Sen. Ben Cardin (D-MD) announced he will introduce a bill to reauthorize the Environmental Protection Agency's Chesapeake Bay Program. Along with renewed and increased funding, the bill establishes an accountability system whereby states must enforce limits on all sources of pollution entering the Chesapeake Bay.
"With this bill Sen. Cardin is giving Congress a chance to once and for all restore the Chesapeake Bay, one of our most beloved and most fragile national treasures. The bill offers hope for real restoration because at its core is an unprecedented system of federal accountability for bay polluters. This bill could lead to effective action to reduce the largest Chesapeake Bay pollution sources: urban development and agriculture," said Tommy Landers, Policy Advocate with Environment Maryland.
For decades the bay has suffered a deluge of pollution from sewage treatment plants, industrial sources, poorly planned development, agricultural fertilizer, and animal manure, leading to pervasive dead zones every summer in which almost nothing can survive. State programs have failed to significantly reduce this pollution due to an over-reliance on voluntary measures and a lack of enforcement of pollution limits.
Sen. Cardin's bill, the Chesapeake Clean Water and Ecosystem Restoration Act of 2009, would codify President Barack Obama's Executive Order from May 2009, calling on EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson to issue annual progress reports on the bay's recovery. The bill sets a deadline of December 2010 for the EPA to finalize a bay-wide pollution budget known as a Total Maximum Daily Load (TMDL), and directs states to create "Watershed Implementation Plans" designed to achieve the pollution reductions defined by the TMDL.
"This bill could be game-changing in two ways. First, states would have to enforce limits on all polluters, including the developers and agribusinesses that account for the majority of the bay's pollution. Second, the EPA would have to withhold federal funding and finish the job themselves whenever polluters miss their marks," said Landers.
###
