1. Achievement of Chesapeake Bay Water Quality Standards
A New ChesapeakeBay.net

2. “Achievement of Chesapeake Bay Water Quality Standards” is a new indicator available ChesapeakeBay.net
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This indicator measures progress towards the achievement of water quality standards for dissolved oxygen, water clarity/underwater bay grasses and chlorophyll a for each 3-year assessment period beginning in 1985.  The indicator is fully consistent with how Delaware, the District of Columbia, Maryland, and Virginia currently list their portion of the Bay’s tidal waters, and provides a means for illustrating improvements through time. Additionally, this indicator is being used to measure progress toward the Chesapeake Bay Executive Order Strategy’s water quality outcome
If you don’t know the url, how do you find this new ChesapeakeBay.net?
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3. This is the ChesapeakeBay.net homepage.
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There are two ways to access the CBP indicators from the homepage:
via “Track the Progress” and
via “How is the Bay Doing”
Let’s get there via the “Track the Progress” link.
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4. This new indicator just happens to show up at the top of the “laundry list” of indicators due to its spelling.
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What if we had used the “How is the Bay Doing” link from the homepage?
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5. If we had used the “How is the Bay Doing” link from the homepage we would have come to this page
(click once to highlight “Bay Health”)
The new indicator is included in the “Bay Health” category
There are also links on the side of this page to take you to all of the categories of indicators
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Clicking on “Bay Health” in either the body text or on the side will take you to the page where the new indicator is featured.
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6. The new indicator is featured near the bottom of this page in the “Water Quality” section.
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Clicking here will take you to the indicator page.
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7. As with most indicator pages, you will see a statement of status above a chart
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and be able to access the indicator data and its analysis and methods documentation
(click once to highlight the links)
You can also read about its importance and trends
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and also access related videos.
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If you scroll down on the page….
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8. If you scroll down on the page you will find “Additional Information”, a contact, the source of the data and links to related indicators.
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Let’s look at each of the “Related Indicators”
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9. This is the Dissolved Oxygen indicator page and since it already tracks attainment of water quality standards, it can remain “as is” for now.
It reports volume of all tidal waters in attainment of the dissolved oxygen water quality standards during summer months.
CBPO plans to continue to update this indicator.
In the future we can provide links from this page to additional dissolved oxygen indicators that separately track attainment of each designated use where DO criteria are applicable (Migratory Spawning and Nursery; Open Water; Deep Water; Deep Channel)
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10. This is the underwater bay grass abundance indicator page and it will remain “as is” since the indicator data are used to help determine attainment of water quality standards in the “Shallow Water/Underwater Bay Grasses” designated use.
VIMS and CBPO plan to continue to update this indicator.
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11. This is the current water clarity indicator page
This is the current water clarity indicator page. It current reports mid-channel water clarity data.
Since it does not track attainment of bay water quality standards it will be revised to report attainment of water quality standards in the “Shallow Water/Underwater Bay Grasses” designated use (based on underwater bay grass data and shallow water clarity data).
CBPO is no longer updating this indicator, however, UMCES is planning to continue updating this indicator as part of the “Bay Report Card”.
When this indicator page is revised it will include a link to direct people to the mid-channel water clarity data available at the “Bay Report Card” site.
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12. This is the current Chlorophyll a indicator page
This is the current Chlorophyll a indicator page. It current reports chlorophyll a data in all tidal waters but not in relation to bay water quality standards .
It will be revised to report attainment of chlorophyll a water quality standards in the few bay segments where these standards are applicable.
CBPO is no longer updating this indicator, however, UMCES is planning to continue updating this indicator as part of the “Bay Report Card”.
When this indicator page is revised it will include a link to direct people to the chlorophyll a data available at the “Bay Report Card” site.
So, what can we expect when the current clarity and chlorophyll a indicator pages are revised?
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13. This is a snapshot of the data used in the new “Achievement of Chesapeake Bay Water Quality Standards” indicator.
Data like this will available for each reporting period beginning with through the most current three-year period.
We will be able to use the values from row 117 to plot in individual charts the attainment of WQS for all of the designated uses.
Click to highlight row 117
In the case of the revised clarity indicator, we will plot the values in G117 from each reporting period.
In the case of the revised chlorophyll a indicator, we will plot the values in H117 from each reporting period.