James M. Tierney, an assistant commissioner of the New York state Environmental Conservation Department, said the proposal posed a problem because of the sheer magnitude of the bay cleanup problem.
Making the bay healthy once again will require "everything by everybody everywhere," Tierney said, down to the smallest road ditch. "Every retrofit needs to happen."
In other words, he explained, the cleanup would need both the farmers' contribution and an improved wastewater treatment plant as well.
Griffin, the Maryland official, also expressed caution. Later, in an interview, he said that a trading system would have to be drafted very carefully to guarantee that it worked.
Critics have long contended that the EPA already has much of the enforcement power it needs, under the Clean Water Act, to reduce the flow of various pollutants into the bay. In January, a coalition of environmentalists and others filed a federal lawsuit asking the courts to order the EPA to take over the bay cleanup effort.
Conservative opposition to enhancing the EPA's authority surfaced from a Republican on the Senate panel. "I know firsthand that voluntary environmental programs are very successful," Oklahoma's James M. Inhofe said, noting recent efforts to reduce runoff into the Illinois River. "My state's experience is that heavy-handed regulations that ignore economic realities and property rights do not work."
