US' largest bay 'falling short of water quality targets'

Chesapeake Bay, the US' largest inlet, is only 38 per cent of the way towards meeting its pollution, air quality and water quality improvement targets, it has been revealed.

The most recent assessment conducted by the Bay Program Partnership revealed the statistics, which are measured on a 100-point scale.

According to the summary, "despite small successes in certain parts of the ecosystem and specific geographic areas, the overall health of the Chesapeake Bay did not improve in 2008".

It added that the bay continues to have "poor water quality, degraded habitats and low populations of many species of fish and shellfish".

A new deadline for further cleaning will be set in May when the area's main body, the Chesapeake Executive Council, is next due to meet.

In January, the Chesapeake Bay Foundation filed a lawsuit against the Environmental Protection Agency as it accused the body of a lack of action over cleaning up the bay.