News Release
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Date:	Thursday, June 4, 1998
Contact:	Tom Brannan, Assistant City Manager,(703) 838-4300; Warren Bell, City Engineer,(703) 838-4328

Alexandria to Dedicate Chesapeake Bay Educational Plaque in Ceremonies June 16 at Oronoco Bay Park

Alexandria officials led by Mayor Kerry J. Donley will dedicate a Chesapeake Bay Educational Plaque at 7:45 a.m. on Tuesday, June 16, at Oronoco Bay Park, located along the waterfront between Pendleton and Madison Streets. The Chesapeake Bay Local Government Advisory Committee recently awarded the plaque to the City of Alexandria in recognition of the City's “Targets of Opportunity” stormwater management strategy for protecting and restoring the Chesapeake Bay.

The June 16 dedication ceremony has been scheduled as part of the Alexandria Waterfront Committee's annual waterfront walk. The Alexandria waterfront stretches for nearly five miles, from Four Mile Run on the north, near National Airport, to Jones Point Park.

The Chesapeake Bay Local Government Advisory Committee represents and advises over 1,650 localities within the three States and the District of Columbia that participate in the Chesapeake Bay Program. Virginia signed the 1987 compact to clean up the Bay, along with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Maryland, Pennsylvania, and the District of Columbia. That agreement launched the Chesapeake Bay Program. In 1997, the Virginia General Assembly set a goal of reducing the state's share of total nitrogen and phosphorus pollution reaching the Bay by 40 percent by 2003.

Alexandria is one of only eight Chesapeake Bay area communities whose local clean up efforts are being recognized this year by the Chesapeake Bay Local Government Advisory Committee. Alexandria's “Targets of Opportunity” stormwater management strategy has resulted in the retrofitting of stormwater sewers that serve approximately 1,000 acres within the City, said City Engineer Warren Bell. The strategy is designed to reduce pollutants, including the nutrients nitrogen and phosphorus, that are carried by stormwater runoff into streams and eventually into the Potomac River and the Bay.

“City staff have worked with developers of new commercial and residential projects to modify existing stormwater facilities. These retrofitted facilities, paid for primarily by developers, are able to capture pollutants which can be removed and safely disposed of by maintenance workers,” said Mr. Bell. “We estimate that the five retrofitted stormwater facilities we have designed and built are able to remove from our streams and the Bay nearly 15,000 pounds of nutrients annually,” he added.