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CommunityBay advocates sue EPA over pollution promise
Wednesday, Jan. 7, 2009
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An environmental group and other Chesapeake Bay advocates filed a lawsuit Monday against the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, saying the agency hasn't kept its promise to clean up the bay and its watershed.
The Chesapeake Bay Foundation is asking a federal court to order EPA to reduce pollution from all sources — air, wastewater treatment plants and runoff from cities, suburbs and farms — with an ambitious timetable so the Chesapeake Bay can be removed from the federal "impaired waters" list.
Also, the lawsuit calls on the court to enact severe penalties for missing the deadline.
"We didn't have an alternative" to the lawsuit after years of unfulfilled agreements, said former state senator Bernie Fowler, who is among the plaintiffs in the suit. "The promises that have been made haven't been kept. The bay is really suffering."
Fowler was involved in a similar lawsuit three decades ago by the three Southern Maryland counties challenging state and federal policies on the degradation of the Patuxent River.
In late October the plaintiffs in the current lawsuit submitted a notice of intent to file that gave EPA 60 days to reach a settlement on how to comply with pollution reduction mandates outlined in an agreement signed in 2000.
"We have asked that EPA accept its responsibility under the Clean Water Act. EPA must impose a legally binding pollution reduction budget (or cap) that will restore water quality. While discussions have occurred, we have not been able to resolve our claims during the 60-day notice period," said CBF President William C. Baker in a statement. "Despite EPA's assertions to the contrary, CBF believes that after 25 years of failed policies the only way to ensure that EPA does its job is to have a court order requiring it."
The 2000 agreement stated that the Chesapeake and its tributaries would be sufficiently cleaned to be removed from the federal impaired waters list by 2010. But the EPA recently acknowledged that the 2010 deadline was out of reach and is discussing pushing back the timeline to 2020.
Water quality in the bay and its tributaries has steadily declined over the years and two past accords signed in 1983 and 1987 to reverse the trend have also failed.
The deterioration of the Chesapeake watershed has led to declining blue crab and oyster populations, vast dead zones where no organism can survive and routine beach closures due to polluted waters.
Fowler called it "a shame and a disgrace" that the bay has fallen so far from its heyday.
In addition to the EPA acknowledgement that the 2010 goal will not be met, over the past several years three EPA Inspector General's reports and one Government Accountability Office report have detailed EPA's leadership failures, according to the CBF.
The EPA released a statement Monday from Benjamin Grumbles, EPA assistant administrator for water. "EPA wants a cleaner and healthier bay and is committed to holding polluters accountable and to working with all of our partners to speed up the cleanup. That means using innovative and sustainable tools and focusing on environmental cooperation, not just legal confrontation. We've had several good discussions with the Chesapeake Bay Foundation on ways to accelerate and sustain progress recently and we hope the lawsuit doesn't divert energy and attention away from the bay's watersheds and tributaries ..."
Baker said the EPA over the last eight years has weakened regulations that would have reduced pollution, despite having the science and tools needed to get the job done.
Included within the suit is a list of 33 actions submitted by the Chesapeake Bay Foundation that would jumpstart the cleanup process, including reaching the full pollution reduction goal by 2015, improving enforcement of existing laws and stricter stormwater management. Also on the list is addressing injuries to recreational anglers and commercial watermen.
Joining Chesapeake Bay Foundation in the lawsuit are Fowler, the Virginia State Waterman's Association, the Maryland Watermen's Association, the Maryland Saltwater Sportfishermen's Association, former Maryland governor Harry Hughes, former Virginia legislator and Natural Resources Secretary Tayloe Murphy and former Washington, D.C., mayor Anthony Williams.
