Baltimore City and County officials renewed an agreement to restore and protect shared Chesapeake Bay watersheds Tuesday in what environmentalists called a significant improvement to a similar pact signed four years ago.
Watershed advocates said the six-year covenant signed Tuesday is a more specific and time-driven version of a 2002 agreement between Baltimore County Executive Jim Smith and Baltimore Mayor Martin O?Malley. The pact identifies five specific target areas ? stormwater management, community greening, development, public health and trash ? as top priorities, and establishes deadlines for goals.
“This really sets a timetable,” said David Carroll, director of the county?s Department of Environmental Protection and Resource Management. “This way, the public can track it.”
Prior to the 2002 agreement, Smith said local governments failed to acknowledge that natural resources “don?t adhere to political boundaries.” But watershed advocates such as Herring Run Watershed Association manager Mary Roby said efforts need to extend beyond an advisory panel established then.
The 2006 agreement requires the county and city to establish specific goals for the five target areas by Oct. 1, 2007, and commit to action strategies, including funding, one year later. The pact also requires the county and city to form a 13-member panel that will meet publicly and regularly and form a committee for each target area.
In addition, the panel will convene every other year with residents and community associations to review progress, according to the agreement.
Representatives from about a dozen local conservation and watershed associations attended Tuesday?s ceremonial signing in Towson and will monitor progress over the next six years. Educating the public on solutions as simple as planting a tree will be a top priority, Roby said.
“Many people don?t know that stormwater is not treated before it reaches the Chesapeake Bay,” she said. “That if they don?t clean up after their dog, nitrogen will go into the Bay.”
City Public Works director George Winfield attended the ceremony on behalf of Gov.-elect O?Malley.
