Chesapeake Bay To Get Pay Raise?

Chesapeake Bay Program sees increase in budget, other bay-related efforts see cuts

The Environmental Protection Agency’s main program to restore the Chesapeake Bay would get more money but other projects for the water way would be cut in the budget released Monday by President Barack Obama, a Chesapeake Bay Foundation official said.

The budget calls for $15 million to be added to the $58 million budget for the EPA’s Chesapeake Bay Program, Chesapeake Bay Foundation Federal Affairs Director Doug Siglin said.

However, Siglin said the budget also calls for an overall cut in EPA funding, including a 20 percent from a $2.5 billion EPA revolving fund that provides money to the states for clean water programs. The spending plan also cuts staffing for the Department of Agriculture’s Natural Resources Conservation Service which helps farmers reduce runoff and other pollution from their farms, he said.

The one thing that continues to come out of the "Bay Diet" fight is that the EPA and it's supporters think that agriculture is one of the greater contributors to the Bay's nutrient problems.  I would think that if they were sincere about wanting agriculture to control it's nutrient loads that cutting a program to help farmers control nutrients in favor of putting more money in the Bay Programs bureaucracy would not be an obvious choice.

I sincerely hope the added money is not going to be wasted, but given recent history, I'm not optimistic.