grazing BMPs, off stream watering w/ fencing (acres)	89,500	150,097	168%	191,205	79%
Stream Restoration, agricultural (linear feet)	13,000	19,332	149%	30,979	62%
Tree Planting: reforestation (acres)	12,500	24,217	194%	24,125	100%
Wetland Restoration (acres)	36	495	1,375%	118	419%
URBAN AND SUBURBAN
Erosion & Sediment Control (acres)	61,000	29,906	49%	20,333	147%
Septic System BMPs: pumpouts (systems)	806	28,368	3,520%	N/A	N/A
Add’l Urban Nutrient Management (new acres)	133,000	37,997	29%	133,166	29%
Stormwater Management, All Types, Urban/Suburban (acres drained)	49,000	387,781	791%	342,125	113%
WASTEWATER	2009-2011 Commitment	Achieved (1/1/09-12/31/11)	% Achieved (1/1/09-12/31/11)
Wastewater Nitrogen (pounds reduced)	233,000	4,826,996	2,072%
Wastewater Phosphorus (pounds reduced)	126,000	585,433	465%

 

Table notes:

1 With the exception of “Stream Restoration, agricultural” and “Additional Urban Nutrient Management”, VA’s 2011 BMP implementation data is the amount reported by VA, not the amount credited in the CBP Watershed Model because of the state’s disagreement with CBP methods.

2 All of VA’s numeric commitments for 2011 (both original and adapted) were for total amount on-the-ground in 2011. For all practices (cumulative and annual), the 2011 implementation level is compared to the commitment to calculate % achievement.

3 For some practices, VA has 2 sets of commitments, Original 2011 Commitment and Adapted 2011 Commitment. With practices that list both sets of commitments, 2011 data is compared to both commitments to determine % achievement of the original and adapted commitments.

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