The Chesapeake Clean Water Blueprint outlines the maximum amount
of nitrogen, phosphorus, and sediment each state in the
Chesapeake Bay watershed can release into the Bay and still get
our estuary off the "dirty waters" list. Find out more about
what's being done. >> Too Much Nitrogen and Phosphorus Are Bad
for the Bay Nutrients—primarily nitrogen and phosphorus—are
essential for the growth of all living organisms in the
Chesapeake Bay. However, excessive nitrogen and phosphorus
degrade the Bay's water quality. At its healthiest in the early
1600s, the Chesapeake watershed was mainly comprised of forested
buffers, wetlands, and resources lands (meadows and some
farmland) that absorbed and filtered nutrients. Haphazard
development has stripped the watershed of these buffers, and
today pollution flows undiluted into waterways. As land use
patterns change and the watershed's population grows, the amount
of nitrogen, phosphorus, and sediment entering the Bay's waters
increases tremendously. Each year, roughly 300