New bay coalition urges federal action

By PAMELA WOOD, Staff Writer

Published 05/21/09

WASHINGTON, D.C. - With the slogan "Choose Clean Water," a new coalition of environmental and conservation groups is pressing the federal government to take more action to improve the health of the Chesapeake Bay.

The bay watershed coalition made its official debut in an event on Capitol Hill yesterday, though members have been working together behind the scenes for months.

The kickoff event attracted four congressmen and one U.S. senator, who all said they look forward to working with coalition members on bay issues.

"It's an incredible, valuable resources to our country and we are charged with bringing it to the quality it deserves. ... We want to use every opportunity we can to make progress," said Sen. Benjamin L. Cardin, D-Md.

Coalition organizers said the various groups can be more successful if they coordinate their efforts instead of working individually. The coalition consists of 64 groups representing 400,000 people.

"No one of us individually could make the kind of changes necessary," said Tony Caliguiri, an official with the National Wildlife Federation, one of the coalition member groups.

The coalition membership roster is a who's who of advocacy groups from throughout the six-state, 64,000-square-mile watershed that drains into the Chesapeake. It includes big regional and national groups such as the Chesapeake Bay Foundation and the Natural Resources Defense Council, as well as small, local groups such as the Friends of Dyke Marsh in Alexandria, Va.

The coalition has two employees who technically work for the National Wildlife Federation and are based in Annapolis.

Coalition members have picked three areas to target: the U.S. Environmental Agency's forthcoming "pollution budget" for the bay and its rivers, a federal highway bill, and climate-change legislation.

They want to make sure the EPA's pollution plan - which will set how much nutrient and sediment pollution can flow into the water - has penalties for noncompliance. The group has already sent a letter to the EPA making its case for a strong pollution plan.

Doug Siglin, the Chesapeake Bay Foundation's federal lobbyist, said coalition members want to make sure the pollution plan doesn't turn out to be a "farce."

For the highway bill, the coalition will seek to include requirements for controlling rainwater that rushes off the pavement when new highways are built.

And finally, members said they hope climate-change legislation will pass to ensure the Chesapeake's shores aren't overcome by sea-level rise.

The coalition promised to have a strong presence on Capitol Hill.

Jan Jarrett, president of coalition member group PennFuture, said the coalition has its work cut out for it.

"We solved the problems that were easy and now we're left with the hard problems," she said.

For more information, visit the Web site at www.choosecleanwater.org.