Broken [EPA] Promises on the [Chesapeake] Bay

Washington Post ^ | December 27, 2008 | David A. Fahrenthold

[Lorianne]

Government administrators in charge of an almost $6 billion cleanup of the Chesapeake Bay tried to conceal for years that their effort was failing -- even issuing reports overstating their progress -- to preserve the flow of federal and state money to the project, former officials say.

The cleanup, which had its 25th anniversary this month, seems doomed to miss its second official deadline for achieving major reductions in pollution by 2010.

The goal of rescuing North America's largest estuary was formally entrusted in 1983 to a group of federal, state and local authorities under the loose guidance of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. The task: controlling runoff from 4.8 million acres of farmland, installing upgrades at more than 400 sewage plants and managing the catch of more than 11,000 licensed watermen.

But the agencies charged with the cleanup have never mustered enough legal muscle or political will to overcome opposition from the agricultural and fishing industries and other interests.

Instead of strengthening their tactics, though, they tried to make the cleanup effort look less hopeless than it was.

[fella]

I wonder how many of the ex and current Government administrators have or are closing in on their million dollars?

[mrmargaritaville]

This is so hard to believe, I mean the US Post office, Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, HUD, Fema, Customs and Border Patrol, the TARP bailout are all such HUGE success’-I can’t believe the EPA is poorly run.

[Mad Dawg]

Lying Bureaucrats need to do HARD jail time. They are a huge threat to our republic. AND SOBs too.

[jnsun]

Throw in the US Dept of Education.

Coming to believe, corroborated by Al Franken, and an elected government literally throwng money at everything, Americans are the stupidest people in the developed world.

[org.whodat]

The government cannot build fences are clean up pollution, however they are really good at spending.

[razorback-bert]

installing upgrades at more than 400 sewage plants

You would think local government would jump at the chance to upgrade sewage plants with free money.

[Nuc1]

Last time I was at the inner harbor in Balt. it was much cleaner than in years past.

[finnsheep]

Studies have been done on the Chesapeake watershed and it has been possible to differentiate between pollution caused by wildlife, pets, livestock and humans. Wildlife have been consistently the biggest problem with impacts ranging from a low of 20% to around 50% of all pollution. In areas where the wildlife impact was lower, the pet problem was about 30%. So pretty consistently wildlife and pets caused most of the problems. However most of the targeting has been towards farmers and human waste. http://www.epa.gov/reg3wapd/tmdl/VA_TMDLs/CherryStoneInlet/GulfFishand8otherDR.pdf

[Joe Boucher]

Here in South Florida the sugar industry and citrus industry have been back pumping polluted water in to Lake Okeechobee for decades.
The sugar industry burns the crop just before harvest to burn off the sharp grassy part then cut and process the cane.
Air pollution during burning season is unbreathable. and it seeps in to the water table.
Citrus back pumps phosphate and fertalizers in to the Lake. Then the waters from the lake are released in to the Saint Lucie River estuary and the Caloosahatchie river system. Both rivers are nearly dead.
The Army corp of engineers created this mess by digging a channel in the middle of the kissimmee river.
The E.P.A. will come and bitch slap a home owner if he takes out a tree however the pollution created by these two industries if so much worse and the e.p.a. continues to help and defend these two industries.
The heads of the E.P.A. should be shot.

[doberville]

In Maryland, the largest polluter by far - and never mentioned - is the Maryland State Roads Department runoff.

[facedown]

Current EPA bay program director Jeffrey L. Lape said the cleanup did not have enough money or legal muscle for its task.

No comment necessary.

[Ben Ficklin]

"did not have enough money"

The money was supposed to come from CARA/CARA 2000. Title One was the coastal mitigation/restoration money that would come from OCS royalties. But, that legislation was blocked by Senators from the interior states. Instead they passed the CARA Compromise, aka CARA Lite, which didn't have coastal restoration in it.

The compromise was in place for 7 years and was eventually replaced by the GOM Energy Security Act of 2006 in which a portion of the federal royalties were redirected to the four gulf oil producing states to be used only for coastal restoration/protection and other environmental uses.

If they want the money for the bay, they need to allow off shore drilling. Drilling the OCS will give them part of the royalty and if they drill state waters/ICS, they get all the royalty.

[Gondring]

This is so hard to believe, I mean the US Post office, Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, HUD, Fema, Customs and Border Patrol, the TARP bailout are all such HUGE success’-I can’t believe the EPA is poorly run.

So conservative victories in obstructing this effort is "poorly run"??? Would you prefer they had success in shutting down the polluting???

[Gondring]

You would think local government would jump at the chance to upgrade sewage plants with free money.

There are probably some inexperienced ones that do.

[Gondring]

So pretty consistently wildlife and pets caused most of the problems. However most of the targeting has been towards farmers and human waste.

I can't understand why they haven't implemented Deer Diapers instead of pushing for efficient fertilization.

[mrmargaritaville]

I was being sarcastic-point is anything the goverernment does fails, or at a minimum runs poorly. The only thing it does that works well is the US military, but they’re working on ruining it.

[Tolerance Sucks Rocks]

Maryland “Freak State” PING!