e sick (12). The heightened awareness of diseases that can be contracted through consumption of contaminated fish also has an economic impact. Therefore, the excess levels of nitrogen and phosphorous have fueled an overabundance of algal blooms, which has reduced water clarity and lowered oxygen levels, affecting many species within the bay and ultimately the industries that rely on these species.The signing of the 1987 Chesapeake Bay Agreement marked the first joint venture between Virginia, Maryland, Pennsylvania, the District of Columbia, the Environmental Protection Agency, and the Chesapeake Bay Commission to improve water quality by reducing point and non-point source pollution (The Chesapeake Bay Watershed 1). The goal of this program was to reduce the level of nitrogen and phosphorous flowing to the Bay by 40% by the year 2000, from their 1985 levels (Blankenship 2). The first step in this program was to reduce the amount of nutrient pollution from point sources (end-of-the-pipe) such as wastewater treatment facilities that feed into the many tributaries of the Chesapeake Bay (The Chesapeake Bay Watershed 1). However, the results of these cleanup efforts were not enough to reach the goal of the program. Therefore, the areas involved now had to target the non-point sources of nitrogen and phosphorous. The non-point sources are storm water run off from agricultural and developed sites, air pollution, and the development of sensitive forests that act as buffers for tributaries and the Bay (1). The Chesapeake Bay Preservation Act of 1989 took aim at these sources in Tidewater Virginia by requiring resource management practices in the use and development of environmentally sensitive land (1). The Chesapeake Bay Preservation Area Ordinance of 1991 also took aim at these non-point sources by designating environmentally sensitive areas in Virginia Beach as Resource Protection Areas and Resource Management Areas which are intend...
