Report: Md., Va. restoration of Chesapeake Bay 'largely on track'

Jeremy Cox
The Daily Times

Maryland is slipping behind schedule on removing pollutants from its stormwater runoff and septic system discharges but is otherwise largely on pace in its cleanup of the Chesapeake Bay, according to a top environmental group.

The Free State "has taken significant steps to increase restoration activity," the Chesapeake Bay Foundation said Wednesday.

The group's annual assessment also applauded Virginia's progress but called on Pennsylvania to make good on its pledge last year to "reboot" its cleanup strategy after years of foot-dragging.

The bay, America's largest estuary, is beginning to show signs of bouncing back. Nitrogen levels are down 54 percent over the past decade, underwater grasses now cover more area than ever recorded, and the female crab population is up.

The Bay Foundation earlier this year gave its highest grade ever in nearly 20 years of doing so for the Chesapeake's overall health: a C-minus.

But those gains are threatened, environmental advocates say, by the Trump administration's proposal to end federal funding of the Chesapeake Bay restoration. 

The sun sets over the Chesapeake Bay off the coast of Silver Beach, Va.

The government's point agency, the Environmental Protection Agency, offers monitoring and scientific support. But most of its funding — $59 million of last year's $73 million Chesapeake budget —  is funneled to state and local jurisdictions for a variety of cleanup projects.

If the Republican-controlled Congress follows through on the cuts, the states involved in the restoration would have to bear a larger share of the work and costs, said Alison Prost, executive director of the Bay Foundation's Maryland office.

"Given the uncertainties around federal leadership on this effort, we urge the General Assembly and the Hogan administration to tackle the challenges head-on for our benefit and for the benefit of future generations of Marylanders," she said in a statement.

The state's progress varies by geography, according to the report.

Agricultural areas are on track to meet their phosphorus and sediment reduction goals, and they're within 10 percent of doing so with nitrogen. The state has created a "phosphorus management tool" that sets field-based limits on fertilizer use, and farmers have been testing their soils and submitting the results to the state.

“We’re happy with how that’s been going," said Doug Myers, a senior scientist with the Bay Foundation.

As of now, the group has no interest in forwarding any further agriculture-related regulation to Annapolis, preferring instead to see how the tool implementation plays out, he added.

More:Chesapeake Bay Report Card shows steady Bay health recovery

More:Survey: Chesapeake Bay blue crab numbers down

But the state is off by far more than 10 percent on making policies to address urban and suburban runoff as well as nitrogen leaks from septic tanks.

The state has put an emphasis on connecting houses on septic to nearby sewer lines, but many remain because they're too far away from existing public systems. Despite pledging to develop a strategy for those septic tanks in 2014, no plan has been put on the table.

Further complicating matters, the Hogan administration reversed a Gov. Martin O'Malley-era regulation requiring builders in most areas to install tanks using advanced technologies.

The earliest coordinated efforts to make the bay healthier date to 1983. But the work didn't gain much traction until 2010, when six states and the District of Columbia signed an historic agreement to put themselves on a "pollution diet."

The agreement requires the jurisdictions to have 60 percent of the steps in place to reduce pollution by this year. The deadline for completing the work: 2025.

The Bay Foundation's progress report analyzes actions taken through 2016.

Despite the gains made in the agricultural sector, it remains the biggest source of bay pollutants, Myers said, "so it's not like we can rest on our laurels."

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