A Vision for Beyond 2025: October Update
Disclaimer: For all the relevant background information on the status of the Bay restoration effort and the “Beyond 2025” campaign, please see below.
As the Coalition has discussed at length, the effort to restore the Chesapeake Bay and its rivers and streams is facing a critical juncture. For several months, we have closely followed discussions on the future of the Bay restoration effort as it approaches an important deadline—what lies beyond 2025.
What’s the Latest?
This summer, the Coalition and its member organizations were very active in advocating for a bold vision for clean water in the Bay region. This includes 131 nonprofit organizations signing our series of recommendations, many members and partners writing their own recommendations on the draft plan for next steps in the Bay restoration effort, and several members and partners making their voices heard in the opinion pages of their local newspapers.
The Beyond 2025 Steering Committee received a deluge of comments during the public feedback period. Last week, the committee voted on the final draft of the plan, approving a plan that adopts several changes recommended from the comments received. Notably, this includes the suggestion to review the status of the next series of recommendations for the Bay cleanup plan at the end of 2025, as opposed to 2026.
What’s Next?
Based on these recommendations, the Management Board will draft a directive on the next steps for the Chesapeake Bay Program partnerships for approval by the Principals’ Staff Committee (PSC) at their meeting on October 25. The Chesapeake Executive Council, which consists of the governors of the six watershed states, the mayor of the District of Columbia, the chair of the Chesapeake Bay Commission, and the administrator of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, will meet on December 10 in Annapolis, Maryland, when they will make the final decision on the directive and the next steps in the Chesapeake Bay restoration effort.
What Can You Do?
It’s not too late to raise your voice for clean water! There is still time to influence plans for what lies beyond 2025, especially prior to the PSC meeting on October 25.
Reach out to leadership within your state’s environmental agencies asking for them to embrace the recommendations of the Beyond 2025 Steering Committee.
Urge your Governor to attend the Executive Council meeting on December 10.
Write op-eds to your local paper about what the restoration effort means to your local community and rivers and streams.
The Coalition has several communications resources and tools to equip your organization raise its voice for clean water in the Bay watershed beyond 2025. Contact Drew Robinson at RobinsonAQ@nwf.org for more information!
Background Information
What is Beyond 2025?
In 2014, the Chesapeake Bay Program Executive Council (Maryland, Pennsylvania, Virginia, Delaware, New York, West Virginia, the District of Columbia, EPA, and the Chesapeake Bay Commission) signed the 2014 Chesapeake Bay Agreement. This agreement had 10 goals and 31 outcomes that focused on everything from water quality and toxics, to land conservation and public access. The deadline to achieve these goals and outcomes was 2025. This aligned with the goal for the Total Maximum Daily Load (TMDL) to have all projects in place by 2025. Out of the 31 outcomes, 18 have either been achieved or will be achieved by 2025, and 13 are off track or have an unknown status.
In October of 2022, the Chesapeake Bay Executive Council issued a directive to the Bay Program to develop a plan to accelerate progress to get our goals and outcomes as close as possible to being achieved by 2025 and to present recommendations about the future of the Chesapeake restoration effort beyond 2025.
Beyond 2025 Steering Committee
The Chesapeake Bay Program convened a Beyond 2025 Steering Committee to discuss and created the Beyond 2025 recommendations to be presented to the Program’s Executive Council at their December 2024 meeting. There are 29 members of the steering committee filled by federal and state agency representatives and two non-voting seats for public members filled by the Coalition and the Chesapeake Bay Trust.
At the 2024 Choose Clean Water Conference Kickoff, attendees participated in a public feedback session which included a review of the current 2014 Agreement, a preview of the Beyond 2025 Steering Committee recommendations, a feedback exercise using Mentimeter, and breakout groups to discuss needed changes to the current agreement. The steering committee finalized their recommendations for the Executive Council in June and released their recommendations for public feedback from July 1 - August 30. All of the recommendations were compiled and released publicly.
What Did the Coalition Recommend?
The Coalition gathered 131 nonprofit organizations to sign its series of recommendations:
At the December meeting, the Executive Council signs a recommitment to all 31 outcomes in the 2014 Chesapeake Watershed Agreement.
The signatories sign a directive to the Principals’ Staff Committee to:
Lead a revision of the current 31 outcomes and identify suggested changes to bring to the Executive Council at their 2025 meeting. This will:
Start with a public engagement period on the 31 outcomes and create an iterative process for continued feedback.
Be evaluated through the lens of the emerging challenges (climate change conditions, increasing population growth), and diversity, equity, inclusion, and justice considerations, as requested by the Executive Council in their 2022 directive.
Be done through an inclusive process that utilizes the most publicly accessible aspects of the Chesapeake Bay Program.
Result in the sunset of the Beyond 2025 Steering Committee.
By December 2026, facilitate a process to streamline decision-making, eliminate duplicative systems, and ensure the Program is built to advance our ultimate goal of thriving living resources, healthy communities, and clean water.
Elevate the emphasis on living resources and healthy communities by revising the structure and governance of the Program to make it more inclusive, efficient, and effective.
The new structure and governance should allow for and inform a revised strategy for stakeholder and public engagement within the partnership.
As directed in Executive Order 13508, regularly convene the Federal Leadership Committee (FLC) to ensure all federal agencies are engaged and to recalibrate the focus of the Program beyond water quality.
By the 2026 Executive Council Meeting, assess the current TMDL Accountability Framework of the Chesapeake Bay Program and identify opportunities for additions and improvements to ensure the signatories are meeting their clean water commitments. Create an implementation structure that tracks progress and provides mutual accountability toward all the goals and outcomes in the 2014 Agreement.
The TMDL Accountability Framework should include all aspects of Section 117, E.O. 13508, the TMDL, and accountability framework documents, including mandatory reporting, the selection of an Independent Evaluator, and filling the position of the Senior Advisor of the Chesapeake Bay and Anacostia River to the EPA Administrator.
Clearly define the roles of EPA Region III and that of the EPA Chesapeake Bay Program Office to ensure the Chesapeake TMDL is supplementing, rather than supplanting, the ongoing work of Region III and the states with respect to their statutory obligations.
State regulators use their own traditional authority under state and federal water quality laws to improve permitting, compliance, and local TMDL development.
The Partnership will develop an implementation structure that includes mutual accountability to ensure progress towards all the goals and outcomes in the 2014 Agreement.
The Coalition hosted a webinar on June 3 walking through the status of the Bay restoration effort and our recommendations for next steps:
