By the mid-1970s, the condition of the Chesapeake Bay was becoming a source of growing concern. From 1976 to 1983, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency conducted a $27 million research study to evaluate the Bay’s ecosystem. The study showed that the estuary required immediate action to save it and restore its health.

 

On December 9, 1983, Governor Charles S. Robb signed the first Chesapeake Bay Agreement, joining Maryland, Pennsylvania, the District of Columbia and EPA. These jurisdictions pledged action to reverse the Bay’s deterioration. Those actions included the upgrading of sewage treatment plants, the control of urban runoff, the control of manure and fertilizer runoff, the reduction of soil erosion, stricter discharge permit guidelines, and a ban on the use of phosphate detergents.

 

The Bay agreement was updated in December 1987, when the signatories renewed their commitment to improving the Bay by focusing on living resources, water quality, population growth and development, public information and education, and public access. Under the direction of Governor Gerald L. Baliles, the State Water Control Board and the Council on the Environment significantly expanded their study and planning for Bay improvements.

 

One of the first specific actions for Bay improvement was Virginia’s phosphate detergent ban that took effect in 1988. Alan E. Pollock, a DEQ water quality program manager, detailed some of the effort that went into achieving the ban.

 

“We met with all those big wigs from companies like Procter and Gamble, who of course were against it, but this was happening state by state across the country. I remember being the ‘gofer,’ checking out all the new information about what it would do if you had to use non-phosphate detergents. It was just amazing how the corporations would come in and have all these studies, trying to show it would increase the dullness of shirts by 8 percent or something. It was kind of humorous to see those poor guys trying to make their case. … Obviously they didn’t make a good argument, because eventually all states banned the product and it was no big deal.”