Bay cleanup may get some teeth

Cardin bill brings funding, incentives and enforcement to preservation efforts
By KRISTYN ECOCHARD Staff Writer
Star-Democrat
Tuesday, October 20, 2009

SANDY POINT Legislation introduced Monday by U.S. Sen. Ben Cardin, D-Md. would breathe new life into the Environmental Protection Agency's Chesapeake Bay Program, creating funding, incentives and an enforcement policy aimed at restoring the Bay.

Cardin announced the Chesapeake Clean Water and Ecosystem Act of 2009 at a Monday press conference at Sandy Point State Park. The bill will be sponsored in the U.S. Senate by Cardin and Sen. Barbara Mikulski, D-Md., and in the House by U.S. Rep. Elijah Cummings, D-Md.-7th.

"Today we take a major step forward in writing the next chapter in the history of one of America's most cherished and celebrated bodies of water the Chesapeake Bay. In developing this important legislation, we listened carefully to our watershed partners, our watermen, our farmers and others whose livelihood depends on a viable Chesapeake," said Cardin, chairman of the Senate Water and Wildlife Subcommittee of the Environment and Public Works Committee.
The bill requires federal, state and local participation. Cardin was joined by Cummings, Gov. Martin O'Malley, U.S. Rep. Chris Van Hollen, D-Md.-8th, and Virginia Secretary of Natural Resources L. Preston Bryant Jr. at the press conference.

"We must do all we can to protect our natural resources, particularly Maryland's treasured Chesapeake Bay," O'Malley said in a statement. "Senator Cardin's leadership on this issue is exemplary, and this bill will bring a new level of accountability and efficiency to our clean-up efforts in order to restore the Bay for future generations of Marylanders."

The bill would set a legally binding deadline of 2025 for all restoration efforts to be in place, establish a flexible pollution trading program and authorize $1.5 billion in grants to control urban and suburban polluted stormwater with at least 10 percent of grants set aside for New York, Delaware and West Virginia and 20 percent of the grants allocated for technical assistance to farmers and foresters to help them access Farm Bill funds and implement conservation practices on their farms.

The bill codifies President Barack Obama's Executive Order requiring every federal department to work toward restoration of the Bay by establishing an accountability system in which states must enforce limits on all sources of pollution entering the Bay. EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson would be required to issue annual progress reports on the Bay's recovery and the bill sets December 2010 as the deadline for the EPA to finalize a Bay-wide pollution budget known as a total maximum daily load. Each state would have to create a "Watershed Implementation Plan" to achieve the pollution reductions defined by the TMDL.

"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," said Tommy Landers, policy advocate with Environment Maryland.

It also makes the ban on the introduction of Asian oysters statutory but allows them to be studied, continues and expands the nutria eradication program on the Delmarva peninsula, requires a study of the relationship between commercial menhaden fishing and water quality and allows for citizen suits.

"The bill has a really important structure that has specific responsibilities and balances them among federal, state and local authorities, plus it has needed funding and there are tools for enforcement, it also has the model trading," said Alys Campaigne, advisor to the Natural Resources Defense Council. "So it offers funding, incentive, clear deadlines and accountability plus enforcement."

In the past, most of the efforts have involved cooperative work and science on a volunteer basis.

"This is a very results-driven effort. It gives Americans the peace of mind that their contributions will lead to results," Campaigne said.