Former Maryland State Sen. Bernie Fowler, backed by top Chesapeake Bay leaders, at the Annapolis City Dock. Fowler compared the Bay cleanup efforts to the last leg of a 400-meter race. Photo by News21

ANNAPOLIS – A small flotilla of boats sailed into the City Dock Wednesday morning, bringing a group of Bay activists, scientists and former politicians to a rally calling for new actions to restore the Chesapeake Bay.

The few dozen activists released a 25-point plan aimed at stopping the decline of the Chesapeake. The plan outlines stronger cleanup measures to reduce the amount of pollutants from agriculture, land development, septic systems and air emissions that reach the Bay.

More than 50 individuals from Maryland, Virginia and Pennsylvania signed the plan as a demonstration of their belief that the voluntary efforts at cleaning up the Bay for the past 26 years have failed.

“We are trying to create a new day for the Bay,” said former Maryland state Sen. Gerald Winegrad, the event organizer.

The Bay Flotilla comes the day before a major meeting of officials in Baltimore at the Chesapeake Executive Council meeting.

Activists called on the Environmental Protection Agency, which will be sending a representative to the meeting tomorrow, to help the six states in the bay’s watershed.

Former Maryland state Sen. Bernie Fowler said that tomorrow, the baton will be passed to the EPA. “All we’ve got to say to the EPA,” Fowler said, “is for God’s sake, when you get it in your hand, run – and don’t you drop it. We cannot afford to lose this wonderful Bay.”

–by Alex Moe