And so lawmakers in Annapolis compromise. In deference to the bay's popularity, they rarely kill bills to help the Chesapeake, but they water them down to satisfy those whose interests would be hurt. Environmental advocates praise the results as "good first steps," but they have not been enough to improve the health of the bay and its tributaries.
During the past two decades, the water quality of key Maryland rivers - and the bay as a whole - has actually worsened, according to the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science. The amount of sediment in the Patuxent River has nearly tripled, and nitrogen pollution in the Choptank River is twice as high, the U.S. Geological Survey found.
"Everybody's in favor of healing the Chesapeake Bay until it comes to doing their part," observes Del. James W. Hubbard, a Prince George's County Democrat.
The lack of progress frustrates activists, who say Maryland's reputation as a national leader in environmental protection is in jeopardy.
"We simply can't be compromising down as much as we are," says Dru Schmidt-Perkins, director of the environmental group 1000 Friends of Maryland. "We don't have time anymore."
Regulating farmers
Some advocates argue that the Chesapeake will not get better unless the state starts telling farmers what to do - imposing strict limits on how much fertilizer they can apply to their fields, with inspectors actually checking farms to make sure.
It has been a decade since anyone seriously proposed doing that. A scare over fish kills and reports of human illness on the Eastern Shore generated public pressure to crack down on farm runoff, the leading source of river pollution there. But Gov. Parris N. Glendening's proposal drew an outcry from farmers, who said such a law would threaten their ability to earn a living. The General Assembly rewrote the legislation to create an essentially voluntary program in which farms can draw up their own plans for limiting runoff.
Today, with agriculture still the single largest source of bay pollution, some are renewing their call for tough new farm rules to clean up the bay.
"Tell me where something like this has been accomplished without regulations," says Donald F. Boesch, president of the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science.
