With less than four years to go to meet the 2025 implementation deadline of the Chesapeake Clean Water Blueprint, a new Chesapeake Bay Foundation assessment of the collective progress by the  three primary Bay states found that without significant acceleration the Blueprint will be yet another failed effort to restore this national treasure.

“For more than 35 years, the science has been clear about what must be done to restore the Bay. During that time, there have been multiple restoration agreements that made promises and failed to deliver,” said CBF Vice President for Environmental Protection and Restoration Alison Prost. “Today, it is not too late to finish implementing the Blueprint, but time is running out. Plans on paper are a good start, but implementation on the ground is essential. Without strong leadership from the states, and EPA holding the jurisdictions accountable, the Blueprint will be yet another failure.”

Overall, Maryland and Virginia are mostly on track to meet their pollution-reduction commitments. But progress to date is largely due to wastewater treatment upgrades, which while important, are not enough to finish the job.

To do so, the states need a major acceleration of efforts to address agricultural pollution and a concerning rise in pollution from urban and suburban development.

Historically, Pennsylvania has lagged significantly behind in meeting its commitments for achieving its Clean Water Blueprint.

This deficit became more apparent when the Commonwealth submitted its first Phase III Watershed Implementation Plan (WIP) that would meet just 75 percent of its nitrogen reduction commitment and was underfunded by more than $300 million annually.

Pennsylvania recently submitted a revised plan. [Read more here] 

While CBF is still reviewing the revised plan, our assessment of Pennsylvania’s progress to date finds the Commonwealth far behind where it needs to be. It has an enormous amount of work to catch up that no plan alone will change.

Without the commitment of the Governor and General Assembly to provide sufficient funding, there is no reasonable assurance that the needed practices will be put on the ground.

There are more than 25,000 miles of Pennsylvania waters harmed by pollution, and more than 90 percent of the Commonwealth’s remaining pollution reductions must come from agriculture.

While farmers are adopting conservation practices, a massive influx of technical and financial assistance is required for implementation at the scale and pace necessary.

Click Here for a copy of CBF’s assessment.

Pennsylvania's 2020 Progress

Despite leading the watershed states with 4 million pounds of nitrogen-pollution reduction in 2020, Pennsylvania is not on track to achieve its 2025 pollution-reduction requirements. The Commonwealth is also significantly behind in implementing the practices necessary to close the gap.

On the positive side, farms across Pennsylvania are shifting toward production systems that improve the health of their soils to reduce erosion, nutrient and pesticide loss, and polluted runoff to local streams draining to the Chesapeake Bay.

The Commonwealth is on track to meet its milestone targets for the acres of farmland planted in traditional cover crops (crops that are grown off-season to keep soil and nutrients on the land) and using high residue tillage (a conservation practice that leaves more of the soil surface covered with the leaves and stems of cover crops when they are cut down).

However, Pennsylvania is far off-track meeting targets for practices such as rotational grazing (rotating livestock frequently between pastures to allow fields time to regenerate) and the implementation of soil and water conservation and nutrient management plans.

In addition, Pennsylvania is far behind in planting forest buffers. Streamside forested buffers, with native trees and shrubs planted along waterways, are one of the most cost-effective practices for reducing nitrogen, phosphorus, and sediment pollution in both rural and urban landscapes.

Pennsylvania established just over a quarter of the buffers its two-year milestone commitment calls for by 2021.

Pennsylvania is on pace to meet its 2025 Blueprint targets for wastewater ahead of schedule, largely by installing better technology at treatment plants, enhancing the efficiency of existing treatment plant technologies, or purchasing credits that reduce their contribution to nitrogen and phosphorus pollution.

Combined sewer overflows are a challenge for many communities, particularly older cities and boroughs; however, they represent less than 2 percent of Pennsylvania’s wastewater nitrogen loads to the Bay.

Recent analysis indicated that each year, Pennsylvania loses over 18,000 acres of valuable forests, fields, and farmland to development, including new residential areas and massive commercial warehouse and distribution facilities.

Managing growth and land use remains especially challenging in Pennsylvania because decision-making power rests with the more than 1,100 municipal governments in its portion of the Bay watershed.

However, rising pollution from urban and suburban areas—made worse by extreme rainfall linked to climate change—makes it imperative for the Commonwealth to addresses these challenges.

Pennsylvania is relying largely on Countywide Action Plans to achieve its pollution-reduction commitments. Local citizens, businesses, governments, and non-profit organizations have spent long hours determining how best to reduce pollution in their communities.

CBF supports this process, but notes that a lack of technical and financial assistance is thwarting progress.

“Any plan is only as effective as the financial, technical, and oversight support made at the state and federal levels to implement it,” said Harry Campbell, CBF Science Policy and Advocacy Director in Pennsylvania. “State and federal leaders need to follow-through on pending legislation that supports the many boots on the ground, landowners, and communities working hard every day to protect and restore local rivers and streams. They want to do more.”

Click Here for the Pennsylvania assessment.

Lawsuit Pending

More than a year ago, CBF, its partners, and the Attorneys General from Delaware, Maryland, the District of Columbia, and Virginia, filed suit against EPA for its failure to hold Pennsylvania accountable for submitting a Phase III Watershed Implementation Plan that failed to achieve the needed pollution reductions and was underfunded by more than $300 million annually. 

Without holding the Commonwealth accountable, Bay restoration efforts are certain to fail.

Further, despite statements to the contrary, EPA Administrator Regan has yet to appoint a permanent Chesapeake Bay Program leader or Bay special liaison to the Administration.

“To date, EPA Administrator Regan, who now chairs the Chesapeake Executive Council, has failed to take meaningful action. EPA must hold all jurisdictions accountable.” Prost said. “The Biden Administration has the power to make saving this national treasure an environmental success story. If we solve the pollution problems facing the Chesapeake Bay, there is hope for waterways around the country and a path to address the existential challenges of climate change.”

Many of the same pollution-reduction strategies used to clean up the Bay also mitigate climate change. But restoration efforts still face major challenges from climate change and the impact of growth. Both create additional pollution to local waterways and the Bay.

Climate change is affecting the Chesapeake Bay and its rivers and streams—adding more stress to a system still out of balance. We are seeing increased and intensified storms and water and air temperatures increasing. Without additional action these will likely increase the Bay’s low-oxygen dead zone.

Between 2014 and 2018, the Chesapeake Bay watershed had a net loss of 270,000 acres of forest—an area nearly three times the size of Washington, D.C., Richmond, Annapolis, and Harrisburg combined. In addition, the watershed is adding nearly 25,000 acres per year of new urban development.

These are troubling figures for the future.

Forests and other open lands provide wildlife habitat, moderate heat, supply fresh water for drinking, trap carbon, and are crucial for filtering out pollution before it reaches rivers, streams, and the Bay.

But none of the states are accounting for or adequately offsetting the effects of this loss. Nor do state regulations adequately account for the additional polluted runoff generated by new roads, lawns, buildings, and other hard surfaces.

“There is a glimmer of hope, however. To the credit of the many agency workers, farmers, and local leaders, work in Pennsylvania, while woefully behind, is accelerating. The Commonwealth led the watershed in reducing nitrogen pollution last year, and proposed legislation there would create a new program and provide funding to assist farmers in reducing pollution. Pennsylvania should also follow Virginia’s lead and invest a significant portion of the federal stimulus dollars now in its rainy-day fund to invest in agricultural conservation practices,” Prost added. “The U.S. Department of Agriculture should also step up and increase conservation funding in the region.”

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

Also visit the Keystone 10 Million Trees Partnership to learn how you can help clean water grow on trees.

CBF has over 275,000 members in Bay Watershed.

For more information on Pennsylvania’s Plan, visit DEP’s Chesapeake Bay Watershed webpage.  Click Here to subscribe to the Healthy Waters monthly newsletter.

Related Articles This Week:

-- DEP Announces How Pennsylvania Will Meet Its 2025 Pollution Reduction Goals in Chesapeake Bay Watershed; All Counties On Board

-- EPA Points To Lack Of Dedicated Farm Cost Share Program As Major Gap In PA's Chesapeake Bay Watershed Implementation Plan

Related Articles:

-- Senate Committee Reports Out Bipartisan Bill Allocating $500 Million In American Rescue Fund Monies For Local Environmental Improvement, Recreation Projects

-- PA Farm Bureau Calls On Senate, House To Pass And Fund Legislation To Support On-Farm Conservation Efforts To Improve Water Quality

-- Bay Journal: Chesapeake Bay Program Figures Show PA Led Region In 2020 Cleanup Progress

-- Gov. Wolf Announces $17.4 Million To Improve Local Water Quality In 33 Counties In The Chesapeake Bay Watershed

-- Let’s Pass Some Good Environmental & Energy Legislation In 2022 - Instead Of Just Dog Whistles

-- Growing Greener Coalition: American Rescue Plan For Water & Green Infrastructure

-- Presidents Of PA Farm Bureau, Farm Groups In Chesapeake Bay Watershed Call For USDA To Create $737 Million Resilient Farms Initiative

-- Funding Flashback 2017: PA Chesapeake Bay Commission Members Spotlight Need For Clean Water Fund In PA

[Posted: January 5, 2022]

1/10/2022