With the November 2009 release of the draft strategy, federal agencies initiated a public comment period and stated that it would provide a response to comments document when the final Strategy for Protecting and Restoring the Chesapeake Bay Watershed was released. The request for written comments was part of a larger effort to consult with members of the public regarding the federal government’s response to the Executive Order. Federal agencies also conducted a series of stakeholder meetings throughout the Chesapeake Bay watershed and consulted extensively with the Chesapeake Bay states. 

During the formal public comment period, federal agencies received approximately 300 comments.  Of that total, about 100 were slight variations of a mass comment campaign.  A group of environmental organizations also submitted a list of approximately 50,000 signatures supporting the following statement: “After 25 years it is clear that much more needs to be done to heal the Chesapeake Bay.  The Environmental Protection Agency should immediately issue more stringent, enforceable limits for the bay's biggest polluters: urban development and factory farms.  For states or polluters who fail to clean up their waterways, the EPA should enforce strict penalties such as withholding federal dollars or new permits. States and the EPA should restore the bay in the fastest possible timeline. We've already waited over two decades for a healthy bay.”  

Comments were received from federal agencies, states, local governments, land conservation organizations, row-crop and animal agriculture interests, environmental organizations, wastewater industry representatives, Chesapeake Bay Program advisory committees, and other stakeholders.  These comments can be viewed by visiting the electronic docket (docket number EPA-HQ-OW-2009-0761) at http://www.regulations.gov or EPA’s Docket Center in Washington, DC. 

The federal agencies considered the public comments and incorporated them into the final strategy document, Strategy for Protecting and Restoring the Chesapeake Bay Watershed, as appropriate. Rather than respond to every individual comment, federal agencies opted to group comments into areas of particular significance and to respond to such comments as a group.  These groups of comments were identified for each of the strategy’s goals and supporting strategies.

Download the full response to public comment  

Chesapeake EO Strategy Public Comment Response.pdf (337.91 kb)