The governors of Maryland and Virginia admit they are far behind in goals to clean up the Chesapeake Bay, but promised Wednesday to step up specific efforts to reduce pollution and preserve forests and farmland.
“We?re headed in the right direction, but we need to put our foot on the accelerator of our efforts,” Maryland Gov. Martin O?Malley said as he wrapped up an Annapolis meeting of the Chesapeake Bay Executive Council, which he chairs. “We also need to put the brakes on harmful things.”
“Candor compels us to say we?re not going to be where we need to be in 2010,” Virginia Gov. Tim Kaine said. “We were late getting started,” but “so much of what has been done has been in the last three or four years.”
In closed meetings earlier Wednesday, Chesapeake Bay Foundation President William Baker suggested the states, including Pennsylvania, acknowledge they won?t meet agreed goals, but set more reasonable reductions. He emphasized efforts to reduce pollutants from agriculture, which is the cheapest way to cut nitrogen runoff, as well as cleaning up the Blue Plains sewage treatment plant on the Potomac, the single-largest source of nitrogen in the Bay watershed.
Maryland has committed money for Blue Plains, but District Mayor Adrian Fenty emphasized the need for federal funds to help fix the $2 billion problem at Blue Plains, which cleans water from Washington and its Maryland suburbs.
Kaine said Virginia had spent $700 million to upgrade sewage treatment, and in 10 days he would propose a budget advancing a major initiative to reduce runoff from agriculture. He said the state was on track to preserve an additional 400,000 acres of farmland, but he would also propose a plan for better nutrient management, more stream buffers, increasing conservation tilling methods and adding cover crops, as well as cutting chicken waste pollution in the Shenandoah Valley.
O?Malley and the other governors, all Democrats, said there had been significant progress in specific areas aimed at cutting bay pollution. Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell stressed that lack of funding was a constant issue, but hewould be willing to match any new federal funds.
The governors and mayor sent a letter to congressional leaders urging them to pass the Farm Bill, which contains billions to aid farmers increase conservation efforts. U.S. Undersecretary of Agriculture Mark Rey, who was part of the Annapolis meeting, said the $7.2 billion for conservation in that bill may be the largest environmental bill in Congress this year. “The president is eager to sign this bill,” Rey said.
