When Two is Better than Ten

With the Potomac River as a fitting photo-op backdrop, the leaders of Virginia, Maryland and Washington, DC announced Tuesday that they would focus their efforts to clean up the Chesapeake Bay and its various waterways using a two-year plan rather than a ten-year time line. 

Admitting that the longer time line allowed governments to put off what should be done today for administrations of tomorrow, Governor Kaine, Governor O'Malley and Mayor Fenty pledged to do more to clean up the region's signature water treasure. The Obama administration's EPA chief, Lisa Jackson, also was on hand to signal the new president's support for a healthy Chesapeake.

They hadn't finished speaking for long before the head of the Chesapeake Bay Foundation threw cold water on the plan. William C. Baker told The Washington Post that the actions by the three leaders and the Environmental Protection Agency are inadequate. 

Baker and the CBF have filed a lawsuit against the EPA, but that was before the Obama Administration took over. Time will tell if his EPA cares more about the Bay than the former administration.

One thing is for sure, the announcement Tuesday comes after a flurry of back-slapping PR pushes by Virginia and Maryland to show that the two current state administrations get the urgency surrounding cleaning up the Chesapeake.

The tri-announcement followed just one day after Maryland Governor O'Malley pledged to take steps to reduce fertilizer run-off that is polluting the bay, creating dead zones for fish and hurting the ability of watermen to make a living on the bay as they've done for generations. 

And Gov. O'Malley's pledge came only a few days after Virginia's leader gave a round of applause to a state agency for committing to invest about $180 million in waste water treatment. 

It's good to see that Virginia, Maryland, D.C., and the feds are taking cleaning up the Bay more seriously. The fresh water of the Bay and its waterways need to be cleaned up and taken care of. We're all stewards of the environment around us and we have to hold our elected officials and the corporations that operate beside the water accountable  for their actions. The Washington media gave the announcement Tuesday pretty broad coverage, but we all know that before the next tide comes in, this news will be yesterday's memory.  It's up to us to keep watch on the reporting coming from the respective state and federal agencies and from our own non profit watchdogs of the Bay's health.