An environmental group says that Pennsylvania would have to spend more than $500 million a year to meet a looming deadline for reducing pollution that flows into the Chesapeake Bay.
The York Daily Record reported this week that the group is called PennFuture. It has made a list of proposals that could help the state reduce the amount of manure, fertilizer and dirty storm water that’s seeping into the nation’s largest estuary.
The group’s ideas include the establishment of a fund to help farmers pay for improvements that curtail the pollution that flows off farms.
Pennsylvania is one of six states in Chesapeake Bay’s watershed, along with the District of Columbia, that are federally required to significantly reduce bay pollution by 2025.
The state’s boundaries do not reach the bay, but some of its waterways, like the Susquehanna River, flow into the Chesapeake through Maryland. Environmental groups have criticized Pennsylvania for being too far behind in reducing pollution.
Pennsylvania State Sen. Gene Yaw, a Republican who chairs the Senate Environmental Committee and serves on the Chesapeake Bay Commission, said the state is getting back on track and is “making some progress.”