U.S. EPA last week laid out a Chesapeake Bay restoration plan that takes into account individual agreements made with the states surrounding the bay.

The plan sets goals of reducing the flow of nitrogen, phosphorus and sediment into the bay by 20 to 25 percent by 2025. This "pollution diet" affects a 64,000-square-mile area that includes Delaware, Maryland, New York, Pennsylvania, Virginia, West Virginia and Washington, D.C.

EPA Region 3 Administrator Shawn Garvin called the plan "historical" and "the largest water pollution strategy plan in the nation." The reductions in the bay's nutrient pollution, which can cause dead zones where fish cannot survive due to lack of oxygen, will come from curbing agricultural and suburban fertilizer runoff, improving wastewater plants and stormwater systems and heightening control of animal feeding operations.

"Bay restoration is within reach," Maryland Gov. Martin O'Malley (D) said in a statement. "This plan provides the road map to get us there."

EPA is still working with New York, Pennsylvania and West Virginia on their individual plans (AP/Wall Street Journal, Dec. 29). -- AP