From providing an important source of drinking water to supporting a seafood industry that sustains families and generations-old ways of life, the Chesapeake Bay watershed is an integral part to the human health and wealth of 18 million people.
Do people drink water from the Chesapeake Bay?
There are more than 18 million people who live in the Chesapeake watershed and roughly 75% get their drinking water from rivers and streams that flow into the Bay. One of the biggest suppliers, the Susquehanna River, provides drinking water to millions of residents across New York, Pennsylvania and Maryland.
Where does the water from the Chesapeake Bay go?
A watershed is an area of land that drains into a particular river, lake, bay or other body of water. The Chesapeake Bay watershed stretches approximately 524 miles from Cooperstown, New York, to Norfolk, Virginia.
Is Chesapeake water clean?
The Chesapeake Bay has been on EPA’s “dirty waters” list for decades. According to the Clean Water Act, states must develop a Total Maximum Daily Load (TMDL) specifying the maximum pollution levels allowable to meet water quality standards for all waters identified on their “dirty waters” list.
How clean is the water in the Chesapeake Bay?
42 percent
Preliminary data indicates that the water quality of the Chesapeake Bay and its tidal tributaries has reached a record high: an estimated 42 percent is now considered to meet clean water standards. This is a slight improvement over the previous record high of 40 percent reported in 2017.
Is Chesapeake water safe to drink?
The federal Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA) sets the standards for drinking water and this annual water quality report is one of the provisions of those standards. Chesapeake meets or surpasses these standards.
Is the Chesapeake Bay contaminated?
More than three-quarters of the Chesapeake Bay’s tidal waters are considered impaired by chemical contaminants. From the insecticides that are put on farm fields to the cleaners we use to disinfect our homes, contaminants can enter the Bay and its tributaries and harm the health of both humans and wildlife.
What do we use the Chesapeake Bay for?
The bay itself is popular for boating and recreational fishing. The Chesapeake’s commercial fishery is worth billions of dollars and includes blue crabs, rockfish, menhaden, and eastern oysters. The bay also includes two of the biggest East Coast commercial ports—Baltimore and Hampton Roads.
How deep is the water in the Chesapeake Bay?
Width and Depth
The Bay and its tributaries contain an astounding 11,684 miles (18,804 km) of shoreline. Much of the Bay is quite shallow; more than 24 percent of the Bay is less than 6 feet (2 m) deep. The average depth is 21 feet (7 m). The deepest channel in the Bay is 175 feet (53 m).
Can you swim in the Chesapeake Bay?
Despite these health concerns, beaches along the tidal rivers and the Chesapeake Bay are often safe for swimming, fishing and boating.
How dirty is the Chesapeake Bay?
According to data submitted to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency in 2016, 82 percent of the Chesapeake Bay’s tidal segments are partially or fully impaired by toxic contaminants.
What makes the Chesapeake Bay dirty?
Where Does it Come From? Excessive amounts of nitrogen and phosphorous come from fertilizers, wastewater, septic tank discharges, air pollution, and runoff from farms, cities, and suburbs. Excessive amounts of sediment are carried into our waterways from erosion and from construction sites.
Why is the Chesapeake Bay water brown?
Some phytoplankton blooms appear green, but many in the summer Chesapeake are brown algae, called dinoflagellates, which typically live for three days, die, and sink to the bottom in huge numbers. We call the largest of these blooms mahogany tides.
Is the Chesapeake Bay healthy?
The University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science gave the overall health of the bay in 2020 a C grade, slightly up from the previous year’s C-minus. The watershed, which includes off-shooting rivers and basins, was rated a B-minus.
Why is the Chesapeake Bay not clear?
Boaters have glimpsed the bottom of a vast estuary that for years has been murky, thanks to constant agricultural runoff pouring in from rivers and streams, producing dense algae growth.
When did the Chesapeake Bay become polluted?
Summary: Humans began measurably and negatively impacting water quality in the Chesapeake Bay in the first half of the 19th century, according to a study of eastern oysters.
How does the Chesapeake Bay affect humans?
The Chesapeake Bay’s ecosystem impacts the quality of the air we breathe, the water we drink and the food we eat. It’s wetlands protect communities from extreme weather such as erosion, flood waters and storm surges. And the trees that sprawl from the Bay shores and forests cool our communities.
Is Virginia Beach water safe to drink?
Virginia Beach water meets all Environmental Protection Agency drinking water standards. To ensure that tap water is safe to drink, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has developed regulations limiting the amount of certain contaminants in water provided by public water systems.
Does Virginia have good drinking water?
Tap water in Northern Virginia might meet legal standards, but that doesn’t mean it’s safe. The legal limit of some of the contaminants in Northern Virginia’s drinking water is over a hundred times higher than the health standards recommended by scientists, and some chemicals aren’t regulated at all.
Is the Chesapeake Bay toxic?
Toxic Contaminants Research
In 2012, close to 74 percent of the tidal water segments of the Chesapeake Bay were fully or partially impaired by toxic contaminants. These contaminants include pesticides, pharmaceuticals, metals and more, and can harm the health of both humans and wildlife.
Why is Maryland water so dirty?
Humans are Responsible. Humans have severely disrupted the natural balance of nutrients entering the Chesapeake Bay. Since the industrial revolution, a population boom in the Bay’s watershed has caused a sharp rise in nutrient pollution (leaving MDE).