The Race to Protect the Chesapeake Bay

The decline in water quality and living resources of the Chesapeake Bay has led to several federal- and state-level initiatives to reverse these trends. These efforts have included programs to respore the Bay's biological resources, reduce point and nonpoint source nutrient loadings, and control sediment. Virginia's 1988 Chesapeake Bay Preservation Program and Maryland's 1985 Chesapeake Bay Critical Area Program were designed to reduce the adverse impacts of shoreline development on water quality and the environmentally sensitive areas along the Bay. Faced with similar environmental protection tasks, how do these two states' legislative efforts to protect this sensitive region compare, when placed side by side?