The Chesapeake Bay Watershed! What is a watershed? An area that has many small waterways that drain into one larger waterway Think of it as a basin--all the water in the Chesapeake Bay watershed eventually drains into the Bay.

How many states are in the Chesapeake Bay Watershed? Six: Maryland Pennsylvania Delaware Virginia West Virginia New York (and DC)

Facts about the Bay The Bay is about 200 miles long. It is fed primarily by the Susquehanna River which starts in New York and winds through Pennsylvania On average, the Bay is about 21 feet deep--but most places are much shallower! There are only a few deep passageways for ships to get through. The narrowest part of the Bay, near Aberdeen, Maryland, is about 3.5 miles. The widest point - from Smith Point, Va., to Virginia's Eastern Shore - is 30 miles. The Bay bridge is ~5 miles long. The Chesapeake Bay drains about 64,000 square miles of land! The Bay has about 17 million people living around it. It is the largest estuary in the United States!

What is an Estuary? A body of water open at one end to the ocean. It is a place where freshwater (from streams and rivers) mixes with salt water from ocean to form brackish water (salt and freshwater mix)

What is the biggest problem today with the Chesapeake Bay? Nutrients - including Nitrogen (N) and Phosphorous (P) Both occur naturally in the soil, air, and water and are important for plant growth, BUT too much is harmful = nutrient pollution

Nutrient Pollution = too much of a good thing! Extra nutrients cause growth of phytoplankton, creating big blooms. Blooms become so thick that they block sunlight to bay grasses. Grasses cannot photosynthesize and produce the food they need to survive. Photosynthesis also creates oxygen. The loss of sunlight can kill the grasses. Algae grow on the surface of grasses. Algae will sink and be decomposed by bacteria (this uses lots of oxygen). Like humans, aquatic species need oxygen. When oxygen in deep water is depleted, fish and other species will die unless they move to other areas.

Sedimentation http://www.chesapeakebay.net/sediments.aspx?menuitem=15221

Sedimentation Water poured from the Susquehanna River into Chesapeake Bay at a near-record rate on September 9, 2011, after the remnants of Tropical Storm Lee doused the watershed with heavy rain. The ensuing floods swept up debris, garbage, sewage, farm runoff, and mud and carried all of it down rivers and streams into Chesapeake Bay. Since records began in 1967, only two other events have carried more fresh water into the Bay: Tropical Storm Agnes in 1972 and a snowmelt event in 1996. http://www.chesapeakebay.net/sediments.aspx?menuitem=15221 The Chesapeake Bay before Tropical Storm Lee The Chesapeake Bay after Tropical Storm Lee