The Chesapeake Bay got a C in the latest annual Chesapeake Bay and Watershed Report Card released Tuesday by the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science (UMCES) – the same score it received in the 2021 report.

While the overall health rating of the bay improved by six percent from 2021 to 2022, most tributaries scored poorly and there was a “concerning trend of poor scores” in the Eastern Shore watersheds. In the D.C. region, the Potomac River dropped from a C- on the last report to a D+ for 2022.

The report card also showed vast disparities across the Chesapeake Bay watershed in environmental justice indicators, based on a new index by the CDC.

The integrated environmental justice index is designed to “map and characterize the cumulative impacts and patterns of environmental injustice” across the watershed. It includes “social vulnerability” determined by factors like income and race, “environmental burdens” such as air and water pollution, and “health vulnerability” based on the prevalence of pre-existing chronic diseases. Urban and rural areas tended to be more negatively affected than suburban areas.

Bill Dennison, vice president for science application at UMCES, said including the index offers a “more holistic perspective” of the bay than in previous years.

“This holistic approach will make sure the report card is relevant to all communities in the Chesapeake watershed,” Dennison said. “We need to have healthy communities to ensure that we achieve a healthy Chesapeake Bay. Addressing environmental justice is critical to ensure that restoration enhances long-term sustainability of the Chesapeake Bay watershed in an equitable way.”

There were also significant disparities in economic conditions across the counties that make up the watershed. Economic conditions tended to be worse on the eastern shore of Maryland and Virginia, as well as in the upper part of the watershed in Pennsylvania and New York. Conditions tended to be better on the bay’s western shore. The overall score was 51% (a C).

The overall health score of the bay is influenced by several indicators: water clarity; levels of nitrogen, dissolved oxygen, and phosphorus; and the presence of microalgae and submerged aquatic grasses. Of those indicators, the bay showed improvements in water clarity, nitrogen, phosphorus, and aquatic grasses. Those improvements are from year to year and are separate from long-term trends. For example, while the water clarity showed “strong improvement” from 12% to 20% from 2021 to 2022, long-term trends show an overall decline.

Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md) said at a Tuesday press conference that the report card indicates a “positive step forward” but that there is much more work ahead.

Another report card put out by a different group in January gave the watershed a lower overall score but agreed that the health of the bay had plateaued in recent years. The Chesapeake Bay Foundation’s D+ rating for 2022 was the same as the group’s previous report for 2020.

“The health of the Chesapeake Bay is directly tied to the health of the entire regional economy,” Van Hollen said. “We have to do our job to make sure we continue to clean up the bay.