The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency on Wednesday released a Chesapeake Bay cleanup plan that relies primarily on actions pledged by bay states, including Virginia.
"This is a very historic moment in the history and the future of the Chesapeake Bay," said Shawn Garvin, administrator of the EPA's mid-Atlantic region.
Garvin called the plan "the largest water-pollution strategy" in the nation and one of the largest in the world.
Bay states largely would carry out the cleanup, but the EPA could enforce compliance through punishments such as cracking down harder on sewage-treatment plants or withholding grants.
The plan is indeed historic, but the hard work lies ahead, said William C. Baker, president of the Chesapeake Bay Foundation, an environmental group.
"It is essential that EPA stand firm and impose consequences" if state cleanups lag, Baker said.
The 15-year plan aims to reduce pollution from sewage plants, farms and stormwater runoff. It seeks to clean not just the bay but also waters leading to it.
No one has calculated the total cost of the cleanup, but in Virginia the price is estimated at $7 billion or more in state money alone.
Experts have placed the value of the bay, even in its degraded state, at more than $1 trillion to fishing, tourism, property values and shipping.
Howard R. Ernst, a U.S. Naval Academy political scientist, has been critical of past cleanup efforts. Ernst said Wednesday that the latest effort — which the EPA calls a "pollution diet" — amounts to putting goals on paper.
"As many overweight people will remind you, starting a diet is far easier than shedding pounds," Ernst said.
Efforts to restore the bay have fallen short since the 1980s. President Barack Obama's administration has given the cleanup a new emphasis.
For Virginia, the EPA plan relies largely on measures Gov. Bob McDonnell's administration outlined in November, including new pollution cuts for sewage plants in the James River region.
McDonnell said Wednesday that Virginia's plan "balances the important environmental protection concerns with the need to protect jobs in agriculture and farming."
The EPA praised Virginia officials for saying they would consider new pollution-cutting requirements for farmers by 2013 if incentives don't do enough.
But EPA officials said they would subject Virginia to "enhanced oversight" to make sure urban areas sufficiently address pollution from stormwater that runs off streets and yards.
The EPA plan is designed to cut nitrogen pollution 25 percent, phosphorus 24 percent and waterborne dirt 20 percent. The pollutants cloud bay waters and fuel the growth of algae.
The plan aims to put enough pollution controls in place by 2025 to clean the bay — with most of the controls in place by 2017.
The plan affects Virginia, Maryland, Delaware, New York, Pennsylvania, West Virginia and the District of Columbia.
The EPA's Garvin said the cleanup will evolve as experts see what works and what doesn't.
"It's going to be somewhat fluid," he said.
rspringston@timesdispatch.com
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