Back Pats All Around on the Bay

Chesapeake Bay cleanup on track, officials say

U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lisa P. Jackson said Maryland and the other five states that drain into the bay, as well as the District of Columbia and the federal government, have all made "extraordinary progress" the past two years in accelerating their cleanup efforts.

"Most, if not all, the signs are pointing in the right direction," Jackson said at a meeting to review bay restoration work, held this year at Gunston Hall in Northern Virginia. "If this were a race, we would hit the accelerator because we know we're on the right path."

Maryland Gov. Martin O'Malley agreed that "the degree and the movement that we've made over the past five years … is really remarkable."

Most of the last two years have been planning, not implementation.  The big thrust of the effort, and the vast majority of the cost is yet to come.   Nice of them to pat each other on the back before they get down to business.