State and federal leaders from around the Chesapeake Bay have given the final stamp of approval to an agreement that sets the tone for the next 15 years of cleaning up the nation’s largest estuary.
The Chesapeake Executive Council, which directs the massive restoration effort, met in Baltimore Tuesday to celebrate the latest iteration of the Chesapeake Bay Watershed Agreement.
“It is not just a renewal of commitment, but it is a redoubling of our efforts to make progress that is not only aspirational, but progress that is fast,” Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin said at the meeting, his last as a member of the council. “The huge effort that we have made over many years is the foundation.”
Virginia and other states in the region signed onto the most recent agreement in 2014. It set benchmarks for participants to voluntarily achieve by 2025, such as cutting pollution and boosting seagrass and crab populations. Officials failed to meet about a third of the targets by this year’s deadline.
This week’s update follows more than a year of negotiations between environmental groups, academics, government agencies and local officials about what should come next.
The 2014 agreement included 10 goals and 31 outcomes, which are more specific targets under the broader goals. The revision consolidates those into 21 outcomes under four major goals: clean water; healthy landscapes; engaged communities; and thriving habitat, fisheries and wildlife.
Keisha Sedlacek, senior policy director for the nonprofit Chesapeake Bay Foundation, said the change was partly to reflect that different elements of the bay are inextricable.
“The partnership recognized the interconnectedness between what is happening with clean water, what's happening to habitat, what's happening in our fisheries, and the need to talk about them more holistically,” she said.
Officials also wanted the goals to be easier to communicate to the public, she said.
The new agreement is the first since six Indigenous tribes in Virginia gained federal recognition in 2018. Over the next few months, officials will figure out how to formally integrate tribal leadership into the partnership, “in a manner that appropriately considers their unique status as independent sovereign nations and as original stewards of the land.”
Environmental groups raised concerns about the initial draft of the agreement earlier this summer, arguing it lacked important accountability measures and cut language about climate change.
Some concerns have been addressed since then, Sedlacek said, including reaffirming commitments to reducing pollution that are legally required under the Clean Water Act.
Climate change and sea level rise are still not mentioned by name, but the document states that “changing environmental conditions,” such as increased precipitation and temperature, threaten people, wildlife and infrastructure in the watershed.
Officials should monitor long-term trends and prioritize nature-based solutions that help the region adapt to these changing conditions, according to the agreement.
Environmentalists argued the update is still far less ambitious than what’s needed to restore the bay, particularly on metrics such as preserving wetlands and protecting land from development.
Youngkin said at Tuesday’s meeting that the group’s goals need to be achievable, not aspirational, and guided by results, not just modeling.
“You then, at that point, can invest more in those demonstrated successful efforts and, candidly, invest less or none in things that don't work,” he said. “That is our next stage.”
Sedlacek said the agreement should be seen as a floor, not a limit.
“It’s what states and the federal government have said they want to do and commit to doing,” she said. “But they can always do more.”
The agreement has a 2040 deadline for its goals, but also requires a midpoint check-in to track progress and adapt to the latest science in 2033.
