Chesapeake Bay states are unlikely to reach EPA’s 2025 cleanup deadline at current pace, report finds (Balmer Sun).
Maryland, Pennsylvania and Virginia are unlikely to reach their joint Chesapeake Bay pollution limits set by the Environmental Protection Agency in time for a 2025 deadline, according to a report released Wednesday by the Chesapeake Bay Foundation.
The report, which chronicles the states’ progress in reducing nitrogen and phosphorus in the estuary, found that Maryland and Virginia are mostly on track to hit their reduction targets. Many of the two states’ successes so far have come from major improvements in wastewater treatment plants, while advancements in other areas — such as mitigating stormwater runoff and agricultural pollution — will be needed to finish the job.
So, they left the two most expensive and difficult for the last 3 years? Good move.
Pennsylvania, on the other hand, continues to lag behind, the report said. To catch up, that state likely will need to commit significant resources to helping farmers reduce soil erosion and pesticide runoff, according to the report. Pennsylvania’s shortcomings, meanwhile, threaten to undo the work of neighboring states, experts said.
“If the Pennsylvania waterways are not clean, the downstream bay will not be clean,” said Alison Prost, the Chesapeake Bay Foundation’s vice president for environmental protection and restoration, during a news conference Wednesday.
Two comments here. First, as I've said here before, Pennsylvania, having no shoreline on the Bay, has little incentive to spend money to clean it up. I'm not sure I know how to incentivize them.
Second, this assumes they really want to solve the Bays problems. There is a very large state, federal and NGO bureaucracy that has grown up nominally dedicated to fixing the Bay. Assuming that on Jan. 1 2026 a report were to come out saying the Bay was fixed, where would they go?
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