At Maryland Matters, Gerald Weingard, EPA and Bay states are greenwashing Chesapeake Bay progress
Forty years of formal efforts to restore the water quality and living resources of the Chesapeake Bay have failed despite the expenditure of more than $12 billion. For 27 years, the Bay states solemnly agreed upon repeated voluntary restoration agreements and failed to comply without Environmental Protection Agency sanctions.
In 2010, the EPA was forced by a court settlement to impose mandatory requirements for Bay states to assure that Bay-choking nitrogen, phosphorus and sediment pollution were reduced. This was to comply with Clean Water Act (CWA) requirements so that 100% of Bay waters met the law’s minimum standards for clean water.
EPA generously gave the recalcitrant states until 2025 to comply or face penalties. As the states fail again by wide margins to meet CWA requirements, a feckless EPA again refuses to impose any sanctions to prod the states into compliance.
Instead, EPA and the Bay state governors decided in 2022 to punt in lieu of ramping up efforts to tamp down the most egregious pollution sources — agriculture and developed land stormwater. They agreed to take two years to “recalibrate” (read delay) and develop a new plan for beyond 2025. The draft issued in July was a real nothingburger.
I blame the EPA, and the States for setting unreasonable goals. Spend the first dollar on the easiest problem to fix, maybe don't spend the last dollar on something that can't be fixed.
Bay Journal, This is the moment — to think big for the Chesapeake Bay. No, this is time to think small! Find the easiest problems remaining!
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