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 The Chesapeake Bay Watershed Agreement is aimed at restoring and
conserving the 64,000-square-mile (166,000-square-km) watershed that
spans six states and the District of Columbia and drains into the
bay, the biggest U.S. estuary.
The accord updates an existing agreement and marks the first time
that Delaware, New York and West Virginia have pledged to work
toward restoration goals in the bay that go beyond water quality.
"All of these actions, if we continue to take them, are going to
yield better and better results," Maryland Governor Martin O’Malley,
a Democrat, told a news conference.
The accord was signed by the governors of Delaware, Maryland, New
York, Pennsylvania, Virginia and West Virginia; District of Columbia
Mayor Vincent Gray; Ronald Miller, chairman of the Chesapeake Bay
Commission; and Gina McCarthy, the administrator of the U.S.
Environmental Protection Agency.
For decades, overfishing, silting and pollution have taken a toll on
the Chesapeake. Polluted runoff from urban areas and farms has been
especially harmful to the bay, which produces only about 1 percent
of the oysters it did in the late 19th century.
In a 2012 progress report, the non-profit Chesapeake Bay Foundation
called the bay "dangerously out of balance" but said the estuary's
overall health had improved since the previous review in 2010.
The 20-page agreement signed on Monday sets 10 goals and 29
projected outcomes and deadlines that aim to help create an
environmentally and economically sustainable watershed.
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They include lowering nutrient and sediment pollution, ensuring the
water is free of toxic contaminants, sustaining blue crabs, oysters
and forage fish environment, and restoring wetlands and underwater
grass beds.
Virginia Governor Terry McAuliffe warned that the program could only
succeed with more money from federal government.
McAuliffe said he had met Secretary of the Interior Sally Jewell and
requested $50 million to help fund the regional initiative.
(Reporting by John Clarke; Editing by Ian Simpson, Eric Beech and
David Gregorio)
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