Maryland's largest environmental group called yesterday for a 50 percent reduction in the use of toxic chemicals in the Chesapeake Bay region over the next decade and got an immediate pledge of cooperation from the Glendening administration.
William C. Baker, president of the Chesapeake Bay Foundation, said at an Annapolis news conference that the bay and portions of its tributaries are still "seriously impaired" by toxic pollution, despite an extensive cleanup effort that has focused on nutrients from sewage and farm runoff.
Contaminants from air pollution, runoff and continuing discharges harm fish and threaten the livelihood of the bay's watermen, he said.
"The old ways of controlling toxic chemicals simply aren't working," Baker said, noting that while Maryland limits discharges of 28 chemicals, traces of more than 1,000 toxic chemicals have been detected in the bay. It isn't clear what, if any, harm they are causing, but Baker suggested that diseased fish found in certain contaminated waters and even the region's high cancer rate may be linked.
The foundation, which claims 40,000 members in Maryland, urged Gov. Parris N. Glendening and the governors of Pennsylvania and Virginia to follow federal law by taking steps to "significantly reduce" toxic discharges to degraded waters.
The group also urged the states to seek voluntary reductions in industrial use of chemicals and to give residents more information about the sources and regulation of toxins.
The appeal drew an endorsement from watermen, recreational fishermen and a University of Maryland scientist attending the news conference. It also got an immediate pledge of action from Jane T. Nishida, Maryland's environment secretary.
Nishida, a former bay foundation official, said the state will set new limits on discharges into streams and rivers harmed by toxins, as required by federal law, and would give the public greater access to information about the agency's actions.
"We quite simply have to do more," said Nishida, who was invited to the announcement.
Nishida and the Glendening administration have been criticized recently by environmentalists for a drop-off in enforcement activity and for a reluctance to issue regulations.
Baker called Nishida's pledge yesterday "encouraging."
Industry officials, who were not at the news conference, also endorsed Nishida's statement, but reacted warily to the foundation's proposal for getting industries to reduce toxic chemicals.
