The Environmental Protection Agency has agreed to step up enforcement in Pennsylvania to ensure that it meets targets for reducing pollution in the Chesapeake Bay, state and environmental officials announced Thursday.
In separate lawsuits that were later consolidated by a court order, the states and environmental groups alleged that the Trump administration had failed to use its powers under the Clean Water Act to make sure that Pennsylvania lived up to the Chesapeake Clean Water Blueprint, a regional pact to reclaim the bay.
Under the settlement, the federal agency will apply additional pressure on Pennsylvania to reduce agricultural waste and runoff from urban and suburban areas spilling into the Susquehanna River and other tributaries that feed the bay.
“Today’s announcement is an acknowledgment that Maryland cannot do it alone,” Maryland Attorney General Anthony G. Brown (D) said Thursday at an online news conference with several other state officials. Brown said the Susquehanna River — which is the longest river on the East Coast and drains much of east central Pennsylvania — alone contributes half of the bay’s fresh water.
The focus of renewed enforcement in Pennsylvania, including the likelihood of more federal permitting of small farms, will fall most on Lancaster, York, Bedford, Cumberland, Centre, Franklin and Lebanon counties — because those areas contribute the most pollution.
“This is a major victory for the Chesapeake Bay and clean water,” said Robert T. Brown, president of the Maryland Watermen’s Association. He welcomed the timing of the settlement, which comes as many species of critical environmental and commercial importance to the region — such as rockfish, shad, herring and white perch — begin to spawn.
Robert Brown said more vigorous action by the EPA also would help efforts to restore oyster populations and harvests, and improve conditions for underwater grasses, which are critical to the biosystem and raising the bay’s water quality.
“We have to trust the EPA to enforce these laws,” he said.
Chesapeake Bay Foundation officials said that, under the Trump administration, the EPA failed to require Pennsylvania to spell out specific plans to reduce bay pollutants, come up with the necessary funds to meet targets or impose consequences.
Under the agreement, the EPA will work with the Pennsylvania Department of Environment Protection (DEP) to live up to the Chesapeake Clean Water Blueprint, determining whether farms and urban or suburban areas in the bay’s watershed are generating levels of pollutants that would require them to be monitored and regulated through federal permits. The agency also agreed to review existing permits to ensure that they have been updated to meet the most current standards.
The Pennsylvania Attorney General’s Office referred questions to the DEP.
“While we are still reviewing the settlement, Pennsylvania remains committed to working with our local, state, and federal partners to restore local waters and the Chesapeake Bay,” DEP spokesman Neil Shader said in an email. He said Pennsylvania has in place a plan to protect the bay’s watershed — including a $220 million Clean Streams Fund — and restore its tributaries, and is at work with farmers and municipalities to do so.
Several officials acknowledged that the litigation’s urgency lessened when the Biden administration took over and showed a new willingness to ensure that efforts to reclaim the bay wouldn’t slacken. But they said the settlement would further pressure the EPA to use all means at its disposal to clean up the bay.
“We think this is another important moment in the effort to clean up the bay where we see collective accountability to the goals,” said Hilary Harp Falk, president of the Chesapeake Bay Foundation. “The more we can all hold ourselves and each other accountable, I think, the more we will see success in years to come.”
This story has been updated with comment from Pennsylvania’s Department of the Environment.