Ambitious but costly plans to clean up the Chesapeake Bay could provide hundreds of thousands of jobs in the region over the next five years, according to a study by the Chesapeake Bay Foundation.

But critics of the plan are aghast at the diet’s price tag and say it will damage economies that thrive around the Bay. Maryland, Virginia, the District of Columbia and three other states are on the hook for billions of dollars over the next decade to implement the regulations.