GAO Denounces Bay Cleanup Efforts: Fed. Office Overstates Progress, Minimizes Threats, Report Says

Washington Post ^ | November 16, 2005 | Elizabeth Williamson

[cogitator]

The government agency leading the cleanup of the Chesapeake Bay has consistently overstated its progress while minimizing threats to the bay and its own failures to address them, according to a federal oversight report released yesterday.

...

The criticism comes amid growing angst among policymakers and the public that an agreement reached five years ago for cleaning the bay by 2010 could fail without a big political and financial boost. In the agreement, known as Chesapeake 2000, the region's political and environmental leaders proposed cutting the amount of major pollutants that enter the bay nearly in half over a decade.

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The GAO report takes the office to task for mixing monitoring data with computerized models, which are meant merely as predictions. That flaw, combined with a lack of independence in the Bay Program's reporting process, has led to "negative trends being downplayed and a rosier picture of the bay's health being reported," the report says.

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At a time when the Bush administration has recommended cuts in funding for such key bay cleanup proposals as sewage treatment plant upgrades, the problems at the Chesapeake Bay Program Office "are consistent with those policy choices," said Roy Hoagland, vice president for environmental protection and restoration with the Chesapeake Bay Foundation, a private nonprofit environmental advocacy organization.

[cogitator]

Lovers of blue crab should take note.

[q_an_a]

my question is if more than 3 agencies are involved "under legislation" who was put in charge? Congress made the deal who did they hold responsible? Why do they need to go back to the Presidnet when they wrote the legislation? Why don't they have a better checks and balance program in place for all funding? What is wrong with congress that the people who manage the money can't create better reviews on a faster basis? Why do they need the GAO?

I think I know the answer to my question - Congress is lazy and Senators are the worst. They spend money as lawyers using, OPM and they have no idea about reviews to improve quality.