In January 2023, The Chesapeake Bay Foundation (CBF) released its 2022 State of the Bay Report. The bay was given a D+ score during the 2022 evaluation, which is the same score it received in the previous 2020 report.
The Chesapeake Bay Foundation has been evaluating the status of the Chesapeake Bay and issuing a report since 1998, with a report being released every two years since 2010. This report is a comprehensive measure of the Bay's health, which is determined by examining historic and current information for 13 indicators within three categories, including pollution, habitat, and fisheries. To determine the score of the Bay's health, CBF scientists assign each indicator a score between 1 and 100, which is then combined to yield the State of the Bay score.
On the scoring index, a score of 100 indicates the pristine condition of the Bay before Europeans entered the area in the 1600s. A score of 70 is considered the goal, indicating a Bay that is resilient to nature and human pressures, nurturing to diverse cultures, and able to contribute to our economy. The yellow line in the graphic below shows the progression of the Bay's score throughout the history of CBF. In 2022, the Bay was scored at 32, or a D+.
Graphic from Chesapeake Bay Foundation "About the State of the Bay Report."
According to CBF, there are several contributors that continue to prevent Bay health from improving, including the following: climate change, loss of wetlands, forest, and farmland due to development, and pollution from agriculture and urban/suburban development.
In Pennsylvania, there are nearly 28,000 miles of polluted streams across the state, and nearly 90% of the remaining pollution reductions in the state must come from agriculture. In order to address the issue of agricultural pollution, $154 million of the Clean Streams Fund is being dedicated to the new Agricultural Conservation Assistance Program (ACAP). This program will support family farmers in designing and implementing practices that keep soil and nutrients on the farm instead of in streams.
To view the full State of the Bay Report, see State of the Bay 2022.
For more information about how CBF generates their State of the Bay report, see About the State of the Bay Report.
CWQE Staff Agent
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