U.S. warns of sanctions if states don't act on bay

By: Rex Springston | Richmond Times-Dispatch
Published: October 03, 2009

Federal officials said today that they could impose severe punishments if Virginia and other states don't do enough to restore the Chesapeake Bay.

Those punishments could include withholding federal grants from bay-region states and placing new limits on sewage-treatment plant discharges -- a potential hindrance to growth.

"We think the accountability system we have here has teeth in it," said Robert A. Koroncai, a manager with the Environmental Protection Agency.

Koroncai spoke during a meeting held in downtown Richmond, and broadcast across Virginia on the Web, to explain the development of a tough new cleanup plan for the bay.

The 26-year restoration effort has resulted in two missed cleanup deadlines but no punishment. The bay remains badly polluted, and President Barack Obama wants to change that.

Ann Jennings, Virginia director of the Chesapeake Bay Foundation, an environmental group, said she hopes the focus on accountability is real. "It was a lot of good talk, but we want to see it."

Not everyone was so happy.

Restrictions on sewage-plant discharges could mean limits on localities' growth, said Joe Lerch, director of environmental policy for the Virginia Municipal League, which represents cities.

"We don't want to see this process dictate decisions we make" on how to grow, Lerch said.

In interviews, Korancai and Rich Batiuk, another EPA official, said the cleanup shouldn't necessarily hinder growth. If a locality's planned sewage plant were deemed a threat to the bay, that plant could still be built if the locality took offsetting actions such as reducing pollution that runs off land, they said.

Wilmer Stoneman, associate director of governmental relations for the Virginia Farm Bureau, said he was concerned that the re-energized cleanup program could result in new pollution rules for farmers.

Despite common perceptions, many farms -- particularly large ones -- are closely regulated, Stoneman said. "How much more blood are we going to get out of the turnip?"

The bay is contaminated by waste that runs off farms, streets and yards; discharges from sewage plants; and even air pollution.

The EPA is devising a cleanup plan that should be ready by late 2010 or early 2011. The federal officials are allowing the states to devise many of the pollution-cutting ideas.

More than 400 people took in the meeting in person or via the Web.