CUERE Seminar: Peter Claggett.

Peter Claggett

US Geological Survey

Lower Mississippi Gulf Water Science Center

The six states in the Chesapeake Bay watershed and the District of Columbia are responsible for preparing Watershed Implementation Plans (WIPs) to meet pollution reduction targets to achieve the Chesapeake Bay Total Maximum Daily Load (TMDL). The WIPs were finalized in 2018 and outline policies, programs, and Best Management Practices (BMPs) needed to reduce nutrient and sediment pollution to regulated levels by 2025.  Each jurisdiction must account for potential growth in pollution in their WIPs and describe how that growth will be offset.  Because future land use change can increase pollution, the Chesapeake Bay Program (CBP) Partners created a way to credit the role of land conservation and land use planning actions in reducing the future conversion of forests and farms to development.  The CBP Partners use a land change model to forecast future development through the year 2025 to serve as a baseline condition for Phase III WIP development.  Jurisdictions have the option to develop alternative future scenarios, called “Land Policy BMPs”, which can include elements of forest and farmland conservation and land use planning actions.  The baseline future land use and all alternative scenarios are run through the CBP Watershed Model to estimate their effects on pollutant loads to the Bay.  If the Land Policy BMPs result in less pollution in comparison to the 2025 baseline condition, the difference can be credited towards a jurisdiction’s required pollutant reductions.