Set Strict Pollution Limits

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Maryland, and other bay states are currently putting together a bay-wide "pollution diet" that, if done well, could finally restore the bay.

Critical to this process are the plans Maryland and other states draw up to effectively reduce all sources of pollution. The first drafts of these state plans are due Sept. 1st. Environment Maryland has sent a set of recommendations of what to include in the first draft of Maryland's bay restoration plan to Gov. O'Malley and his staff.

Especially in Maryland, pollution from corporate agribusiness is a leading contributor to the bay’s poor condition. Gov. O'Malley should make more agricultural pollution controls mandatory and also hold big poultry companies like Perdue and Tyson more responsible for their animals' manure pollution.

Please send an e-mail to Gov. O’Malley urging him to include strict measures to reduce factory farm pollution in Maryland.

The Chesapeake Bay is one of America’s most iconic natural places. It's the largest estuary in the country and one of the most productive estuaries in the world. The bay is home to thousands of species of plants and animals, such as blue crabs and bald eagles, and 16 million Americans live in the bay watershed. Locals and visitors come to the bay for fishing, boating, birding, crabbing and a slew of other recreational and economic activities.

Unfortunately, the bay is also one of the world's most fragile bodies of water, and it's been suffering for decades from excess pollution. Every impact we make on land ranging from Cooperstown, New York to Virginia Beach reaches the bay's waters. Across this broad area, pollution from outdated sewage treatment plants, sprawling development, power plants burning fossil fuels, and agricultural fields glutted with fertilizer and livestock manure pours into the bay through a system of creeks, streams, and rivers. The result is annual dead zones in the water in which almost nothing can survive.

For 26 years states have been unable to control the pollution because they've relied on weak standards and voluntary measures. The only way to heal the bay is for leaders to commit to enforceable limits on all sources of pollution.

The good news is we now have the best chance yet to restore the bay. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and states are preparing a bay-wide “pollution diet” that would limit pollution to levels the bay can tolerate and still remain healthy. If states write effective plans to implement this diet and the EPA enforces those plans, the bay could finally be on track to health.

At the same time, President Barack Obama and his administration are taking steps to ramp up federal protections for the bay. In May 2009 Pres. Obama issued an Executive Order calling for a “new era of shared federal leadership” on the bay. Pres. Obama also created an entirely new position at the Environmental Protection Agency to oversee bay clean-up and appointed Chuck Fox, a longtime bay champion. Pres. Obama has charged the EPA and six other federal agencies with producing a new plan of action for the bay by May, 2010. Any new plan will only be successful if it leads to enforceable pollution limits on all sources and sets up the EPA to enforce the bay-wide pollution diet.