Sunday, January 02, 2005
Editorial: Step up the pace in cleaning Chesapeake Bay
Despite achieving some goals, the bay council has much work to do in saving the waterway.
During its meeting in December 2003, the council - including the governors of Virginia and Maryland - trumpeted ambitious goals toward restoring the imperiled bay. As the council prepares for its Jan. 10 meeting, some of last year's initiatives remain unfulfilled:
Virginia's Tributary Strategies that Gov. Mark Warner promised by last April are not complete. They are to detail how the state would reduce the amount of pollution flowing into the bay.
A call to give the bay cleanup issue "national importance," urging Washington to play a key financing role as it did in the massive Florida Everglades project, has generated little momentum.
To its credit, however, the council established a blue-ribbon commission that recommends the creation of a bay funding authority to secure federal and state dollars. The council should create the authority.
The council members - the governors of Maryland, Pennsylvania and Virginia, the mayor of Washington, D.C., state legislators and federal officials - should begin the new year with a greater sense of urgency to save the bay.
The council, fully aware of the dire condition of the bay, should aggressively communicate to the public and other elected officials, including the president, that the foot-dragging must end.
In late summer, some congressional leaders held a hearing, while a group of senators penned a letter this fall to President Bush, who has been unresponsive to a previous attempt to engage his interest in this critical matter.
Money remains a daunting hurdle for the massive undertaking, with estimates ranging as high as $19 billion.
Maryland has enacted a monthly "flush tax" of $2.50 per household to upgrade sewage treatment plants, which discharge pollutants choking the bay.
Virginia and other bay states should respond similarly. The impetus is on the council to persuade the public to support its efforts. That backing will go a long way in saving the bay.
