Water Quality

The Chesapeake Bay is our nation's largest and most productive estuary. Its 64,000 square mile watershed encompasses thousands of miles of streams and acres of surface water. However, the Bay's vast economic, recreational and habitat value is threatened daily by storm water runoff from urban areas, excessive fertilizer from farms, discharges from public sewer systems, as well as pollution from the air. It is a daily challenge for the region's 15 million residents to reduce their impact on the Bay and its tributaries.

The Environmental Finance Center (EFC) works with local, state, and regional governments, homeowners associations, business and trade groups, land trusts and others, to help stop pollutants from entering the Bay and its tributaries, and to improve water quality.

The EFC Water Quality areas of focus include these below:

• Watershed Financing
• Sewerage and Wastewater Treatment
• Source Water Protection
• Storm Water Management