RICHMOND – U.S. Rep. Robert Wittman on Monday urged the Virginia General Assembly and the federal government to work together to clean up the Chesapeake Bay.
Wittman said he has proposed federal legislation to improve coordination among agencies working to restore the Bay. The Chesapeake Bay Accountability and Recovery Act also would help ensure that money is spent wisely, the Virginia Republican said.
“One agency may ask for money for one area. Another agency may ask for the same type of money,” Wittman said. “They may not coordinate the expenditure of those dollars … you can have two efforts that are opposing each other.”
Agencies must coordinate their spending plans, he said.
“That will make sure that we identify each year every dollar that’s being spent on the Bay and require that agencies talk to each other in making those budget requests,” Wittman said.
Wittman has proposed the legislation before, but it has never been approved.
Ann Jennings, Virginia executive director of the Chesapeake Bay Foundation, said she supports Wittman’s bill. She said the federal government is not meeting the goals of the Chesapeake Bay 2000 Agreement, which set a 2010 deadline for the Bay and its tributaries to be taken off the Environmental Protection Agency’s list of dirty waters.
“We will certainly not meet that deadline,” Jennings said. “We’re running out of time to bring the Bay back, and congressman Wittman’s legislation will require our federal agencies to work harder, smarter and faster in order to get the job done.”
Wittman’s bill would require that agencies be held accountable for their cleanup projects. If a program can’t prove that progress has been made, funding would be taken away and given to other agencies.
Critics might fear that this approach could result in less funding for Bay restoration, Wittman acknowledged. However, he said he believes the opposite would occur.
“If we can identify what the outcomes are, the success of those outcomes. … I think we can better identify what the resource needs are,” Wittman said.
He said the legislation is intended to bring together the various levels of governments.
“This effort, in my mind, is going to make sure that we tie a thread between the federal efforts, the state efforts and the local efforts,” Wittman said. “Each level of government has a role, and it will not work if any level of government is not involved.
Ken Smith, the president of the Virginia Waterman’s Association, said it’s time for governments to work together to return the Bay to the conditions he remembers from his youth.
“I think that’s long past due,” Smith said. “All three governments have let us down.”
