Local Waterkeepers take position on Cardin Chesapeake Bay Bill

Published: August 25, 2010

Anacostia Riverkeeper Dottie Yunger came together this week with a dozen other area waterkeepers in opposition to Senator Cardin’s new Chesapeake Bay Bill.  The Chesapeake Clean Water and Ecosystem Restoration Act of 2009, a bill originally intended to improve the health of the Bay, actually weakens the protections of the Clean Water Act which the Waterkeepers rely on to protect this critical water source.

You can read their Op/Ed, which ran in today’s edition of the Baltimore Sun, here.

The bill was introduced in October of 2009, but the current version of the bill – the one amended by the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee – undercuts long-standing Clean Water Act measures and leaves national cleanup efforts uncertain for the Bay.

Why are Waterkeepers opposing this bill?

The Cardin bill fundamentally weakens the Clean Water Act, fails to set an enforceable clean-up deadline, and relies on voluntary measures by states that have already demonstrated a lack of political will to enforce existing mandates that would protect the Bay.  The 13 opposing Waterkeepers also fear that the Cardin bill will set a bad precedent for the rest of the country.

Weakening the Clean Water Act

This bill requires states to exempt polluters by offering undefined “de minimus” exemptions to some point-source polluters (such as developers and wastewater utilities).  This takes away our most powerful tool in cleaning up watersheds: government and citizen enforcement of CWA permit standards.

Shielding the biggest polluters from enforcement

Even though agriculture is the number one source of nutrient and sediment pollution for the Chesapeake, the Cardin bill protects agricultural producers from EPA and State enforcement of CWA, and simply required to follow unenforceable planning documents.

Mandating an unproven market-based approach

The Cardin bill would mandate the creation of a pollutant trading scheme, allowing polluters to sell their credits but without any verification system.  Nutrient trading has been tried in other watersheds in the country, and it has failed to produce reductions in overall nutrient levels, largely due to states’ unwillingness to verify nonpoint source reductions.

Failing to establish a cleanup deadline

Despite common claims that the Cardin bill will result in a clean Bay by 2025, nowhere in the bill do we see an enforceable deadline for meeting its water quality goals.  In fact, the bill actually gives states a grace period until May 12, 2025 to implement their cleanup plans.  On that date, the bill allows states to simply submit “determinations of future actions in order to achieve … water quality standards” somewhere down the road.

Instead of weakening today’s Clean Water Act standards – still Waterkeepers’ best tool for protecting the Bay – the Waterkeepers believe that a clean, healthy Bay watershed can best be achieved by strict enforcement of the CWA as already written.  This will require not only our hard work but strong federal leadership – instead of a weak piece of legislation.

More information and a call to action from the Waterkeeper Alliance: http://www.congressweb.com/cweb2/index.cfm/siteid/WA/action/TakeAction.Background/LetterGroupID/17

Read the Questions and Answers about the Cardin Bill and Clean Water Act/Cardin Bill Comparison.