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chapter \/ii 
Shallow-water Monitoring and 
Application for Criteria 
Assessment 
DESIGN AND APPROACH FOR CHESAPEAKE BAY 
SHALLOW-WATER MONITORING 
In July 2001, the Chesapeake Bay Program Monitoring and Analysis Subcom¬ 
mittee’s Tidal Monitoring and Analysis Workgroup formed a Tidal Monitoring 
Design Team that undertook the redesigning of the Chesapeake Bay Tidal Moni¬ 
toring Network. Over the next two years, the Design Team set goals and objectives, 
reviewed the existing Chesapeake Bay monitoring design, evaluated potential new 
monitoring strategies, and made recommendations for implementing a network to 
provide the requisite data and support to address the Chesapeake Bay Program's 
programmatic goals and objectives. 
The new Tidal Monitoring Network focused on meeting the water quality protection 
and restoration goals and objectives of the Chesapeake 2000 agreement (Chesapeake 
Executive Council 2000). The network’s primary objective is to supply the water 
quality monitoring information needed to assess the new water quality criteria for 
dissolved oxygen, water clarity, and chlorophyll a — ultimately with the goal of 
removing the Chesapeake Bay and its tidal rivers from the list of impaired waters. 
Secondary network objectives are to provide information for defining the nutrient 
and sediment conditions necessary for protecting living resources and vital habitats. 
Water quality data would also support refinement, calibration, and validation of the 
Chesapeake Bay Water Quality/Sediment Transport Model. 
The design of the new Tidal Monitoring Network emphasized monitoring of the 
shallow-water designated use areas. In a 1999 study, the Maryland Department of 
Natural Resources investigated the validity of using mid-channel data to assess 
nearshore areas. The 13-tributary study examined water quality at 127 nearshore 
stations and compared the data to 54 adjacent mid-channel stations (Karrh 1999; 
Batiuk et al. 2000). The study found wide variations between nearshore and mid¬ 
channel data, both within and between tributaries. Based on this finding, the 
researchers concluded that decisions to use mid-channel data to characterize 
nearshore conditions should be made on a site-by-site basis. Figure VII-1 illustrates 
chapter vii 
Shallow water Monitoring and Application for Criteria Assessment 
