Restoration of the Chesapeake Bay will require reducing pollution from all sources, including urban stormwater runoff, which is one of the most difficult and expensive kinds of pollution to control. While stormwater contributes only 16-17 percent of the bay’s nutrient pollution—the rest comes from the air, and runoff from farms and wastewater treatment plants—dealing with it comprises 67 percent of states’ Bay pollution management costs.
A new paper by WRI and the...