By the authority vested in me as President by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America, and in furtherance of the purposes of the Clean Water Act of 1972, as amended (33 U. S. C. 1251 et seq . ), it is hereby ordered: Section 1 . Purpose and Policy . The Chesapeake Bay is the largest estuary in the United States and serves a critically important economic purpose to the communities it directly and indirectly touches.
In managing the Chesapeake Bay, as with other resources, governmental actors should prioritize environmental protection and economic objectives. Executive Order 13508 of May 12, 2009 (Chesapeake Bay Protection and Restoration), which has been in effect for 17 years, instituted a broad mandate for States and municipalities to contribute to improving the environmental health of the Chesapeake Bay, without providing clarity on how to implement that order’s requirements. In some instances, this lack of clarity has led to harmful economic impacts on affected Americans.
For example, many localities have implemented stormwater management fees, commonly referred to as “rain taxes,” that impose hundreds of dollars in annual financial burdens on residents and small businesses in the name of implementing Executive Order 13508, though nothing in that order required or explicitly justified such measures, with little to no measurable benefits to Chesapeake Bay or to those residents. States use these rain taxes to pay for their stormwater infrastructure, whether or not it contributes to the environmental health of the Chesapeake Bay.
Since Executive Order 13508 was signed, a number of other Federal, State, and local government initiatives and programs have resulted in significant improvements in water quality in the Chesapeake Bay. As of 2025, the jurisdictions of the Chesapeake Bay watershed — New York, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Virginia, the District of Columbia, Delaware, and West Virginia…