bay restoration

EPA officials are cracking down on sates that do not help to reduce Bay pollution, according to the Richmond Times-Dispatch.

With a goal to reduce pollution by 60%, the EPA will impose severe punishments on the six states that contribute the Bay. These punishments could include withholding federal grants.

This is an important issue for Virginia homeowners because the risk of losing federal grants could impair progress in the Commonwealth.

"States that contribute pollution to the Chesapeake Bay must have controls in place by 2017 to reduce that pollution 60 percent, federal officials say.

That is one of a list of cleanup requirements the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency sent the six bay states, including Virginia, in a letter yesterday.

The letter 'is about establishing a new era of federal leadership for the Chesapeake Bay, one that is marked by new accountability,' said J. Charles Fox, President Barack Obama's senior adviser to the EPA for bay issues.

The bay states agreed in May to put controls in place by 2025 that will clean the bay. Yesterday's letter sets a tough interim requirement.
The letter also makes clear that the bay states must not only reduce nitrogen and other pollutants below various limits but keep them there as populations grow.

The requirement could mean, for example, that if a new sewage-treatment plant is built, pollution from the plant must be offset by pollution cuts elsewhere, perhaps by putting grassy buffers along streams.

The letter did not spell out the specifics of that program. The fine detail on how Virginia and other states must reduce pollution will come in a plan to be developed by late 2011."

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Last week federal officials released parts of a strategy to restore the Chesapeake Bay, according to NewsDay.com.

The report focuses on expanding regulation of large-scale animal farms and municipal stormwater runoff. Although details of the expanded regulations have not been decided, the report did mention that federal leadership and "muscle" would be used when necessary to enforce the new regulations.

This report, along with others wll be used to develop a bay restoration strategy scheduled for release on Novemeber 9th.

Because many of the Virginia localities in the Chesapeake Watershed are heavily farmed areas, many Virginia property owners could be affected. Property owners will need to ensure that their rights are protected in the process of restoring the Chesapeake Bay.

"Federal officials on Thursday began revealing the building blocks of a strategy to restore the Chesapeake Bay, using federal leadership to encourage states to cut pollution and federal muscle, when necessary, to ensure it happens.

Among recommendations in draft reports from federal agencies: expanded regulation of large-scale animal farms and municipal stormwater runoff, and requirements that increases in pollution be offset by reductions from other sources.

The details, such as how many more animal feeding operations would be regulated, have not been decided, but 'the message here is that there will be, there is a commitment at EPA to increased enforcement and increased oversight of state programs,' EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson said Thursday.

The reports will be used to develop a bay restoration strategy, scheduled for release Nov. 9, that was mandated by an executive order issued earlier this year by President Obama.

The EPA said it was working with Chesapeake Bay states and the District of Columbia to establish limits for nitrogen, phosphorus and sediments. States would have to develop detailed plans on how to reduce levels of those pollutants from sources such as farms, highways and lawns. The EPA said it would step in if states don't take sufficient action.

While large operations such as industrial chicken farms would be regulated, the EPA said it would also expand regulation of municipal stormwater programs to include high-growth areas.

Jackson said the goal was to use federal leadership, and 'federal muscle when necessary.'

Agriculture is responsible for about half the pollution entering the bay, but Jackson noted there is more turf grass in the bay watershed than corn acreage and the region is much different from when bay restoration efforts began decades ago."

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