Congressional Appropriations Package a Win for Chesapeake Bay

(WASHINGTON, DC)—Last night, Congress passed a minibus appropriations package on a strong bipartisan basis. The package now heads to President Trump's desk. The legislation contains funding for programs critical to the Chesapeake Bay restoration effort. These include:

• U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's Chesapeake Bay Program, which coordinates the federal-state partnership to restore the Chesapeake Bay's rivers and streams: $93,000,000

  • Included in this is increased allocation of funds for:

    • Innovative and Sediment Removal Grants (INSR): $11,000,000

    • Small Watershed Grants (SWG): $11,000,000

    • Most-Effective Basins Grants (MEB): $9,000,000

• U.S. Geological Survey's Chesapeake Science and Monitoring Program, which provides critical water quality monitoring data and analysis: $17,577,000

• National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)

  • Bay Watershed Education and Training Program (B-WET), a grant program for hands-on watershed education for students and teacher training to foster stewardship of the Chesapeake Bay and other watersheds: $8,700,000

  • Oyster Restoration, support to NOAA's Chesapeake Bay office to improve the performance of underperforming oyster restoration, recovery, or enhancement activities in the Chesapeake Bay and its tributaries: nearly doubling the current funding to a total of $3,250,000

  • Chesapeake Bay Atlantic Menhaden Abundance, support to collect abundance data on Atlantic menhaden in the Chesapeake Bay, a critical species for the health of the Bay: $2,500,000

  • Invasive Blue Catfish Mitigation, support for Maryland Department of Natural Resources to address invasive blue catfish in the Chesapeake Bay: $2,000,000

• U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's Chesapeake WILD Program, a grant program managed by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service that assists local partners with on-the-ground habitat restoration and protection: $8,000,000

• U.S. National Park Service's Chesapeake Gateways Program, a network of places and partners that increases accessibility to waterways throughout the Chesapeake Bay region: $3,027,000

In response, Choose Clean Water Coalition Director Kristin Reilly issued the following statement:

"Congress can make no better investment for communities across the Bay region than in projects and programs that support clean water. We are very pleased with the strong funding levels for Bay restoration reflected in the recent appropriations package passed by Congress, highlighted by a record $93 million for EPA's Chesapeake Bay Program.

"We are particularly pleased with the increase of funding for three critical grant programs which support on-the-ground projects that improve local waterways and communities. From planting trees to protecting homes and businesses from flooding, these projects make a difference.

"We look forward to the approval of this funding package and to working with all members of Congress to maintain these federal investments."

The Choose Clean Water Coalition is an organization that harnesses the collective power of more than 320 local, state, regional and national groups to advocate for clean rivers and streams in all communities in the Chesapeake region.

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Media Contact:
Drew Robinson
Choose Clean Water Coalition
443-927-8049
RobinsonAQ@nwf.org