Second phase of Chesapeake Bay restoration plan begins

May 12, 2011

MARTINSBURG - The second phase of West Virginia's Chesapeake Bay cleanup program got started this week with several working groups meeting in Martinsburg to begin implementing the plan on a local level.

"Phase I was on the state and federal level," explained Troy Truax, vice president of the Delta Development Group, a consultant firm working on Phase II of the state plan. "Phase II is focused at the local level. Phase I developed strategies as action steps to reduce (pollution)."

Phase II is the action steps to implement those strategies.

West Virginia was charged last year by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, under authority of an executive order, with developing ways to reduce nutrient, that is nitrogen and phosphorus, and sediment pollution getting into the bay via the Potomac River, which is one of the bay's major tributaries.

The greater, eight-county Eastern Panhandle is in the Potomac River watershed.

EPA's so-called pollution diet set new, strict limits on nutrient and sediment pollution for each of the six states in the Chesapeake Bay watershed, including West Virginia, and the District of Columbia.

The West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection and other state agencies, with the help of a couple outside agencies, submitted the first phase of a watershed implementation plan, or WIP, to the EPA last year that outlines the state's strategies to get nutrient and sediment pollution down to the EPA's limits.

WVDEP received a $30,000 EPA grant to undertake Phase II. The grant has been matched by Region 9 Planning and Development Council with $10,000 in cash and $20,000 in administrative services.

Four working groups will meet over the next three or four months to put together the second phase of the WIP, Truax explained Wednesday.

Delta Development Group, of Mechanicsburg, Pa., was retained by Region 9, which serves Berkeley, Jefferson and Morgan counties, to facilitate composing the Phase II WIP for the tri-county area.

The working groups include the agriculture group, which met on Tuesday with DEP and a representative of Tetra Tech Inc., the EPA's consultant working on Phase II WIPs; developed lands/industrial group; wastewater group; and elected officials.

Berkeley and Jefferson counties are a focal point of the Phase II WIP because of the tremendous growth and development in those counties and their close proximity to the bay.

Among other subjects, the working groups will look at plans that have been implemented in the past five years to address bay issues; plans that will be put into effect over the next two years to address bay issues; and plans that are being considered, Truax said.

The draft of the Phase II WIP is due for EPA review on Dec. 1, and the final Phase II WIP is due on March 30 next year, he said.

A Chesapeake Bay summit, bringing all the working groups together for a full day of discussions, is tentatively set for Aug. 31, he said.

- Staff writer John McVey can be reached at 304-263-3381, ext. 128, or jmcvey@journal-news.net