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Sunday, January 12, 2020

To Protect Chesapeake Bay, Governor Hogan Directs Attorney General to Pursue Legal Actions Against Pennsylvania and EPA



“We Have a Generational Responsibility to Protect the Bay, and We Simply Cannot Afford to Fall Short of These Shared Obligations”
ANNAPOLIS, MD—Governor Larry Hogan today directed Attorney General Brian Frosh to pursue legal actions against the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in order to protect Chesapeake Bay restoration efforts. Since his campaign for governor in 2014, Governor Hogan has repeatedly called on upstream states—including Pennsylvania—to step up and take responsibility for sediment and debris that pours into the Chesapeake Bay via the Susquehanna River.

“We have a generational responsibility to protect the Bay, and we simply cannot afford to fall short of these shared obligations,” writes Governor Hogan. “Therefore, I ask that you commence litigation against the EPA and Pennsylvania, and in close coordination with the Maryland Department of the Environment.”

Read the governor’s letter to the Attorney General here.

In August, after watershed states submitted their final Chesapeake Bay clean-up plans to the federal administration, the governor expressed “alarming concerns” about Pennsylvania’s lack of progress on clean water goals and called on the EPA to use its robust oversight powers to hold states accountable.

“Pennsylvania, which is under ‘enhanced’ or ‘backstop’ federal oversight due to failed pollution reduction efforts, has proposed a draft Phase III Watershed Implementation Plan (WIP) under which it would fall drastically short of its agreed-upon 2025 pollution reduction targets,” writes Governor Hogan. “The EPA currently appears to have no intention of taking the necessary action to ensure Pennsylvania’s compliance with its commitments.”

Governor Hogan is serving his second term as chairman of the Chesapeake Executive Council, which consists of the governors of the six watershed states, the mayor of the District of Columbia, the chair of the Chesapeake Bay Commission, and the EPA administrator. As governor, he has committed an historic $5 billion toward wide-ranging Bay restoration initiatives, and was recently successful in securing an increase in federal funding for Bay cleanup.

19 comments:

  1. All these years you could have done this, why now, what changed.....

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  2. Pointing the finger doesn't help anything , clean up your own butt before you start telling others to. Here we go again , billions wasted on another bay project. Just stop the harvesting of oysters , it will clean itself , that' a fact jack.

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  3. It does seem late in his administration. He he looking for a legacy like Obama. Sorry to say but PA is not doing well economically. Just read an article that they have not recovered from the Obama recession.

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  4. It's about damn time PA is accountable for what they are dumping into the tributaries.

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  5. Is it just me or does EVERY elected official in Maryland blame everyone else for the State and local level problems??

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  6. frosh is to busy suing trump to divert resources to folly like this!

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  7. The Bay is clean and healthy. There are so many oysters and fish that dealers are laying the Watermen off . Same thing happened with hard crabs this Summer. The bay will never be clean according to CBF and Gov as long as they can sit on their asess and collect $ from the taxpayers!

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  8. So after 50 years of the Chesapeake Bay Foundation and Billions of dollars in Federal and State Funds the Chesapeake Bay is still in dire straights. Or is it that possibly the Foundation needs the funds to support itself so no matter what the Bay is dying.

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    Replies
    1. Sort of like the public school system

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  9. The words legacy and Obama in the same sentence...

    BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAHAHAHAHAHAHAAHHA

    Glad its gonna be warm this weekend!

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  10. Anonymous said...
    It's about damn time PA is accountable for what they are dumping into the tributaries.

    January 9, 2020 at 3:01 PM

    And Baltimore and the Conowingo Dam is responsible for what they are dumping in the Bay.

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  11. Does Hogan do anything a Conservative Governor would do?

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  12. ever look at the dead zones in the bay along the western shore? from Balti to st marys? nothing lives there! good luck swimming in that part of the bay! pfiesteria is everywhere!

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  13. Hogan just spouting out of his mouth to look like he's doing something
    Nothing will happen

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  14. If you stop oyster harvesting the poor watermen will have to get real jobs.
    BTW don’t compare watermen to grain farmers:
    Watermen buy a boat, get a license then harvest the waters
    Grain farmers buy land, equipment,seeds,fertilizer etc
    Watermen are like the fur trappers of the Old West—trap trap till all the animals are gone
    Such are the Watermen —They put nothing back then complain there are no Oysters!

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  15. Always looking for a vote. How about state worker prescription benefits? Lost among the freebies from Annapolis.

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  16. Just another way to pay lawyers $800 an hour for the next several years.

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