Community Viewpoint: Goodlatte's Bay Cleanup Bill Too Weak

It is true that the Chesapeake Clean Water and Ecosystem Restoration Act (S.1816, typically referred to as the Chesapeake Clean Water Act) now in Congress will require all of us to do more to reduce pollution.

The Virginia Farm Bureau Federation, however, has made statements about the legislation that are not accurate and fail to reflect changes made by the bill’s sponsor, Sen. Ben Cardin, D-Md. He made these changes, in fact, specifically to address prior concerns from the farm community.

This legislation will not greatly expand EPA’s jurisdiction over farming, require permits for all farmers, or place EPA in charge of all land use decisions in the Bay watershed. Such assertions are false. This federal legislation clearly recognizes Virginia’s lead role in determining how best to reduce agricultural runoff and other pollution to restore the Bay and its rivers, including deciding what makes the most sense for farmers.

In fact, the Chesapeake Clean Water Act is about more than just farming. It creates a framework to reduce pollution from all sources, allows the states flexibility in how to achieve clean water and authorizes significant new resources — more than $2 billion — to provide technical assistance for farmers and help localities reduce urban and suburban runoff, as well as create jobs and provide economic benefits to the region. We know a clean Bay can be an economic boon to the region. According to a University of Virginia analysis, using state and federal resources to help farmers reduce polluted runoff can actually generate more than 11,750 new jobs of at least a year’s duration in Virginia.

Virginia’s farmers have made important progress reducing runoff, and the EPA’s Chesapeake Bay Program has clearly and publicly acknowledged that fact. Leaders in the farm community, moreover, have found that implementing conservation practices that reduce pollution also can improve their farm bottom line. Unfortunately, many Virginia farms are still not using basic conservation practices to reduce runoff of fertilizer, manure and soil. Virginia agriculture remains a significant source of nitrogen, phosphorus and sediment pollution that must be reduced in Virginia in order to restore the more than 12,000 miles of dirty streams and rivers in the state. It is these problems that the commonwealth must address, as well as pollution from urban/suburban storm water runoff, onsite septic systems and wastewater treatment plant discharges.

The Farm Bureau also has asserted that the trading program in the Chesapeake Clean Water Act is structured in a way that would not financially benefit the farm community. To the contrary, the legislation would establish an innovative, free-market based approach to reducing pollution that would significantly benefit agriculture and forestry. An analysis by the World Resources Institute of the trading program proposed in the bill found that many Virginia farmers could utilize a trading program and significantly improve their bottom line by selling credits.

Instead of the Chesapeake Clean Water Act, various Farm Bureaus have portrayed H.5509, the Chesapeake Bay Reauthorization and Improvement Act of Reps. Bob Goodlatte, R-Sixth District, and Tim Holden, D-Pa., as a Bay-friendly, farmer-friendly alternative. Although the Holden-Goodlatte bill does reauthorize the EPA’s Chesapeake Bay Program, sets up an interstate nutrient trading program and requires the states and federal government to report on how money is spent, it does not call for state cleanup plans with firm deadlines or requirements on states and polluters as the Chesapeake Clean Water Act does. The bill clearly does not ensure that farmers achieve the nutrient reductions necessary to restore the Bay and its rivers. In fact, it seems to effectively prohibit the states and EPA from imposing higher standards.

The legislation proposed and supported by Goodlatte is not an adequate alternative to the bill offered by other Bay area legislators.

The Chesapeake Clean Water Act is what the Chesapeake Bay and rivers like the James, York, Rappahannock, Shenandoah and Potomac need to regain their health and their great natural resource values.

Proponents of the Chesapeake Clean Water Act are not asking farmers to do more than their fair share, and we certainly aren’t asking anyone to give up their way of life. Cleaning up local rivers and the Bay is everyone’s responsibility — homeowners, local governments, developers, farmers, legislators and conservationists.

Truth be told, the Chesapeake Clean Water Act asks all of us to reduce pollution. Passage of it will ensure that we have healthy rivers and streams that all Virginians can enjoy as well as the vibrant farm economy we all need.

Jennings is Virginia Executive Director for the Chesapeake Bay Foundation. She wrote this commentary for The News & Advance and in response to a Sept. 1 column by Rep. Bob Goodlatte, R-Sixth District.