EPA bay restoration expectations

BALTIMORE (AP) - The Environmental Protection Agency says it has given Chesapeake Bay states its "rigorous expectations" of what is needed to restore the nation's largest estuary.

Officials with the federal agency announced Wednesday that the EPA sent letters this week to the six bay watershed states. The letters detail what the agency expects is needed to fulfill an executive order from President Barack Obama, who directed federal agencies earlier this year to develop a bay restoration strategy. The EPA is expected to release a draft strategy on Monday.

The EPA says states must identify gaps in current programs by next December.

The EPA said it expects controls to be in place by 2017 that will meet about 60 percent of pollution reduction goals, and to meet the goal by 2025.