Since the signing of the Chesapeake 2000 agreement, Delaware, New York and West Virginia have joined the Bay Program partnership to improve the quality of the waters flowing into the Bay. As headwaters partners, each of those states will work with the Bay Program to reduce the amount of nutrients and sediments flowing into rivers from their jurisdictions.

As the largest estuary in the United States and one of the most productive in the world, the Chesapeake Bay was this nation's first estuary targeted for restoration and protection. In the late 1970s, scientific and estuarine research on the Bay pinpointed three areas requiring immediate attention: nutrient over-enrichment, dwindling underwater Bay grasses and toxic pollution. Once the initial research was completed, the Bay Program evolved as the means to restore this exceptionally valuable resource.