EPA report faults agency's bay efforts

July 17, 2008

The Environmental Protection Agency needs to do more not only to clean up the Chesapeake Bay but also to let the public know where it is falling short on the effort, according to a report released yesterday.

The report, by the EPA's Office of Inspector General, said the federal agency needs to work with local governments in the bay's six-state watershed to make sure their land-use practices are helping to protect the bay. It calls on the EPA to outline for Congress how much money it is spending on cleanup actions and how much progress it is making.

And it suggests that the scientists at the EPA's Chesapeake Bay Program Office in Annapolis be consulted about new rules coming out of Washington on air pollution, which accounts for nearly a third of the nitrogen flowing into the bay.

Decreasing air pollution, the report noted, will require a variety of efforts, among them encouraging bay-area residents to take public transportation and use low-emission vehicles.

Yesterday's report is one of several released in recent years that has been critical of the EPA's Chesapeake Bay cleanup strategy. A Government Accountability Office report released in 2005 criticized the bay program for painting too rosy a picture of cleanup successes.

Rona Kobell