Maryland officials and environmental groups have said EPA is in the wrong if officials maintain they cannot enforce the 2010 agreement of the bay watershed jurisdictions. Each agreed to reduce pollution flowing into the bay, and EPA agreed to step in if the jurisdictions don’t meet those targets. A federal appeals court ruled in 2015 that the EPA was acting within the bounds of the federal Clean Water Act by imposing what is known as the TMDL — a reference to the “total maximum daily load” of pollutants the estuary can withstand.