EPA sets tough interim rule for bay cleanup

States that contribute pollution to the Chesapeake Bay must have controls in place by 2017 to reduce that pollution 60 percent, federal officials say.

That is one of a list of cleanup requirements the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency sent the six bay states, including Virginia, in a letter yesterday.

The letter "is about establishing a new era of federal leadership for the Chesapeake Bay, one that is marked by new accountability," said J. Charles Fox, President Barack Obama's senior adviser to the EPA for bay issues.

The bay states agreed in May to put controls in place by 2025 that will clean the bay. Yesterday's letter sets a tough interim requirement.

The letter also makes clear that the bay states must not only reduce nitrogen and other pollutants below various limits but keep them there as populations grow.

The requirement could mean, for example, that if a new sewage-treatment plant is built, pollution from the plant must be offset by pollution cuts elsewhere, perhaps by putting grassy buffers along streams.

The letter did not spell out the specifics of that program. The fine detail on how Virginia and other states must reduce pollution will come in a plan to be developed by late 2011.

"We're not saying any of this stuff will be easy, but in concept, yes, we agree" with the EPA requirements, said Jeff Corbin, assistant secretary of natural resources in Virginia.

In a telephone news conference yesterday, EPA officials again said they may impose severe punishments, such as withholding federal grants, on states that don't do enough to clean the bay. But the officials said details about punishments will come later.

The toughness of those punishments, and EPA's willingness to impose them, will be the key to restoring the bay, said Beth McGee of the Chesapeake Bay Foundation.

Otherwise, the coming cleanup plan will be a "paper exercise," said McGee, senior water-quality scientist with the environmental group.

Some groups, including farmers and some local governments, have expressed concerns about requirements that may arise from the bay cleanup.

Contact Rex Springston at (804) 649-6453 or .