Chesapeake Bay Water Quality Polluted by Feckless Politics

Understanding Maryland’s approach to improving Chesapeake Bay water quality is made easier if you put yourself in an alternate fictional scenario related to vehicle fuel efficiency:

Imagine that you live in a state that has decided to become the national model for vehicle mileage efficiency. A substantial majority of fellow citizens in your state drive Hummers, whereas you are among a small minority of state residents concerned with fuel efficiency and you drive a Prius.


State elected officials, fearing voter retribution if Hummer owners were required to cease driving their Hummers and purchase a more fuel efficient alternative, have decided to make improving fuel efficiency and reducing carbon emissions voluntary for Hummer owners. And, although having eliminated the major contributor to vehicle fuel inefficiency from being part of the fuel economy solution, state officials have determined that any vehicle more fuel efficient than a Hummer must be replaced with the newly introduced, all-electric Tesla, a car having a purchase price in excess of $60,000 and the owners of already fuel-efficient vehicles must pay the Hummer drivers a financial incentive for them to consume less fuel. When you object and demonstrate that the politically motivated non-solution will result in no perceptible improvement in overall state vehicle mileage efficiency, is inordinately costly and bears not even a remote resemblance to a rational, fair and effective solution to the problem, you are told, “Tough luck. That’s politics.”

Now, recognize that in the scenario described above, the analogous participants in the real life effort to improve Chesapeake Bay water quality include the following:

• “Agricultural Interests”, who according to the EPA water quality model, contribute 46.5 % and 40.9 % of the phosphorous and nitrogen loading, respectively, and 62.7 % of sedimentation in the Bay. These are the “Hummer” owners and

• “New Construction Interests”, who according to the EPA water quality model, contribute 1.4 % and 0.3% of the phosphorous and nitrogen loading, respectively, and 4.7 % of Bay sedimentation. These are the Prius owners

As in the mistaken approach to fictional problem solving in the Hummer tale, Maryland officials currently are preparing to act in exactly the same manner to address EPA-mandated, Chesapeake Bay water quality goals. Maryland officialdom now is poised to permit Ag Interests, the largest single contributor to deteriorated Bay water quality, to participate voluntarily in efforts to diminish Agricultural nutrient run-off into the Bay. By contrast, New Construction Interests, contributing the smallest level of pollutants to Bay water quality of all major types of land uses, will be required to satisfy site run-off requirements so low that they will be impossible to meet and must be financially mitigated. This financial mitigation will entail paying certain Ag Interests to pollute less at a cost calculated as a substantial multiple of the actual, materially lesser effect on Bay water quality of new construction sedimentation control practices. The simple fact is that Maryland’s irrational, unfair and feckless political expediency will not and can not result in the desired improvement to Chesapeake Bay water quality even if there were to be a total ban on new construction throughout the entirety of the Maryland portion of the Chesapeake Bay watershed. If you are not deeply troubled and outraged by what passes for political and environmental leadership in Maryland, you should be. And, at the same time you should let Maryland’s Governor and Director of MDE know that their planned program for Bay clean-up is diametrically opposite of what would constitute forthright, fair and effective leadership on this vital matter.