Better fall-line monitoring will enable more precise estimates of watershed nutrient loadings. Enhanced monitoring, begun in 1994, will help characterize tidal tributary water quality, particularly shallow flanks of the rivers where much habitat and living resources are. Likewise, a program to characterize major point source dischargers below the fall-line in the James, Rappahannock and York rivers is underway. This will enable development of the most accurate nutrient loadings within each tributary. In effect, bay tributaries store large amounts of nutrients and sediments that flow downstream during rainy seasons.
Sediments actually release nutrients under certain conditions.
Because tributaries store and release nutrients, a comprehensive, one-year study of this exchange began this year. Results will be applied to the model to simulate the complex physical interactions at the water-sediment interface. While officials are concentrating on the tributaries, nutrient management in small coastal basins will also improve water quality and living resources of the bay. Work is underway to better manage these minor coastal basins near the bays main-stem and major tributaries. Unfortunately, resolution of the models isnt fine enough to adequately capture processes within such small coastal basins.