Chesapeake Bay hits near-record high water quality

Despite improvement, officials say more work needed to reduce nutrient load entering bay

Water quality in the Chesapeake Bay reportedly reached a near-record high with almost 40 percent of bay water meeting clean water standards between 2014 and 2016, according to the Chesapeake Bay Program.

This year’s assessment was at 39.2 percent, just 0.3 percentage points lower than the record of 39.5 percent between 2008 and 2010.

The results reported by the bay program showed a 2 percent increase from the previous assessment period of 2013 and 2015. The regional partnership attributed the improvements largely to a rise in dissolved oxygen in the deep channel of the bay.

The new finding is consistent with a wide range of metrics that have indicated improvements in the bay, said Jeremy Testa, assistant professor at the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science’s Chesapeake Biological Laboratory in Solomons.

Earlier this year, bay grasses were discovered returning to the shores of Solomons for the first time after basically disappearing in the 1970s.

In the past three decades, there has been evidence showing the

amount of nitrogen going down, Testa said. In the past few years, the size of low oxygen area is getting smaller and sea grass is coming back in the lower-salinity parts of the bay.

Nick DiPasquale, CBP’s director, said in a release that there has been an increase in the diversity of grass species and the density of grass beds. Several fisheries, including blue crabs, oysters and rockfish, have also shown improvements, he said.

While the news of better water quality appears to be consistent with multiple reports released in the beginning of this year that indicated an improving bay, it remains unclear whether the trend will continue. While the positive sign of resiliency of the bay indicates that its ecosystem has recovered from the damages sustained during Hurricane Irene and Tropical Storm Lee, the bay program said water quality must improve in 60 percent of the bay and its tidal tributaries for the estuary to function as a healthy ecosystem.

In a statement issued last week, the Chesapeake Bay Foundation said the bay program’s findings provide “both good and bad news.”

“Our water is getting cleaner, leading to smaller dead zones and more bay grasses and oysters,” said Beth McGee, the foundation’s director of science and agricultural policy, in the statement.

“But water quality still has to improve in 60 percent of the bay, meaning that we can’t take our foot off the gas pedal,” McGee said.

Testa from CBL said although some parts of the bay have shown clear signs of improvement, other places are going the other direction.

Although the freshwater parts of the Patuxent River have improved in terms of nutrients going down, largely thanks to upgrades of wastewater treatment plants, Testa said neither the Patuxent River nor Potomac River are showing clear, overall improvements.

Ben Grumbles, secretary of the Maryland Department of the Environment, said in a release that “robust funding, science, and stewardship are paying off and cleaning up the bay. But we still have a long way to go.”