President Trump’s budget slashes all funding to the Chesapeake Bay cleanup program, but environmental activists and bipartisan supporters of the program say they are prepared for a sustained fight with the President, says The Washington Post.
“We will fight with every fiber in our bodies” to keep the program funding, said Chesapeake Bay Foundation President William C. Baker. “This just makes no sense. We are in disbelief. The EPA’s role in this cleanup is nothing less than fundamental.”
According to the Post, “The $73 million-a-year Environmental Protection Agency program has united Virginia, Maryland, Delaware, West Virginia, Pennsylvania, New York and the District of Columbia in working to reduce pollution levels in the bay.” Most of that money paid for such “basics as upgrades to deteriorating sewer facilities and fences to limit chemical runoff from farms — efforts that have resulted in clearer water and the return of sea grasses critical to the survival of fish.”
A polluted Chesapeake would not only hurt a multibillion-dollar tourism industry, but hurt fishing and crabbing industries in North America’s largest estuary, say supporter of the cleanup. While Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan hasn’t joined the many people on both sides of the aisle denouncing the cuts, his spokesman said last week that Hogan “has invested more than $3 billion in efforts to protect and restore the Chesapeake Bay and will remain a fierce advocate going forward. He will always fight to project our state’s most important natural asset.”