Chesapeake Bay

Water Quality and TMDL development

Localities in Hampton Roads and HRPDC staff are working together to clean up the Chesapeake Bay through a variety of efforts:

• Participation in Virginia’s Phase I, II, & III Watershed Implementation Plan (WIP) Stakeholder Advisory Group (SAG), convened by the Secretary of Natural Resources
• Participation in the Commonwealth’s Phase III WIP effort to address loads in unregulated developed, septic, and forest sectors; Conducted stakeholder meetings and produced a final report
• Local government representative to the Chesapeake Bay Program's Urban Stormwater Working Group, and participant in other Bay Program partnership work groups
• Coordination of the Regional Water Quality Monitoring Program between Phase I MS4 localities, USGS, and HRSD
• Created the Hampton Roads Regional Planning Framework, Scenario, and Strategies as an appendix for Virginia’s Chesapeake Bay Phase II WIP

Chesapeake Bay Restoration

• On December 29, 2010, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) established the Chesapeake Bay Total Maximum Daily Load (TMDL), a “pollution diet” to initiate actions to restore water quality in the Chesapeake Bay and the region’s streams, creeks and rivers

• Chesapeake Bay’s water quality is important for the regional economy, natural character, ecology, and support of military activities, foreign trade operations, port facilities, tourism, and recreational activities
• The Chesapeake Bay is about 200 miles long, home to more than 3,600 species of plants, fish and other animals including common Hampton Roads favorites like the blue crab, striped bass, and oysters

Chesapeake Bay Preservation Act (CBPA)

• The Commonwealth established CBPA Designation and Management Regulations in 1988 for localities in Tidewater Virginia
• CBPA programs and policies were adopted to protect and improve water quality in the Chesapeake Bay by reducing nonpoint source pollution through effective land use management.
• The intent of the Bay Act is to balance reasonable development interests and water quality improvement.
• Hampton Roads provided a local CBPA Survey in 2006 and is in the process of an update
• HRGEO houses the resource protection area (RPA) for all Hampton Roads localities subject to CBPA

Links to locality CBPA programs and resources