The Obama administration is to unveil today its plan for taking control of the lagging Chesapeake Bay cleanup, amid growing grumbling from developers, farmers and even state officials that Washington is overreaching in what has until recently been a largely cooperative effort among the bay states.
Though officials weren't saying much prior to the release of the draft strategy, it's expected to call for expanded federal regulation of large poultry and livestock farms, as well as tighter controls on pollution washing off urban and suburban development.
"We are at this point considering expanding some of our regulatory programs," J. Charles Fox, the Environmental Protection Agency's senior adviser for the bay, said during a telephone conference call last week with reporters. The aim, he added, is "to raise the floor for a range of major sources of pollution of the Chesapeake Bay, so we can help the states achieve their goals."
But the prospect of expanded federal regulation, originally floated in September, has aroused farming and building interests, who complain they're being unfairly blamed for much of the bay's woes.
"Why should we get tagged by having our industry shut down because somebody else is not meeting their goals?" asked Katie Maloney, a spokeswoman for the Maryland Builders Association.
Gov. Martin O'Malley, meanwhile, has voiced concerns that Maryland's poultry industry may be hurt if the state's chicken growers - clustered mainly on the rural Eastern Shore - are subject to stricter federal regulation than are farmers in other parts of the country.
In a written response to federal ideas aired in September for jump-starting the bay cleanup, the O'Malley administration says it supports increased federal involvement in the restoration effort, but only if it comes with more federal funds to pay for it.
"We want to avoid a repeat of the No Child Left Behind Program," says the state's letter, signed by Natural Resources Secretary John R. Griffin. The federal No Child Left Behind law requires states to meet new standards for educating children in public schools, but state officials have complained of being forced to meet federal mandates without any resources offered to help them.
The O'Malley administration also expressed its opposition to subjecting any more chicken farms in Maryland to federal regulation, arguing that states should be given flexibility to try reducing polluted runoff from those farms.
