Thursday, October 27, 2011
The recommendation includes increasing the average residential fee from $30 per year to $60 per year starting in the 2013 fiscal year and $90 per year in the 2015 fiscal year. There's also a call to increase the bay restoration fee to $120 a year.
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Thursday, October 27, 2011
By Greg Masters Capital News Service A governor's task force on sustainable growth on Tuesday heard a proposal to double and eventually triple Marylanders' monthly water and sewer fee of $2.50 for Chesapeake Bay restoration. Because of funding shortfalls, the work group also recommended extending Maryland's timeframe to meet its bay cleanup goals to 2025, which is the Environmental Protection Agency's deadline, instead of the self-imposed deadline of 2020 that Gov. Martin O'Malley set last year. While Maryland should continue to move at the accelerated pace set by O'Malley, no funding scenario would get the state to its goals by 2020, said John Griffin, secretary of the Maryland Department of Natural Resources and chairman of the funding …
Friday, July 1, 2011
The National Association of Home Builders has joined several other organizations opposed to new standards set by the EPA to regulate pollution in the Chesapeake Bay.
A national home builders’ lobbying firm has thrown its hat into the ring of organizations opposed to a federal action that seeks to limit Chesapeake Bay pollution. Earlier this year, the Environmental Protection Agency set a limit on the amount of nitrogen and phosphorous pollution that will be allowed in the bay. The Total Maximum Daily Load has been commonly called a “pollution diet.” EPA officials said they hope this new rule book for pollution will be a road map to cleaning up the bay. In April, a host of agricultural organizations, including the American Farm Bureau Federation and the Pennsylvania Farm Bureau, joined together in filing a lawsuit against the EPA to block these changes. The National Association of Home Builders is the …
Thursday, May 26, 2011
The Chesapeake Bay Foundation officials outline recent actions to oppose a federal court battle being fought over new pollution standards.
A coalition of environmental defenders rose to the challenge of opposing agricultural corporations who want to stop new regulations by the federal government that protect the Chesapeake Bay. Officials from the Chesapeake Bay Foundation (CBF) hosted a press conference on Wednesday announcing that they have filed a motion in federal court to halt actions currently under way by agricultural corporations to retract new federal regulations that limit pollution in the bay. CBF President William Baker said his organization has joined forces with several environmental groups for a legal intervention to defend these regulations, in light of the federal court battle. “We seek to stop the agricultural industries who want to derail bay restoration,” …
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Wednesday, January 12, 2011
Even without the lawsuit filed by the American Farm Bureau Federation, the EPA's pollution reduction plan faces an uphill battle.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) hit its first roadblock regarding the Chesapeake Bay's Total Maximum Daily Load (TMDL) on Jan. 10, when the American Farm Bureau Federation filed a law suit claiming the EPA was "overreaching" its authority. This hiccup, however, could be one of many in a battle for the bay. Other challenges include pollution enforcement, funding sources for system upgrades, and the ability of state legislatures to act on new legislation. At the end of last year, the EPA released the final TMDL for the bay, which will put a cap on how much phosphorus, nitrogen and sediment can flow into the bay and its estuaries. The TMDL was a combination of individual Watershed Implementation Plans (WIPs) that were drafted …
Tuesday, January 11, 2011
The American Farm Bureau Federation filed a lawsuit to stop implementation of the EPA's pollution diet.
The American Farm Bureau Federation (AFBF) sued the federal Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) on Jan. 10 over the EPA's proposed "pollution diet" for the Chesapeake Bay watershed. Accusing the EPA of "unlawfully micromanag[ing]" states and "overreaching" its bounds, the AFBF filed the lawsuit in federal court in Harrisburg, PA. The group was joined by the Pennsylvania Farm Bureau in the suit. The AFBF also questions the science behind the EPA's pollution reduction requirements, also known as the Total Maximum Daily Load (TMDL), as well as the length of time in which the public could comment on the pollution reduction plan. The TMDL would regulate how much phosphorus, nitrogen and sediment are allowed to enter the bay and its estuaries…
Peter Maier
4:07 pm on Saturday, July 2, 2011
In stead of pointing fingers at each other, I wish they all would read the Clean Water Act (CWA) and studies what sewage is and how it impacts open waters. If they would, they will find out that EPA never implemented the CWA, due to a faulty pollution test and ignored 60% of the water pollution, Congress intended to ‘treat’. And even tough EPA acknowledged the problems caused by this essential … more ›