President Donald Trump last week repealed a 2009 executive order that had helped coordinate the long-running effort to clean up the Chesapeake Bay.
The order from President Barack Obama renewed federal commitments to restoring the bay and pushed government agencies and communities to ramp up work to reduce pollution from sewage plants, development, agriculture and city storm drains.
In his repeal, Trump said it “instituted a broad mandate for states and municipalities to contribute to improving the environmental health of the Chesapeake Bay, without providing clarity on how to implement that order’s requirements.”
He also cited improvements in water quality in recent years.
But environmental advocates quickly challenged the move.
Hilary Harp Falk, president of the nonprofit Chesapeake Bay Foundation, said on a call with reporters that the 2009 order “has been foundational for all the progress that we’ve seen in the last 15 years.”
“The irony is that the success touted in yesterday's executive order was made possible in part by the executive order that was just rescinded,” Falk said. “Weakening federal leadership and accountability makes it harder for states and communities to tackle pollution, flooding and other major challenges that we're facing.”
Trump specifically railed against stormwater fees, sometimes called “rain taxes,” imposed by localities to maintain stormwater infrastructure, reduce flooding and prevent pollution from washing down drains and into the bay.
The president said these fees are a financial burden for residents and small businesses.
“States use these rain taxes to pay for their stormwater infrastructure, whether or not it contributes to the environmental health of the Chesapeake Bay,” last week’s executive order states.
But Obama’s order did not mandate or mention stormwater fees, which are common in cities across the country.
In Hampton Roads, many local governments started charging the fees in the 1990s as a result of amendments to the federal Clean Water Act.
Bob Wayland, who worked for nearly three decades at the Environmental Protection Agency, said the repeal is not likely to change much. It has no direct impact on stormwater fees or the massive coalition to restore the bay, which is authorized and supported by Congress.
“It seems to be a solution in search of a problem,” Wayland said. “I'm still optimistic that the bay's got a good future ahead of it because lots of people from lots of walks of life and throughout the watershed want to see that and realize the value of a healthy bay.”
He also served on Virginia’s Water Control Board and on the Citizen Advisory Committee to the Chesapeake Bay Program’s Executive Council.
The partnership to restore the Chesapeake Bay, the nation’s largest estuary, stretches back decades.
The original Chesapeake Bay Agreement was signed in 1983 by the EPA and governors of bay states, including Virginia.
Over time, officials have formalized goals for cutting pollution and boosting marine life. In December, leaders of the Chesapeake Executive Council approved the latest iteration of the Chesapeake Bay Watershed Agreement, with targets to hit by 2040.
Falk said the group has made significant progress in cleaning up pollution, including addressing nutrients that run into the bay from farms and sewage plants.
But runoff from city storm drains needs to remain a priority, she said. Stormwater includes pollution such as dog poop, fertilizer and cigarette butts.
“Stormwater is one of the fastest-growing pollution sources to local rivers and streams, and those are addressed by locally identified funding mechanisms,” Falk said.
Climate change also threatens to stall or reverse progress, with warming waters conducive to harmful algae growth and heavier rainstorms accelerating stormwater pollution.
Falk said, “pollution crosses state lines.”
“Now is the time for leaders in Congress and the states to really make their voices heard and defend the Chesapeake Bay restoration effort.”
