Bay Program Director Admits 2025 Bay Diet Goals Unenforcable

EPA Chesapeake Bay Program director says 2025 pollution targets are not ‘enforceable’

The head of the EPA’s Chesapeake Bay Program stepped back from strict enforcement of 2025 pollution goals for the Chesapeake Bay Friday, calling the technical targets “an aspiration” and not an enforceable deadline.

The comments by program Director Dana Aunkst near the end of a two-day conference in Annapolis sparked criticism from state officials and outrage from several environmental groups who said the comments represent the Trump administration’s retreat from the Chesapeake Bay cleanup effort.

States in the bay watershed are supposed to have measures in place by 2025 that will get them to pollution reduction goals — the total daily maximum load, or TMDL — under targets set by the Environmental Protection Agency in 2010.

But in discussing what happens after that date, Aunkst told those attending the Chesapeake Bay Commission meeting that the 2025 target is not a deadline. He said the 2010 targets only inform regulatory decisions.

The TMDL specified what pollution reductions necessary to restore the bay and is considered is a “keystone commitment” under President Barack Obama’s executive order to restore and protect the bay. . . .

You know, there's nothing to prevent the states from doing on their own if they really want to.