Bay Diet Grift in Jeopardy

 The Bay Journal, EPA proposes ‘significant’ funding cuts to Chesapeake Bay advisors

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is proposing deep spending cuts on the Chesapeake Bay cleanup that critics say will undermine the effort’s scientific integrity and public outreach.

The federal agency published a “notice of funding opportunity” on March 10 seeking applicants on a contract providing administrative support to four advisory committees to the Chesapeake Bay Program, the state-federal partnership leading the cleanup effort. The agreement would pay the winning applicant up to $2.45 million over five years.

On an annual basis, that would amount to a one-third cut from the total spent in 2025, according to figures provided by the EPA.

EPA spokeswoman Molly Vaseliou said the new amount “does not signal a reduced commitment” to the committees but rather an “increased commitment to direct implementation.” The agency will redirect the savings to grants that support what the spokesperson called “real, on the ground projects” that reduce nutrient and sediment pollution to the Bay.

But some environmental advocates and state policymakers say the reduction is deeper than it looks at first blush. The 2025 funding was reduced for at least some of the committees after the change in presidential administrations. Compared to 2023 and 2024, the contract represents a cut of 50% or more, they say.

Many of the effort’s advisors – who mostly consist of scientists, environmental regulators, clean-water advocates and agricultural leaders – were caught off guard by the action. Representatives of some of the program’s signatory partners say they weren’t asked for input, a breach of the cleanup program’s consensus-based, decision-making norms.

And some critics contend that the contract’s language gives the EPA unprecedented control over the committees’ ability to set their own priorities.

“It’s substantially different from previous requests for funding,” said Leila Duman, the Chesapeake and Atlantic Coastal Bays restoration officer for the Maryland Department of Natural Resources and a member of the Bay Program’s management board. “From a very broad level, this [notice] cuts about half of the funding that provides the coordination staff and potentially changes the way the advisory committees operate in a pretty significant way.”

My father once told me a story about a dictator, and three men ordered to carry a piano up a flight of stairs. When they told him it was impossible, he shot one, and then the remaining two carried the piano up the stairs.