Cy Jones

Senior Fellow

Bio

Cy Jones leads the Water Quality Trading Initiative for the Chesapeake Bay watershed. The goal of this initiative is to advance market-based efforts to reduce nutrient pollution impacting the Chesapeake Bay watershed and to promote the development of a framework for interstate nutrient trading.

Prior to joining WRI, Cy had a 24 year career with the Washington Suburban Sanitary Commission in Laurel, Maryland, where he managed the regional and regulatory affairs of the water and sewer agency. He spent the intervening two years since retiring from WSSC as a Senior Technologist with the engineering firm of CH2M HILL, where he worked on developing nutrient trading programs in Virginia, Maryland, and North Carolina.

Cy has a BA in Zoology and a MS in Environmental Engineering from the University of Iowa.

Blog Posts

INSIDER: Stormwater Trading Can Help the Chesapeake Bay Meet Vital Pollution Targets
by Cy Jones - March 14, 2017
Restoration of the Chesapeake Bay will require reducing pollution from all sources, including urban stormwater runoff, which is one of the most difficult and expensive kinds of pollution to control. While stormwater contributes only 16-17 percent of the bay’s nutrient...
Tools to Improve Water Quality
by Cy Jones - August 29, 2012
This post is part of a series on World Water Week, an annual event designed to draw attention to and discuss global water issues. Read more posts in this series.

Agricultural production often comes at the expense of water quality. As my colleague, Mindy Selman, noted in a recent blog post, “Agriculture is the leading source of nutrient pollution in waterways—a situation that’s expected to worsen as the global population increases and the demand for food grows.”

But food security shouldn’t come at the expense of water quality—and in fact, it doesn’t have to. This is a topic I’m discussing at a World Water Week side event, “Securing Water Quality While Providing Food Security: The Nutrient Question.” Through the use of effective tools and strategies, we have the power to uphold water quality while still feeding a population that’s expected to reach 9 billion by 2050.
Eco-Compensation in China: Opportunities for Payments for Watershed Services
by Erin Gray and Cy Jones - May 15, 2012
Water supply and availability could be the most pressing problem restricting China’s economic growth in the next 10-15 years, according to a new report by the Asian Development Bank. Not only are water resources limited (only about 30 percent of total water resources are available for use), but many surface and groundwater sources are suffering from severe pollution.[^1] The Chinese government is now looking to invest in new ideas to improve water quality and supply, and WRI is using its water quality trading expertise to explore the potential of market-based methods to improve water quality and increase the supply of clean water from Chao Lake, the fifth-largest lake in China.
China Needs Comprehensive and Cost-effective Strategies to Address Water Pollution
by Cy Jones and Lijin Zhong - June 01, 2011
This post originally appeared on The Asia Water Project website, and is reposted with permission.
Fact Sheet: How Nutrient Trading Can Help Restore the Chesapeake Bay
by Cy Jones - December 14, 2009
A new Fact Sheet on nutrient trading in the Chesapeake Bay region covers issues such as potential costs and revenues, and how farmers and other stakeholders can benefit.
New Hope for the Chesapeake Bay, Maybe
by Cy Jones - May 15, 2009
Presidential intervention has raised the stakes in a decades-long effort to clean up Chesapeake Bay.