The Department of Environmental Protection will host five public meetings on Pennsylvania’s Chesapeake Bay Tributary Strategy. The meetings will be held as follows:

· March 17 at 2 p.m. and 7 p.m. in DEP’s Northeast Regional Office, Susquehanna Room, 2 Public Square, Wilkes-Barre

· March 22 at 7 p.m. in the Lebanon County Conservation District, Penn State Extension Meeting Room, 2120 Cornwall Road, Lebanon

· March 23 at 7 p.m. in the Adams County Conservation District, Penn State Extension Meeting Room, 670 Old Harrisburg Road, Gettysburg

· March 30 at 7 p.m. in the DEP’s Northcentral Regional Office, Goddard Conference Room, 208 North Third Street, Williamsport

At the meetings, DEP staff will review the recently published Pennsylvania Chesapeake Bay Tributary Strategy, answer questions on the development of the strategy, and seek public input on strategy implementation.

The strategy identifies a suite of nonpoint source Best Management Practices and point source management approaches that would be necessary to meet new Chesapeake Bay water quality goals adopted in 2004. The strategy calls for reducing nutrient and sediment loads to Pennsylvania streams and the Chesapeake Bay from a variety of sources such as agriculture, wastewater treatment plants, urban stormwater and septic systems.

For the first time, Pennsylvania's Tributary Strategy is built upon 13 individual strategies for watersheds in the Susquehanna and Potomac basins. The strategy identifies the full range of activities needed, regardless of their cost, so planning can begin for the new initiatives that will be needed to support Tributary Strategy implementation.

Copies of Pennsylvania’s Chesapeake Bay Nutrient Reduction Strategy may be obtained by calling Denise Caudill at 717-787-5267, sending email to dcaudill@state.pa.us, or on the Pennsylvania Chesapeake Bay Program webpage.

2/25/2005