Federal officials said Wednesday they have given marching orders to Maryland and other states that drain into the Chesapeake Bay to come up with detailed plans for reducing pollution plaguing the estuary, warning that states face development shutdowns or other as-yet unstated consequences if the water fails to get cleaner.
At the same time, the Environmental Protection Agency made the cleanup goal potentially easier to reach, saying new analysis indicates pollution doesn't need to be curbed as much as previously thought to shrink the "dead zone" in the bay that starves fish, crabs and oysters every summer of the oxygen they need to breathe.
J. Charles Fox, the Environmental Protection Agency's senior adviser on the bay, said letters sent this week to the states and the District of Columbia laying out his agency's expectations of them are the first installment in "a new era of federal leadership" in trying to restore the Chesapeake.
"We are trying to improve and strengthen all water pollution programs throughout the watershed and secure a much greater degree of accountability from all of them," Fox said in a telephone conference call with reporters.
The action comes in response to an executive order by President Barack Obama last spring directing federal agencies to play a more active role in the 26-year-old bay cleanup effort, which has repeatedly blown self-imposed deadlines for reducing pollution from sewage plants, farms, and urban and suburban lands. In May, the six states, the District of Columbia and federal government set 2025 as their new cleanup deadline, but pledged to be more accountable by laying out a series of short-term "milestones" every two years. The other states in the watershed are Virginia, West Virginia, Pennsylvania, Delaware and New York.
On Monday, the EPA is scheduled to unveil a draft plan for ramping up federal pressure - and possibly funding - to accelerate the cleanup effort. Fox said his agency is eyeing an expansion of some environmental regulations to "raise the floor" on major sources of pollution fouling the bay, particularly poultry and other livestock farming and development.
Environmentalists welcomed the EPA's action, though they said much still depends on what sanctions the federal government is willing to impose if states fail to clean up. Beth McGee, senior scientist with the Chesapeake Bay Foundation, said the agency's requirements are "precedent-setting."
