The Time To Recover Our Waterways is Now
By US Representative Wayne Gilchrest
It is my great pleasure to be given an opportunity to share with you my vision for the Chesapeake Bay and for the importance of water quality to the aquatic ecosystems that Waterkeepers across the nation are working to protect and restore. To paraphrase the recent findings of the Chesapeake Bay Blue Ribbon Panel, "…there will never be another time when restored waterways are more achievable, or less expensive, than right now."

The declining health of the Chesapeake Bay is well-documented: "dead zones," where oxygen levels are too low to support crabs and fish, are expanding, oyster populations are just two percent of historic numbers, and submerged aquatic vegetation continues to decline. The major culprit is water quality degradation due to excessive nutrients and sediments. Sources of these pollutants include municipal and industrial wastewater, runoff associated with certain agricultural practices and urban sprawl, and atmospheric deposition.

However, the root of the problem lies with our land use and population growth in the watershed. Each year 100,000
additional people call the Bay watershed home and 100 acres of open space and forests are lost each day. The result is overburdened sewage treatment facilities and increased stormwater runoff from new housing developments, shopping centers, and roads, with additional costs for mitigation and reversal of subsequent environmental damage.

In 1983 the Chesapeake Bay Program (CBP) was created to coordinate the Bay cleanup effort. It is a regional partnership that includes the states of Maryland, Virginia, and Pennsylvania; the District of Columbia; the Chesapeake Bay Commission (a tri-state legislative body); and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) for the federal government. The CBP has been hailed as a model for its coordination of local, state, and Federal stakeholders.

In 2000 the CBP set specific reductions of nutrients and
sediment that must be met by 2010 for each major tributary. Although a great deal of progress has been made in reducing nutrient loads to the Bay, we still have a long way to go and only a few years to meet the 2010 goals.

Local governments are at the front lines of the cleanup effort, and are uniquely situated to implement actions that will restore the water quality in the Bay. There are over 1,650 local governments throughout the Bay watershed, and each has statutory authority over land use, stormwater management, and water and sewer management. Associated with these responsibilities are heavy burdens related to financing, technical expertise, and education.

I am working with local governments and other stakeholders in the Chesapeake Bay restoration effort to improve federal support for local Bay clean-up efforts for the immediate future and beyond the CBP 2010 deadline.

As chairman of the House Resources Subcommittee on Fisheries Conservation, Wildlife and Oceans, I held a field hearing in December to learn more about the challenges local governments face and the opportunities they can bring to ultimate Bay restoration. The issues are complicated and varied and include the influence of land use and atmospheric deposition on nutrient loading; the consequences (both ecological and from a human health perspective) of introducing non-native oysters to the Bay; the role menhaden play in water quality; the status of developing and implementing Tributary Strategies; and the impediments local governments encounter in addressing all of these.

These challenges will only grow more complex and costly to address with time. However, with the help and enthusiasm of our Waterkeepers and other stakeholders, I feel confident about what we can achieve together to meet these challenges and to more effectively integrate growing human infrastructure needs with nature’s infrastructure.