Tag: Chesapeake Bay

EPA Announces $40 Million To Help Restore Chesapeake Bay

The money from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law also will be used to promote environmental justice and counter climate change. It is part of $238 million targeted for the Chesapeake Bay region over five years under the infrastructure law.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency announced $40 million on Monday to help restore the Chesapeake Bay.

The money from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law also will be used to promote environmental justice and counter climate change. It is part of $238 million targeted for the Chesapeake Bay region over five years under the infrastructure law.

The new funding will help support ready-to-go projects throughout the 64,000-square-mile bay watershed, EPA Deputy Administrator Janet McCabe said in a statement.

The National Fish and Wildlife Foundation’s Chesapeake Stewardship Fund will administer $25 million. The funding will be awarded competitively to communities, non-profit groups, conservation districts and others for projects and plans to protect and restore local streams and habitat in the watershed.

The other $15 million will be distributed to the six watershed states and the District of Columbia under the Most Effective Basins program. Pennsylvania will receive $5.6 million; Maryland, $3.2 million; Virginia, $3.1 million; New York, $1.3 million; Delaware, $750,000; West Virginia, $500,000; and the District of Columbia, $500,000. The funding will largely support farm-based actions to improve local rivers and streams in locations most beneficial to the downstream Chesapeake Bay.

Report Finds Improvements in Chesapeake Bay Health

A new report finds water clarity in the Chesapeake Bay is the best it’s been in decades, and native rockfish, oyster and blue crab populations are rebounding as the overall health of the nation’s largest estuary improves.

The Chesapeake Bay watershed spans 64,000 square miles in parts of Delaware, Maryland, New York, Pennsylvania, Virginia, West Virginia and the District of Columbia. It supports fishing, farming, shipping and tourism.

The Chesapeake Bay Foundation’s biennial State of the Bay report gave the estuary a C-minus grade, an improvement from a D-plus two years ago. It’s the highest score since the first report in 1998.

Still, the report notes the bay is “far from saved” and progress has been uneven. It says Pennsylvania in particular has lagged in pollution control efforts.

Air Cleanup Boosts Chesapeake Water Quality

Researchers with the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science have found a surprising explanation for the improved water quality in the Chesapeake Bay: cleaner air.

Professor Keith Eshleman in the center’s Frostburg office said in a statement Tuesday that his team found nearly universal improvement in water quality since 1986 across the Upper Potomac River Basin. The area includes parts of Maryland, Pennsylvania, Virginia, West Virginia and the District of Columbia.

Eshleman says the improvement is mainly due to reduced levels of atmospheric nitrogen dioxides following implementation of the Clean Air Act in 1990. The law limited emissions from coal-fired power plants.

Eshleman says the reductions lowered the amount of excess nitrogen falling across the region and causing algae blooms in waterways.

U.S. Appeals Court Upholds EPA Plan to Clean up Chesapeake Bay

A U.S. appeals court has upheld a federal plan limiting pollution in the Chesapeake Bay despite objections from farmers who accuse the Environmental Protection Agency of abusing its power.

The ruling Monday upholds restrictions on farm and construction runoff and wastewater treatment and is a clear win for environmentalists.

Six states have agreed to the pollution limits: Delaware, Maryland, New York, Pennsylvania, Virginia and West Virginia, along with Washington, D.C.,

The American Farm Bureau Federation and others fought the restrictions. They argued that the EPA was usurping state authority to regulate waterways.

The EPA says animal waste and fertilizer that moves from streams into the Chesapeake is the single largest source of bay pollution.

Third Circuit Judge Thomas Ambro says Chesapeake Bay pollution is a complex problem that affects more than 17 million people.

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