What is the Chesapeake Bay TMDL?

• Total Maximum Daily Load– Amount of pollutants that a water body can

receive and still support designated uses• Drinking, swimming, fishing• Aquatic life use support

– Identify pollutant sources (non-point and point sources)

– Identify load reductions for sediment, nitrogen and phosphorous

• Federally mandated “Pollution Diet”• Implementation is key

How did we get to this point?

• Presidential Executive Order to cleanup the Bay - 2010

• EPA will set goals and oversee Watershed Implementation Plan (WIP) progress

• EPA mandates passed on to states• States are passing down implementation to

local government• Local government will set local goals and

strategies

What does this mean?

• TMDL sets pollution limits…WIP sets strategies to meet those limits

• Bay TMDL and WIP will require nutrient and sediment reductions from stormwater

• Enhanced Stormwater regulations by the VA House and Senate will ensure these goals will be met

• Powhatan County is in the process of adopting a Stormwater Ordinance which will help us achieve the TMDL goals

Watershed Implementation Plans (WIP)

Specify what kind of actions will betaken• Best Management Practices

(BMP)• Wastewater treatment upgrades• Stormwater retrofits and

upgrades• Caps on new nutrient loads• Nutrient Trading

•February 1, 2012 – Counties submit local strategies and goals to state•Final Phase II WIP submitted to EPA-3/30/12•2 year progress reports from localities to state to EPA starting 2013•2017 60% BMP implementation checkup•Insufficient progress may lead to early intervention by EPA•2025 BMP implementation goals met

Important Dates

What are the consequences?Also known as “backstops”:

• Chesapeake Bay Act area expansion• Loss of land-use taxation rates• Loss of cost-share assistance for BMP

(agricultural best management practices) installation

• Loss of federal funding to state and county programs

• EPA will take over local conservation programs related to the TMDL