04/29/24 - 126 New Stories - REAL Environmental & Conservation Leadership In PA: http://tinyurl.com/2r9fkz4k
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Chesapeake Bay States May Delay Clean Up To 2020, But Double the Rate of Clean Up
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Representatives of the Chesapeake Bay states and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency tentatively agreed this week to more than double the rate of Bay cleanup over the next decade, while proposing to push the 2010 deadline back to 2020.
Information provided to the group by theChesapeake Bay Foundationindicates that actions taken by the Bay states are currently on a trajectory of reaching the deadline by 2040 three decades after the original goal of 2010.
"Doubling a snail's pace is not something we should cheer about," said William C Baker, President of the Chesapeake Bay Foundation. "What they have done is delay by 10 years the current 2010 deadline for reducing pollution in the Bay."
The proposed 2020 timeline came after Maryland, Virginia, the District of Columbia, Pennsylvania and the federal government last year agreed they will not meet their original goal, set in 2000, of cleaning up the Bay by 2010.
The new deadline of 2020 came despite the objections of Pennsylvania, whose representative said that with new computer modeling coming next spring, setting any end date for achieving necessary pollution reductions would be speculative.
The advisory group that met this week at the DC offices of the Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments is called the Chesapeake Bay Principals’ Staff Committee. The committee is made up of 26 environmental officials and others from Maryland, Virginia, Pennsylvania, the District of Columbia, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, and the Chesapeake Bay Commission.
The committee’s advice will be passed on to the governors of the Bay states, as well as the mayor of Washington DC, the administrator of the U.S. EPA, and the chair of the Bay Commission. These top officials will consider the new deadline in a meeting of the Chesapeake Bay Executive Council scheduled for Nov. 20.
Beth McGee, senior scientist for the Chesapeake Bay Foundation, said that the Bay could meet the 2010 cleanup goal by 2015 if the states got much more serious about implementing pollution reduction strategies.
"We appreciate the efforts of Maryland, Virginia, and Pennsylvania to set new pollution limits and invest in upgrades for their sewage treatment plants, and expect to see tangible benefits over the next three to four years," Baker said. "But CBF believes that the state and federal governments must be held accountable to reduce runoff from farms and developed lands, as well as pollution from the air, and that programs and funding must be in place by 2010 to achieve 80 percent of the pollution reduction goal by 2012. The PSC did agree with CBF’s request that they set short-term deadlines and consequences for missing them, though they have not as of yet set any specifics."
"Investing in clean water is also an investment in local economies, paying dividends by creating jobs, increasing recreational opportunities, and improving the quality of life," Baker said.
What Does This Mean For Pennsylvania?
The Pennsylvania Office of the Chesapeake Bay Foundation released this fact sheet on what the recommendation to extend the deadline to cleanup the Bay will mean to Pennsylvania wastewater plants and farmers who have to comply with these requirements, if they are adopted by Bay Governors.
"The Chesapeake Bay Principal Staff Committee (PSC) recently met and discussed setting a date or timeline with regard to the Chesapeake Bay cleanup. At this meeting, the PSC discussed increasing the rate of cleanup, with a deadline for completion of 2020. Reports of this discussion have prompted questions from a number of quarters and we will attempt to address some of the questions in this brief paper.
"The PSC is a group policy advisors to the Chesapeake Bay Executive Council (EC), made up of secretaries and other staff from environment and resource agencies in the Bay watershed. The EC is made up of the Governors of the Bay states, the Mayor of Washington DC, and the EPA Administrator and serves in a leadership capacity on Chesapeake Bay issues. The PSC discusses and makes recommendations to the EC regarding various policy positions and actions. It is left to the discretion of the EC to act upon these recommendations, within it’s authority.
"If the PSC moves forward with a recommendation regarding a new deadline, the EC will decide whether to adopt a new date and in what format to adopt it. It could be a nonbinding target with little to no relevance. On the other hand, it could take the form of a meaningful, enforceable compact with clear milestones and deadlines which would drive the cleanup effort.
'What is clear is that the adoption of any such deadline will not alter the current schedule for completing a Bay-wide TMDL. The Chesapeake 2000 Agreement between EPA and the Bay states gave all parties an opportunity to attempt to reach cleanup goals by 2010 in order to avoid a Bay-wide TMDL. Recently, all have agreed that we will not achieve the load reductions necessary to meet cleanup goals by this date. Accordingly, EPA is currently moving forward to develop a Bay-wide TMDL. A federal court order requires that EPA complete the TMDL by May 2011.
'It is also clear that the establishment of a new deadline will not impact the existing responsibilities of NPDES permits issued to wastewater treatment plants and other permit holders. The permit limits for nitrogen and phosphorous placed in discharge permits reflect compliance with revised downstream Water Quality Standards established for the Chesapeake Bay in 2005. Those permit limits are currently required for federal Clean Water Act compliance and will not be affected should a TMDL implementation completion date of 2020 be chosen by the EC.
'Perhaps the biggest question is this: what impact would such a change have on resource allocation? We currently have a $600 million funding gap in meeting Pennsylvania’s nutrient reduction goals from the agricultural sector. Our farm community is using all the funding they can find and generally matching it 1:1 with private resources. This year’s $10 million allocation for the REAP program, for example, was gone within four hours, and many farmers who submitted their applications on the first day will have to reapply next year.
'Now is the time to accelerate our efforts, not delay them. Additional state funding is essential to fully leverage the new Federal Farm Bill’s conservation funding and claim PA’s fair share of that resource. Additional assistance for agriculture is also critical to help farms reach PA’s trading threshold, enabling them to do additional work that will provide essential nutrient reduction credits to wastewater treatment facilities and to enable future economic growth." |
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9/26/2008 |
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