From the Baltimore Banner, EPA vows to keep closer eye on Pennsylvania’s efforts to reduce bay-bound pollution; lawsuits dismissed
The federal government has agreed to do a better job monitoring efforts in Pennsylvania to reduce the amount of pollution that reaches the Chesapeake Bay, allowing lawsuits over the matter to be dismissed.
Several entities — including the Chesapeake Bay Foundation, the Maryland Watermen’s Association and states downstream from Pennsylvania — filed lawsuits against the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency in 2020, alleging the federal government failed to require Pennsylvania to develop and carry out pollution-reduction plans.
Pennsylvania is part of the six-state watershed that drains into the Chesapeake Bay, and is obligated under the federal Clean Water Act and other agreements to reduce pollution that fouls waterways and sucks life-sustaining oxygen from the water. The federal government and states in the Chesapeake region previously agreed to make significant progress toward cleanup by 2025, though the parties acknowledge they’re likely to miss that deadline.
Maryland’s current attorney general, Anthony G. Brown, said in a statement: “This settlement is just the beginning. My office is fully committed to working with the Maryland Department of the Environment and our partners to ensure the EPA lives up to its commitments.”
The lawsuits were filed during the final months of Republican President Donald Trump’s administration, and carried over into the tenure of President Joe Biden, a Democrat.
After slowly wending through the court system, the parties in the lawsuits agreed this spring that the EPA would take specific actions to reduce Pennsylvania’s pollution from farming and stormwater runoff, as well as improve enforcement.
I'll believe it when I see it. Pennsylvania has almost no incentive to follow EPA's rules.
And why should they? They bear all the costs and none of the benefits.
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