Making a major investment in Chesapeake Bay cleanup could boost the economies of Virginia, Maryland and neighboring states, according to a new Chesapeake Bay Foundation report. The report estimates that if pollution in the Bay continues, a “decline of the region’s fisheries and the resulting economic impacts” will ensue.
Chesapeake Bay Foundation spokesman Chuck Epes said the report is a compilation of many reports, and outlines “the cost of ongoing pollution that is already draining our economy” with losses in the seafood, tourist and recreation industries.
The report cites a National Oceanic and Atmosphere Administration report that found the Maryland and Virginia commercial seafood industries contributed $2 billion in sales, $1 billion in income and provided 41,000 jobs in 2008. Saltwater fishing contributed $1.6 billion in sales, with $800 million of economic activity and about 13,000 jobs.
According to the report, Virginia’s seafood harvest declined by 30 percent from 1994 to 2004, with Maryland’s commercial landings showing a similar decline. The report cited a decline in jobs in fisheries, stating that since 1974, 136 oyster shucking houses have winnowed away to about a half-dozen today.
Epes said there is “appropriate concern about the cost for cleaning,” but economies are “already bearing the costs in the millions, if not billions, of dollars in economic drain on our economy by not doing so.”
Estimates on the cost of cleaning up the Bay run as high as $28 billion, but Epes said the Bay is valued at $1 trillion, an amount updated from a $670 million estimate made 20 years ago.
Virginia submitted its Chesapeake Bay Watershed Implementation Plan to the Environmental Protection Agency on Monday. Secretary of Natural Resources Doug Domenech said in a statement that the plan “charts out significant and far-reaching actions, and it offers realistic, balanced and cost-effective solutions to our water quality concerns.”
Maryland’s deadline for submitting its plan to restore the Bay was also Monday, but state spokeswoman Dawn Stoltzfus said the state requested a few more days because of the large amount of public comment. Submitting plans were the District,Virginia, West Virginia, Delaware, Pennsylvania and New York.
