People are seen fishing on the Susquehanna River near the Market Street Bridge in Wilkes-Barre in this file photo. The Chesapeake Bay Program announced on Monday that levels of nitrogen and sediment pollution entering into the Chesapeake Bay have continued to decrease, while phosphorous pollution has seen a slight increase from the previous assessment period. The Susquehanna drains into the bay.
Times Leader file photo
The Chesapeake Bay Program announced on Monday that levels of nitrogen and sediment pollution entering into the Chesapeake Bay have continued to decrease, while phosphorous pollution has seen a slight increase from the previous assessment period.
Watershed jurisdictions from six states — Delaware, Maryland, New York, Pennsylvania, Virginia, West Virginia — and the District of Columbia reported practices that have been implemented by municipalities to cut down on the amount of pollution flowing into the bay.
Thirty-two Luzerne County municipalities represented under the Wyoming Valley Sanitary Authority (WVSA) banner have entered into an agreement with the Chesapeake Bay Program that requires them to reduce nitrogen, phosphorous and sediment pollution.
As a result, residents of the included municipalities have been required to pay a fee so that individual projects designed to limit pollution could be funded and requirements could be made. The fee, known as the stormwater fee or the “rain tax,” has led to angry responses from many residents since being enacted in January of 2019.
But according to the latest findings from the Bay Program’s Watershed Model, pollution controls put in place between 2009 and 2019 are estimated to have lowered overall nitrogen loads by 11%, phosphorous loads by 10% and sediment loads by 4%.
In Pennsylvania, nitrogen loads have decreased by 4%, phosphorous by 15% and sediment by 14%. Each of those totals were short of the commonwealth’s 2019 pollution reducing targets, making Pennsylvania the only state included in the study not to meet any of its three goals.
Experts are attributing the overall decreases in nitrogen and phosphorous to upgrades in wastewater treatment facilities, while sediment load decreases are likely due to the implementation of best management practices in the agricultural sector.
The aim is to have the health of the Chesapeake Bay and its rivers restored by 2025. As of this latest assessment, the practices in place are on track to achieve 39% of the total goal for nitrogen reductions, 49% of phosphorous reductions and 100% of sediment reductions.
