By Rona Kobell, Chesapeake Bay Journal

U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Gina McCarthy acknowledged Wednesday that Pennsylvania had not done enough to control pollution flowing into the Chesapeake Bay, and said that her agency needed to coordinate with agriculture officials to change the course.

Pennsylvania’s lack of progress is “discouraging at the very least,” McCarthy told hundreds of environmental activists, government officials and foundation leaders attending the Choose Clean Water Coalition conference in Annapolis.

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“I need to talk to the USDA as well,” she added, to applause, “because there is work that needs to be done.”

EPA officials and the states involved in the Bay cleanup have known for years that Pennsylvania lagged behind.

But a report released last June showed the Keystone State would need to double the number of farm acres under nutrient management and plant seven times as many acres of forest and grass buffers as it did in 2014 to meet its interim reduction targets under EPA’s Total Maximum Daily Load pollution diet.

Pennsylvania contributes a large share of the pollution loads to the Chesapeake Bay, and agriculture is the bulk of that.

The state has 35,000 farms in the Potomac and Susquehanna watersheds, according to Richard Batiuk, associate director of science, analysis and implementation for the Chesapeake Bay Program.

Many of these farms are small dairy farms, exempt from the Clean Water Act regulations of animal farms because they are too small to meet the thresholds. Some are also Amish and Old Order Mennonite operations, and those farmers are hesitant to take government funds to modernize their operations to control pollution.

Pennsylvania officials unveiled earlier this year a plan to “reboot” the state’s lagging Bay cleanup effort by vastly increasing farm inspections and finding new sources of funding.

But the state’s environmental leadership got a jolt last week, when John Quigley, secretary of Environmental Protection, resigned following disclosure of a profanity-laced email from him urging environmental groups to pressure legislators opposing administration initiatives.

Quigley’s deputy, Patrick McDonnell, has been named Acting Secretary.

The EPA administrator addressed Pennsylvania’s cleanup performance at the Choose Clean Water conference only because staff of the Chesapeake Bay Foundation submitted a question about it.

Conference organizers said the administrator had time for just two questions following her remarks; the other was about environmental justice.

Environmental groups and the Chesapeake Bay Commission recently complained to Maryland U.S. Sen. Ben Cardin (D-MD), that under the latest Farm bill, farmers in Bay states are getting far less financial help from USDA to install conservation practices than they’d been led to believe would be spent in the region.

McCarthy’s comments about the USDA were “what we needed to hear,” said CBF Maryland Director Alison Prost. All the good intentions, Prost added, won’t help Pennsylvania do its part if the state doesn’t receive enough money to put the right programs in place.

McCarthy said EPA resources are “fairly minimal,” and Prost said that’s especially true given USDA’s vast resources.

In recent years, presidents have budgeted well over $100 billion for the department. The EPA’s budgets hover around one tenth of that, and the agency has limited authority over farms - even when their operators discharge into local waterways.

“EPA’s budget is a fraction of what’s needed to do the job in Pennsylvania,” Prost said. “We needed her to say what she said.”

And in six months, when the Chesapeake Bay Executive Council on which McCarthy sits meets, Prost said her group plans to ask how that conversation went with USDA.

Nicholas DiPasquale, director of the Chesapeake Bay Program office, echoed his boss in his own remarks to the coalition audience.

“I’m going to say this as clearly as I can. If Pennsylvania does not succeed, we’re not going to succeed. It’s as simple as that,” he said.

Batiuk said Pennsylvania’s challenge is “an order of magnitude” more than the other states, but that there is “no reason they can’t get there, and we have to help them.”

McCarthy also spoke about the Flint water crisis, and blamed it on systematic neglect and disinvestment. It is happening not just in Flint, she said, but in low-income communities all across the nation.

Investments in transportation and housing, she argued, are also investments in the environment, and the nation needs to make more of those.

For more on Chesapeake Bay-related issues in Pennsylvania, visit the CBF-PA webpage.  Click Here to sign up for Pennsylvania updates (bottom of left column).

NewsClips:

EPA Chief Calls PA’s Lagging Chesapeake Bay Cleanup Discouraging

Water Monitors Seen As Key To Chesapeake Bay Cleanup

PennFuture: Demand Conservation Districts Protect Water Quality

CBF-PA: Susquehanna Watershed Education Program

Fairfield Students Canoe For Environment

Op-Ed: State Needs Farmers, Private Sector To Solve Runoff Problem, By Ron Kreider

Analysis: Bion On Kreider Farm Can’t Pay Back A $7.7M PennVEST Loan

The War Over The Chesapeake Bay

Related Pa Environment Digest Stories:

CBF-PA Welcomes $25 Million  Growing Greener Investment In Clean Water Projects

PA Growing Greener Coalition Outlines Priorities For Coming State Budget Talks

DCNR: PA Must Install 95K Acres Of Forest Buffers In Chesapeake Bay Watershed In 9 Years

Chesapeake Bay Foundation-PA: PA Update, Taking Pride In Planting Trees

Chesapeake Bay Journal: Despite Progress, States To Fall Short Of Bay Cleanup Targets

DEP, Conservation Districts Work On Farm Inspections In Chesapeake Bay Watershed

DEP Tells House Committees Chesapeake Bay Program Faces Inadequate Resources, Data

Dams On Susquehanna Are Undoing Progress In Reducing Pollution To Chesapeake Bay

Agencies Unveil New Chesapeake Bay Cleanup Strategy

DCNR Leading Statewide Forest Buffer Effort To Improve Water Quality

PA Coalition Emerges To Support Farmers In Effort To Clean Up Chesapeake Bay

CBF-PA: Lack Of Funding For Farmers Defeats Effort To Meet Clean Water Commitment

CBF Op-Ed: Farm Bureau Can Choose To Be A Sore Loser Or Part Of The Solution

Rock Lititz Project Reduces Sediment, Nutrient Runoff Without Taxpayer Money

(Reprinted from the Chesapeake Bay Journal.  Click Here to sign up for your own copy.)

5/30/2016