Chesapeake Bay.
Chesapeake Bay. Credit: Forsaken Fotos/Flickr

In the 23 years since amendments to the Clean Air Act imposed regulations on emissions of nitrogen oxide from power plants, nitrogen deposits in nine Chesapeake Bay area watersheds have declined 34 percent, according to a new study from the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science, published last month in Environmental Science and Technology. The study’s lead author, Dr. Keith N. Eshleman, tells the Baltimore Sun that the reduced air pollution’s effect on the water was a surprise to the researchers. “Here the Clean Air Act has caused something to happen that’s wonderful and good news and completely unanticipated,” he says.

American Forests has been working toward the health of the Chesapeake Bay area through our Global ReLeaf program — establishing forested buffers along the banks of the James River and working with Delmarva Poultry to create buffer zones that would protect the Bay from the poultry industry’s pollution — so this is good news indeed. Here’s to continuing improved health for this important watershed.