EPA issues new draft Chesapeake Bay cleanup plan

By: Rex Springston | Richmond Times-Dispatch
Published: September 24, 2010

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency released today a draft plan for restoring the Chesapeake Bay.

The EPA referred to the plan as a "pollution diet" for the bay. It calls for 25 percent cuts in nitrogen and phosphorus that flow to the bay and at least a 16 percent reduction in sediment, or dirt in bay waters.

Nitrogen and phosphorus, from human and animal waste, aid the growth of algae that foul the bay. Dirt clouds bay waters, blocking sunlight that important underwater grasses need.

The EPA plans to rely heavily on cleanup plans from Virginia, Maryland, four other bay states and the District of Columbia.

Shawn M. Garvin, administrator of the EPA’s mid-Atlantic region, said proposals submitted by Maryland and the District "represented a strong start."

Proposals from other states, including Virginia, were not strong enough, Garvin said.

After hearing what the public says about its draft plan, the EPA intends to make it final by the end of this year.

The plan will guide the bay restoration, which aims to have programs in place by 2025 to clean the Chesapeake and rivers flowing to it, including the James.

The EPA and bay states have been working unsuccessfully to restore the bay since the 1980s. President Barack Obama is pushing the EPA to reinvigorate the cleanup.

Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell also has called the bay a priority, but environmentalists have criticized Virginia’s cleanup proposal as too vague.

EPA issues new draft Chesapeake Bay cleanup plan

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