12/02/24 - 90 New Stories - REAL Environmental & Conservation Leadership In PA: http://tinyurl.com/5xpcbut8
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Opinion- Protecting Chesapeake Bay Is A Priority That Requires Federal, Local Funds
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By Matthew Ehrhart, Pennsylvania Executive Director, Chesapeake Bay Foundation Without question, the BP oil spill in the Gulf is one of the worst environmental tragedies we’ve seen.
While many of us feel helpless and angry, let it remind us that while a tragedy of this size might be beyond our ability to help individually, we can play an important role in protecting our local waters from pollution.
The Chesapeake Bay is considered one of this country’s most vital ecosystems. The bay, along with San Francisco Bay, Puget Sound, Columbia River, Great Lakes, Gulf of Mexico and the Long Island Sound are among the nation’s “Great Waters,” estuaries that provide economic and environmental benefits that our country depends on.
These estuaries are our lifeblood, providing a seemingly endless bounty of resources. They support more than 75 percent of our commercial fisheries and 80 percent to 90 percent of the recreational catch. Whether it’s the rockfish on your plate or your daily fish oil supplement, the source is likely one of our Great Waters.
More than 1,000 miles north of the Gulf, in Pennsylvania, we, too, are experiencing a challenge with respect to water quality. Our water quality is suffering from decades of overuse and misuse. The ways we use our land — meaning our farms, our lawns, development and historic and current industries — have polluted more than 16,000 miles of our streams. Many of our streams are dead or unable to support aquatic life.
Is this really what we want for ourselves and our children?
We all deserve clean water, and we are legally entitled to it. With more than 60 percent of Pennsylvanians getting their drinking water from surface waters, we should demand it.
Pennsylvania has for many years not been meeting water quality standards — established through the Clean Water Act — for many of our own rivers and streams as well as the Chesapeake Bay. We also have been lax in compliance and enforcement of state water quality requirements. Voluntary initiatives have resulted in improvements but have been insufficient to reach our legal requirements. But change is coming to Pennsylvania.
Later this year, the Environmental Protection Agency will roll out a pollution “budget” for our state’s portion of the Chesapeake Bay watershed, which includes nearly half of the state. That pollution budget will improve the water quality in our streams by putting a cap on the amount of pollution that enters our streams and ultimately the bay. Pennsylvania will then decide what actions make most sense to meet the cap. Maryland and Virginia must meet similar requirements.
Reducing pollution will come with a cost. Communities will be required to upgrade stormwater infrastructure, farmers to reduce pollution from manure and soil erosion and more.
Some might say that “water can wait” in these tough times, but the fact is, it can’t. Without clean, drinkable water, everyone suffers. And the costs of ignoring it for another day will jeopardize our health, our economy — and our futures.
Realizing the financial burden that will be placed on these states to implement these improvements, Sen. Ben Cardin (D-Md.) and congressman Elijah Cummings (D-Md.) have introduced a bill in Congress that will help states financially meet the pollution reduction requirements.
The Chesapeake Clean Water Act would authorize federal funding to the tune of $1.5 billion to help municipalities reduce stormwater runoff, and at least $96 million in technical assistance to help farmers to reduce pollution from manure and soil erosion. It provides states with the flexibility to develop a plan that works and holds everyone accountable.
Markup for the Chesapeake Clean Water Act and the Great Waters legislation is scheduled for today. The Chesapeake Bay Foundation and many of our Pennsylvania partners support the bill as does Sen. Arlen Specter.
If the oil spill in the Gulf has taught us anything, let it be that water is indeed one of our most precious resources and that we all suffer, in one way or another, for polluting it.
Matthew Ehrhart is Pennsylvania Executive Director of the Chesapeake Bay Foundation.
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7/5/2010 |
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