One Step Closer to a Healthier Chesapeake Bay
West Virginia Rivers Coalition, on behalf of our supporters and 18 members of the Choose Clean Water Coalition, have submitted comments on West Virginia’s draft Phase 3 Watershed Implementation Plan.
Each state within the Chesapeake Bay Watershed has their own watershed implementation plan, and if fully implemented across all states, the bay will be healthier by 2025.
Our state’s plan is what guides watershed restoration activities in West Virginia’s portion of the Chesapeake Bay Watershed, which includes all eight counties of the eastern panhandle.
Specific highlights of the plan include:
- Land conservation is featured as a strategy to reduce nutrients and sediment. WV Rivers supports this strategy, as land conservation is also one of our priority strategies in our Safe Water for West Virginia program for protecting drinking water through watershed protection.
- Climate change is directly addressed in the plan. We are already seeing the impact of climate change in West Virginia with heavier storm events creating devastating flooding events that sweep more pollution into our streams and rivers. West Virginia’s plan addresses the issue of climate change directly by planning for more pollution reduction practices than required to offset the impacts of increased pollution from flooding.
- The public was engaged throughout the planning process. WV Rivers Coalition is committed to empowering communities to protect our streams and rivers and giving a voice to all West Virginians when it comes to clean, safe water. Community engagement throughout the planning process was the driving force behind creating this attainable plan that focuses on local priorities to achieve regional successes for clean water.
Want to learn more or get involved? Contact our Eastern Panhandle Field Coordinator, Tanner Haid, at thaid@wvrivers.org. Make sure you are signed up for WV Rivers e-news, we’ll share the latest water policy updates and meaningful actions you can take for water. Sign-up here.
