By RUSTY DENNEN

The Environmental Protection Agency yesterday announced a mandatory "pollution diet" for the Chesapeake Bay, which requires sweeping new action by states that contribute to the problem.

That comes on the heels of a meeting Thursday of Virginia environmental groups, who say the state watershed plan to implement the cleanup goals falls far short.

The EPA's draft Total Maximum Daily Load, or TMDL, for the bay calls for a 25 percent cut in nitrogen and phosphorus, and at least a 16 percent reduction in sediment to restore the bay and its tributaries.

Nitrogen and phosphorus are nutrients that contribute to vast oxygen-starved "dead zones" that can't support aquatic life. Sediment is a serious problem in the Rappahannock River and other bay tributaries because it clouds water, affecting growth of underwater grasses.

The TMDL would ensure pollution controls to restore the estuary are in place by 2025, with 60 percent of the actions completed by 2017. A final version is due by December.

It includes accountability measures to ensure the states' cleanup commitments are met. The process dates back to the 1990s, but was accelerated by President Obama's executive order in May to restore and protect the bay.

In a conference call with reporters Thursday, representatives of five environmental groups said Virginia's Watershed Implementation Plan lacks detail, including how the cleanup will be funded.

John Tippett, executive director of Friends of the Rappahannock, said the plan announced by Gov. Bob McDonnell earlier this month, could be compared to the Wendy's "Where's the Beef?" ad campaign of the 1980s.

"Where's the jobs?" Tippett asked. "This is not helping us revive the seafood industry," which he said has shed 12,500 watermen's jobs since 1993.

"And this is not getting us an economy driven by healthy waters. This is a laundry list of existing programs, not an action plan that faces up to hard choices."

He added, "Whenever I go down to the lower Rappahannock, there's another boarded up oyster-shucking house."

The watershed plan allocates pollution loads for harmful substances, such as nitrogen and phosphorus, and ways to achieve them. It is a continuation of the state's tributary strategies plan, begun in 2005.