The Clean Water Act

Landmark Bills Propose to Speed Up Bay Cleanup

The launch of the Chesapeake Clean Water and Ecosystem Act of 2009 (S 1816, HR 3852) was cheered by 150 supporters  who waved signs reading  “Children Need Clean Water,” “Save the Bay,” and other slogans during a press conference on a bright but chilly morning at Sandy Point State Park in Annapolis.

"This is a major moment, really the most significant advancement in  the Chesapeake Bay in the last 25 years," Cardin said during the press conference, backed by U.S. Representatives Elijah Cummings and Chris Van Hollen, Maryland Governor Martin O’Malley, and Virginia Secretary of Natural Resources L. Preston Bryant.

The bills, introduced in the Senate on October 19 and the House on October 20, would give the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) more authority to hold Bay area states accountable for meeting pollution reduction goals, and the power to punish the states by withholding federal funds if the states break their promises.

This is significant, because three interstate agreements between the EPA and states to clean up the Bay have failed over the last quarter century.  The states did not meet a deadline to restore the Chesapeake Bay’s water quality by 2000, and have said they will also fail to meet a second deadline of 2010.

Representative Cummings, who is sponsoring companion legislation in the House, said that the increased federal oversight in the bill is necessary.

"Despite being informed by conclusive scientific evidence of what is wrong, the many voluntary agreements that have been signed with so much fanfare over the past quarter century have all failed to accomplish their shared objective of truly cleaning up the Bay," said Cummings.
 
The bill would provide new tools for controlling stormwater runoff, the only broad category of pollution that is increasing in the Bay watershed. And the legislation would authorize $1.5 billion in new federal grants to build better storm water control systems.

Maryland Governor Martin O’Malley noted that, while pollution from farms and sewage treatment plants has decreased, runoff pollution from development keeps rising.

"Stormwater is going in the wrong direction, and there is no reason for it," said O’Malley. "We know the science, we know the technical things that can be done. But we also know that it costs some money to keep stormwater from overflowing into our rivers and streams."

The proposed law would set a firm deadline of 2025 for states to have all necessary programs in place to meet Chesapeake Bay water quality restoration goals. And the legislation would require states to show the federal government they are making progress toward meeting these goals every two years, starting in 2014.

"This is the most important Bay legislation in the Chesapeake Bay Foundation's history. If passed, it will be a new day for the Chesapeake Bay," said Chesapeake Bay Foundation President Will Baker. "This legislation requires action replace words. It will reduce pollution in the Bay and the rivers and streams by requiring accountability, milestones, and severe consequences for failure."

President Barack Obama’s administration in September released proposals to help restore the Bay by increasing federal oversight of state cleanup plans. The proposed bill by Cardin and his colleagues would put these accountability mechanisms into law, so that they couldn’t be ignored by future administrations.

"We recognize this bill to be tough," said Virginia Natural Resources Secretary Bryant.  "It has internal deadlines…and will hold everyone accountable."

The bill would not create new federal regulations  to control specific kinds of pollution, but would instead give states targets they will have to meet, and give the states freedom to decide how they want to meet those goals. One option outlined in the legislation would be a pollution credit trading system that could lower the cost of meeting pollution reduction goals.

The legislation was co-sponsored by Senators Mikulski, Carper, and Kaufman;  and in the House, Representatives Hoyer, Van Hollen, Edwards, Sarbanes, Norton, Moran, Scott, and Connolly (as of 2 p.m. October 19, 2009).

Help pass this historic legislation. Encourage your representatives to support The Chesapeake Clean Water and Ecosystem Act of 2009. Send a message now.