"Tough Love" and the "Historic Crackdown on Pollution in the Chesapeake Bay"

The "diet" is the talk of the town.

EPA's new proposed pollution reduction plan for the Chesapeake Bay (also called the Bay pollution "diet" or Total Maximum Daily Load) generated a wave of news stories across the region. A 45 day public comment period on the plan has begun.

Pennsylvania and Virginia officials are howling about the exercise of federal authority over state pollution control decisions. Virginia protested "costly federal mandates." "This isn't China," complained a Pennsylvania official. 

EPA officials said they were compelled to step in and turn up the heat on the states because most of the Bay area governments (with the exception of Maryland and Washington DC) failed to act strongly enough in their own water pollution control plans.

EPA is required to create a Bay pollution "diet" by the end of this year because of a consent agreement EPA signed with the Chesapeake Bay Foundation to end a lawsuit against the federal agency.

"This could be a new day for the Chesapeake Bay," WJZ television in Baltimore quoted CBF President Will Baker as saying.

Hopefully, EPA's threats will scare Pennsylvania and Virginia, into getting serious about their own state pollution cleanup plans.  EPA's proposals, contained in the draft Total Maximum Daily Load released on Friday, include sewage treatment plant upgrades, better stormwater pollution controls, and tighter manure control rules for livestock farms.

The Washington Post called the EPA's action "historic." "Federal officials began a historic crackdown on pollution in the Chesapeake Bay on Friday -- threatening to punish five mid-Atlantic states with rules that could raise sewer bills and put new conditions on construction."

Some of the news stories focused on the federal government's conclusion that most of the state Bay cleanup proposals have fallen seriously short.

"EPA SLAMS VIRGINIA'S BAY CLEANUP PLANS," was the headline in the (Newport News, Virginia) Daily Pr ess. "Virginia's plan allows too much nitrogen and phosphorus — naturally occurring nutrients that lead to oxygen-deprived dead zones — in the bay," the newspaper wrote.

The Baltimore Sun called EPA's plan a “tough love pollution diet” that is drawing praise from environmentalists. But the paper noted it is raising “hackles” in Pennsylvania, Virginia and West Virginia, where EPA said state cleanup plans are seriously lacking. EPA said Maryland and Washington DC had better plans for reducing water pollution.

“While finding little fault with Maryland's cleanup plan, EPA officials did note that the state failed to propose enough reductions in pollutants in several rivers, including the Susquehanna, Patuxent and Choptank. And federal regulators said that none of the states, Maryland included, offered enough details on where they would get the funds to upgrade treatment plants and storm drains,” The Sun reported.

The Sun's editorial writers gave a big cheer for EPA. "Like a good teacher refusing to grade on a curve, the U.S. Environment Protection Agency handed out some failing grades last week to Chesapeake Bay states whose cleanup plans are woefully inadequate. Hallelujah."

EPA trongly criticized Pennsylvania's plans so far to reduce pollution in the Bay. And Pennsylvania officials did not like the proposed federal alternative, which include much tighter pollution control permits on sewage treatment plants.

"I'm very concerned about any threat by the EPA to revisit the permits that we and the EPA have approved to build water and sewer facilities on the Susquehanna," Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection Secretary John Hanger Hanger told the Associated Press.

The Annapolis Capital reported that drastic changes may be required in how local rivers are protected. “In some cases, Anne Arundel County residents, farmers, businesses and the government will have to cut in half the pollution that drains into the water. ‘It's not going to be easy,’ said Shawn Garvin, regional administrator for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency."

The Virginian Pilot warned of a big price tag. “EPA Regional Administrator Shawn Garvin said the proposed diet "will not be easy, cheap or quick." It could cost billions of dollars to implement, coming at a time of economic downturn and fragile state budgets.  Still, Garvin said, the EPA had no choice: It agreed to take a tougher stance to settle lawsuits with conservation groups about lingering pollution and missed cleanup deadlines dating to the 1980s.

 

Comments

[Rob Goszkowski]

"This isn't China." Indeed. If it were there'd likely be no concern about the fate of the bay let alone a gov't agency enforcing its clean up.

[Tom Pelton]

I totally agree, Rob. If this were China, state-run industries would be pumping endless rivers of pollution into the Bay, knowing that they would be protected by the state.

[John Koontz]

This is China as State and Feds propose to excempt farming for new Bay bill working its way through Comgress.

[Jeffrey Jennings]

At this very moment Ray Sewage is bubbling out of a storm drain at the end of Willoughby Spit, and going directly down a storm drain, but I can't seem to get in touch with any one that can put a stop to this. There needs to be some type of hot- line where these types of reports can be made, and acted upon swiftly.Between the adresses of 1503 and 1505 sewage has been pumping out all day long, unchecked and unstopped ,and anyone of any authority cannot be reached.I left the area at noon ,and the resident I was working for called this problem to my attention,and stated it had been going on all morning.She had called the city, but there has been no responce. Being that it's Saturday should be no excuse in my opinion.

[aermrtvgdh]

One doesn't prefer to gloat, nonetheless a number of United kingdom bachelors have been and so smug regarding sole condition for so very long it's good exciting to check out your tide move against all of them. Majority of folks through the London, uk College involving Financial aspects provides stated its figures tend to be higher than ever, with increased indifferent guys close to in comparison with during some other occasion [url=http://www.ukbootser.com][b]discount ugg boots[/b][/url] since the World war 2. Half of present day 25-year-old men have never hitched or perhaps endured someone, as well as the amount of men still living by yourself because of the era of 30 plus above possesses doubled over the similar interval.Nor could they be renouncing marital life to be replaced by cohabiting. Evidently all of these men're solitary since they're struggling to build associations, both because they are way too forced at your workplace, nevertheless tolerate their mothers.
or his or her won't be able to yank. Put bluntly, the New Bachelors are certainly not heartbreakers, fending down ladies using substantial branches, as happens to be believed: his or her can not [url=http://www.ukbootser.com][b]uk ugg[/b][/url] get them from the start. Hark, is the fact that noise involving Bridget Smith going in her burial plot? I've truly prolonged considered the phrase 'bachelor' to be unreliable. Call just about any solo woman your 'spinster' plus the recognized notion is the fact she will slight clear on the ground, triumph over by way of concern with the mythological 'shelf' on what your lover will have to surely take up residence for the remainder of the woman's a short time just like a unhappy, cracked teapot, paying out the girl's evenings camp instructors pertaining to other people's children plus sharing with any individual who will listen in some sort of quavery, classic voice that she experienced her 'chances' (consider Pass up Marple throughout Uggs).All twaddle, certainly. Although I've for ages been dissatisfied by way of the reluctance

[Pandora Online]

let's join our hands together to stop this kind of wrong doings. It may risk lives in the future if we just let them continue.