I joined 26 other Chesapeake Bay environmental leaders calling for substantial changes in the Jan. 29 draft of the new Chesapeake Bay Watershed Agreement that is supposed to guide Bay restoration efforts. Our group found serious shortcomings in the draft of the first Bay agreement in 14 years, the first after the mandatory adoption of the pollution diet under the Chesapeake Bay Total Maximum Daily Load and state watershed implementation plans. We fear the current draft may undermine, not advance, Bay cleanup efforts. The draft does little to augment and improve on the current mandatory TMDL and WIPs and could negate the existing comprehensive commitments under the Chesapeake 2000 agreement.
The signatories urging that the draft agreement be substantially upgraded or dropped include longtime Bay leaders, some of whom were at the signing of the first Bay agreement in 1983.
On March 13, at the Bay Management Board public comment meeting, I joined other representatives of the group in urging the board, EPA and states to adopt 28 action items in our Citizen’s Bay Agreement to restore the Chesapeake Bay. We believe that without these major changes, the agreement should be sent back to the drawing board.
It appears that the politics of gaining the signatures of watershed states never before party to past agreements —West Virginia, Delaware and New York — and the less than stellar commitment of certain Bay states has led to a very weak proposal.
Those submitting the Citizen’s Bay Agreement include: a former Maryland governor who once chaired the Chesapeake Bay Executive Council; a former U.S. senator and congressman (one from each political party); former state senators, delegates, and county council members as well as a former Virginia Secretary of Natural Resources; Ph.Ds; a current county council member; conservation group leaders such as for the Sierra Club and Environment Maryland; Riverkeepers; and other Bay leaders.
The original Chesapeake Bay Agreement — a pledge to restore the health of the Bay and its living resources — was signed in 1983. Subsequent agreements in 1987 and then in 2000 had specific measurable commitments, including caps on nitrogen, phosphorus and sediment that were the precursor to the Bay TMDL. The Chesapeake 2000 agreement had more than 100 specific commitments by the Bay states which would seemingly be abrogated by the adoption of the current draft Bay Agreement put forth by the Bay Program.
Howard Ernst, political scientist and author of several books about the Chesapeake Bay, helped to craft the Citizen’s Bay Agreement. He recently stated: “If this new draft is the best the Bay Program, the states and EPA can do for the Bay, then the Bay recovery may be doomed. We sincerely hope that the suggested changes we are submitting will be incorporated.”
Some of the major problems in the draft agreement include:
≈ There are no references to agricultural pollution or reductions, which means there are not any new commitments nor a sense of urgency in addressing the Bay’s largest pollution source and the one most cost-effectively reduced. The only mention of agriculture is the necessity to preserve agricultural land.
Continue reading this article at this LINK…..
—–
Join ODU Magazine on Facebook here at this LINK…..
Join ODU Magazine on our Twitter fishing site here at this LINK…..
Join ODU Magazine on our Twitter hunting site here at this LINK…..
.