States Unlikely To Meet Chesapeake Bay Pollution Limits By EPA Deadline
A deadline set by the foremost environmental authority in the country, meant to protect one of its most iconic source water bodies, is in danger of being missed thanks to one of the three largest pollution contributors that agreed to it.
“Maryland, Pennsylvania and Virginia are unlikely to reach their joint Chesapeake Bay pollution limits set by the Environmental Protection Agency in time for a 2025 deadline,” The Baltimore Sun reported. “Maryland and Virginia are mostly on track to hit their reduction targets… Pennsylvania, on the other hand, continues to lag behind.”
A recent report from the Chesapeake Bay Foundation found that Maryland and Virginia have made significant progress in reducing the nitrogen and phosphorus they contribute to the Chesapeake Bay, nutrients that can be harmful to source water bodies and have been known to accelerate the growth of toxic algae. But a failure to make similar progress in Pennsylvania is threatening to negate the work of its neighbors.
“To catch up, that state will likely need to commit significant resources to helping farmers reduce soil erosion and pesticide runoff,” per the Sun. “The Susquehanna River drains much of central Pennsylvania and supplies about 55% of the bay’s freshwater.”
The 2025 deadline is based on a settlement from more than a decade ago between conservation groups and the U.S. EPA, with the federal agency set to impose consequences like reductions in authority or grant money if its goals are not met.
“Failure in the past to restore the bay has largely been a lack of accountability,” according to The Virginian-Pilot. “The blueprint was designed to have more stringent oversight, including checkpoints every two years to get states back on track.”
While the deadline applies to six states as well as the District of Columbia, Virginia, Maryland, and Pennsylvania are responsible for 90 percent of the bay’s pollution.
But despite Pennsylvania’s outsized contributions to the nutrient contamination, officials have noted optimism that things can be turned around by 2025.
“With several years remaining before the EPA deadline, they said, time remains to make needed policy changes,” the Sun reported. “And an influx of cash from the federal American Rescue Plan, the federal infrastructure package and hopefully the Biden administration’s Build Back Better spending bill could make it easier for localities to shell out to protect the bay.”
To read more about how wastewater operations reduce nitrogen and phosphorus in waterbodies, visit Water Online’s Nutrient Removal Solutions Center.