The Environmental Protection Agency recently asked the federal government to “lead the Chesapeake Bay restoration by example” by adopting recommendations for nutrient reduction on their own lands, according to an article written by the Associated Press.
“Federal agencies own nearly 8 percent of the watershed’s land, making it one of the largest land owners in the watershed,” wrote Alex Dominguez, staff writer for Associated Press.
Most stories about who is responsible for polluting the Chesapeake Bay tend to point to farmers, developers and ordinary citizens. Rarely do people think of the federal government as a bay polluter, not just through lack of enforcement of regulations or funding allocation, but through management of its own farmlands.
It is easy to remain skeptical of President Obama’s the Executive Order requiring all government agencies to do what they can to help restore the bay, but this AP story, along with others, suggest that the Environmental Protection Agency is making an attempt to curb pollution of the Chesapeake Bay in new ways.
Bay on the Brink is a multimedia reporting project examining the fate of the Chesapeake Bay. It is produced by fellows at the University of Maryland’s Philip Merrill College of Journalism as part of News21, a consortium of journalism schools. This is the fellows' blog. The full project site is here: http://chesapeake.news21.com
