EPA, Congress Tussle Over "Bay Diet" Cost

Lawmakers, EPA official feud over cost of 'pollution diet'

Members of the House Agriculture Subcommittee on Conservation, Energy and Forestry reacted sharply when EPA Regional Administrator Shawn Garvin testified during a hearing that the EPA's model for predicting pollution loads is "less effective" on a smaller scale. "I have great concerns about moving forward when the science isn't set," said Rep. Glenn Thompson, R-Pa. "I just think that there's more work to do."

Garvin said the model is effective. Reviewers recently found that, on a larger scale, the model is in "approximate agreement" with a U.S. Department of Agriculture study on nutrients and sediment washing off farmland in the Chesapeake Bay watershed, he said. "We have a great deal of confidence in the tool that is the model," he said. But that didn't satisfy some of the lawmakers at Thursday's hearing.

"You don't have a model that works," Rep. Bob Goodlatte, R-Va., told Garvin. "And yet you expect everybody to live by it."

Next month, states must submit to EPA the second phase of plans explaining how they will work with localities to get 60 percent of water-quality improvement practices in place by 2017 and 100 percent in place by 2025.

Lawmakers complained about EPA moving ahead with the plans before conducting a cost-benefit analysis.

Shockingly, the further people live from the Bay, the less they feel inclined to spend money to fix it:

EDITORIAL: Bay cleanup plan simply too costly 

A clean and healthy Chesapeake Bay would be a wonderful thing. It would increase tourism, help the seafood industry and generally make life more enjoyable for the millions of people who live near its shores. In short, it's vital to Marylanders.

But so are groceries. And mortgage payments. And health insurance.  And even the occasional movie, bottle of wine or weekend trip to the Poconos.

But if the cost of cleaning up the Bay is $16,000 per Cecil County home, we don't think there will be many people left here to enjoy the Bay's newly pristine waters.

That's just the average amount county officials say it will cost to fund the Watershed Implementation Plan: a state government-mandated program every town and county in Maryland is obligated to implement over the next five years to meet a federal government mandate to clean up the Bay.

Residents at a county meeting last week were understandably upset with the mandates. "We need to reel in the EPA and say, enough is enough," said Joe Carabetta of Carpenters Point."This plan will cost the county $75 million a year for eight years and the county's entire annual operating budget is only $163 million," said Al Reasin of Conowingo.

Cecil County is the county that encompasses the upper end of the Bay, around the Susquehanna flats.  They have a fair stake in the Bay, but paying close to 50% of their annual budget on the Bay cleanup will tend to raise a few eyebrows.  It's all well and good to promise lots of anticipated benefits, but it's another to deliver them.  Imagine living a county a days ride from the Bay and being asked to shell out that much.