Phase II of Virginia’s Watershed Implementation Plan: Where are we now, where are we heading, and how do we get there?

Work on Virginia’s Watershed Implementation Plan (“WIP”), specifically, the required implementation of Phase II, has begun…sort of.

Phase I of the WIP, which was completed by the state and approved by EPA late last year, charts out actions deemed necessary and achievable by the Commonwealth, to achieve the Chesapeake Bay TMDL allocations between now and 2025. Phase I establishes an allocation process for the various source sectors that contribute nutrients and sediment to the Chesapeake Bay. These allocations are part of the “pollution diet” that the Bay has recently been put on by EPA and President Obama. Phase II of the process now seeks to implement these sector allocations at the local level. Virginia’s draft Phase II plan must be submitted to EPA by December 1, 2011.