EPA said that the plans filed by those states have gaps that "are reducing its confidence that they can cut pollution enough to meet restoration goals." EPA Regional Administrator Shawn M. Garvin said that "the agency hoped the states would strengthen their plans to provide greater assurance restoration goals would be met." If the states do not provide this assurance, however, EPA's bay plan "includes tightening of permits for pollution sources such as wastewater treatment plants, storm water systems and animal feeding operations."
The states are "all at least partly in the bay's watershed. Pollution that flows into many of their rivers and streams makes its way to the Chesapeake, where nitrogen and phosphorus that fuel oxygen-robbing algae blooms and sediment runoff kill vital underwater grasses. Pollution and habitat loss have been major factors in sharp declines of the bay's two main commercial fisheries, oysters and crabs, although strict harvest cuts have helped the crab population rebound."
The president of the Chesapeake Bay Foundation, said that "EPA appears to be ending three decades of voluntary state-led efforts and beginning to enforce the Clean Water Act."
To read the Businessweek story, click here.
Posted: 09/27/2010
