As if the Chesapeake Bay restoration effort needed more setbacks, the University of Maryland Extension announced that state budget cuts will affect the state’s nutrient management program for the upcoming year, likely leading to job cuts.

This is hardly unexpected, but serves as yet another reminder of the uphill battle that Maryland bay preservationists face in mitigating the deteriorating conditions of the nation’s largest estuary.

This month, the University of Maryland found out that it had escaped budget cuts, allowing the university to keep its part of the  bay clean-up coffers untouched.

All of which leads back to the main question: What progress are bay preservationists making? How is that progress measured?

Earlier this month, Maryland, Virginia and Pennsylvania missed “milestones” in regards to the bay restoration effort.

It appears that money has not been scant in regards to the clean up, with $50 million pledged in 2007 by the Maryland General Assembly. News21 reporter Rabiah Burks touched on the broken promises of the clean up effort a couple of weeks ago. Two years ago, this was an issue. Now, it’s still an issue.

With the Maryland General Assembly set to cut half of Gov. Martin O’Malley’s $20 million bay cleanup budget for the upcoming year, it seems that a lack of accountability might be joining budget cuts as a major obstacle to an improved bay.