Ecosystem Service Benefits of a Cleaner Chesapeake Bay

Information on the economic benefits of natural resource improvement is an important, yet often overlooked, consideration in environmental decision-making. In 2010, the Environmental Protection Agency established the Chesapeake Bay Total Maximum Daily Load (TMDL) that set regulatory limits for nitrogen, phosphorus, and sediment needed to restore the Chesapeake Bay. Meanwhile, the Bay jurisdictions developed implementation plans to achieve these limits. Environmental benefits of achieving the TMDL would accrue due to on-the-ground changes in land use and land management that improve the health, and therefore productivity, of land and water in the watershed. These changes occur both due to the outcomes of achieving the TMDL (i.e., cleaner water) and as a result of the measures taken to achieve those outcomes. This study quantified these changes, then translated them into dollar values for various ecosystem services, including water supply, food production, recreation, and aesthetics. We estimate the total economic benefit of implementing the TMDL at $22.5 billion per year (in 2013 dollars), as measured as the improvement over current conditions, or at $28.2 billion per year (in 2013 dollars), as measured as the difference between the TMDL and a business-as-usual scenario. These considerable benefits should be considered alongside the costs of restoring the Chesapeake Bay.