New push planned in Congress to clean up bay

Governments would have more power, funding to attack pollution, but deadline would be 5 years later

By Timothy B. Wheeler
Baltimore Sun

October 20, 2009

Maryland politicians and others gathered on the shore of the Chesapeake Bay near Annapolis Monday to announce a new push in Congress to restore the troubled estuary by giving state and federal governments more power and funding to clean up pollution from farms, cities and suburbs. But in a bid to win more support, sponsors of the legislation have agreed to a five-year delay in the deadline for states to do their part.

Sen. Benjamin L. Cardin said the bill he helped draft and plans to introduce today would put the bay cleanup on a "realistic but aggressive path." Rep. Elijah E. Cummings plans to introduce similar legislation in the House. Cardin and Cummings, both of whom are Democrats, Gov. Martin O'Malley and others held a news conference at Sandy Point State Park.

An earlier draft of the bill, which would have reauthorized the Chesapeake Bay cleanup as part of the Clean Water Act, had called for all restoration efforts to be in place by 2020, five years earlier than the deadline state and federal leaders had set for themselves when they met in May to review the lack of progress. Cardin said the delay was "an accommodation" to leaders of the bay restoration effort, who had agreed that 2025 was a "reasonable target date." O'Malley has pledged that Maryland would work toward meeting the earlier date, if possible.

The bill would give states more authority to regulate polluted runoff, while providing more than $1.5 billion in new funds to help pay for controls on urban and suburban storm-water pollution. Such runoff from developed and developing land is a growing source of nutrients degrading bay waters. It also would provide for a market-based system of trading nutrient pollution credits.

The bill drew praise from environmental groups, who said that after 25 years of only limited progress, it would hold the states and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency accountable for enforcing strict limits on pollution.

At least one farm group remains skeptical about the bill, opposing more government regulation of farms. "We are not in favor of expanding the authority of EPA," said Valerie Connelly, government affairs director for the Maryland Farm Bureau. "We don't see how it can do anything else other than put a lot of small and medium farms out of business."

Cardin acknowledged farmers' concerns, and said regulation would largely be handled at the state rather than federal level, with more flexibility and sensitivity to farmers' local situation and needs. He said the bill also has been refined to earmark 20 percent of federal bay grant funds to provide farmers technical assistance in reducing pollution from their fields and feedlots. But he noted that the bill calls for the EPA to step in if states fail to get the needed pollution reductions.

"We don't envision there will be need for federal government to come in and second-guess Maryland as long as they stay on schedule," Cardin said. He said he plans to meet with farm bureau leaders later this week to hear their concerns.