Making Regional and Local TMDLs Work: The Chesapeake Bay TMDL and Lessons from the Lynnhaven River

This Article will first provide an overview of how restoration developed in the Bay in order to provide a regional context for the Lynnhaven River “total maximum daily load[s]” or TMDL. The Article will then explain the 2011 Chesapeake Bay TMDL and how it potentially foreshadows “next generation” cooperative federalism and watershed restoration because it is generating increased engagement from local government, private citizens, and non-profit restoration efforts. This Article will then tighten its focus to the Lynnhaven River, a local tributary within the Chesapeake Bay watershed, and will examine the local government’s success in implementing measures to meet a local TMDL, as well as how this success spurred a neighboring jurisdiction to support a local TMDL. Finally, the Article will conclude with a discussion of how both the Bay TMDL and the Lynnhaven River TMDL provide important lessons for regional and local watershed restoration efforts more generally.