The Chesapeake Bay Program (CBP) is a multi-agency effort that was established to help restore the water quality and ecological integrity of the Bay. The CBP was established in 1983 through an agreement between the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA), the District of Columbia, and the States of Pennsylvania, Maryland, and Virginia. Other Federal Agencies such as the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) support the CBP by collecting, compiling, and interpreting water-quality and related data. In the 1987 Chesapeake Bay agreement, the CBP established a goal to improve dissolved oxygen in the Bay by reducing 1985 controllable nutrient loads by 40 percent by the year 2000. As part of the effort to reach that goal, the CBP has been conducting studies to define the sources of nutrient loading, the processes that affect delivery of nutrients to the Bay, and appropriate management actions to limit nutrient loading