EPA finally gets tough with states on Chesapeake Bay pollution; localities will feel the impact

"Federal officials began a sweeping crackdown on pollution in the Chesapeake Bay on Friday, threatening to punish five mid-Atlantic states with rules that could raise sewer bills and put new conditions on construction," reports David Farenthold of The Washington Post.

"The move by the Environmental Protection Agency is part of the biggest shakeup in the 27-year history of the Chesapeake cleanup. Earlier, when states failed to meet deadlines to cut pollution by 2000 and 2010, nothing happened. Now, the deadline has been moved to 2025 - but the EPA is already threatening states that lag behind." Yesterday's threat went to Pennsylvania, Virginia, West Virginia, Delaware and New York, "which together account for more than 70 percent of the pollution that causes 'dead zones' in the bay," Farenthold writes. EPA said the states' cleanup plans have "serious deficiencies."

EPA could force the states to take "expensive new measures" that could raise sewer bills and property taxes, and impose new rules on farms, Farenthold notes. he calls that "a significant political risk. In an era when environmentalism seems to be losing steam, it is betting that residents of the Chesapeake region care enough to pay the cost of saving the bay." Pennsylvania Environmental Protection Secretary John Hanger, who works for Democratic Gov. Ed Rendell, told the Post that EPA was issuing dictates like the Chinese Communist Party, but "Environmentalists cheered Friday's news as a potential turning point for the Chesapeake," Farenthold reports.