Congress Passes Act to Improve health of Chesapeake Bay

The Chesapeake Bay Foundation (CBF) hailed passage of The Estuaries and Clean Waters Act of 2000 in Congress as an “important milestone” in the effort to restore the Chesapeake Bay and other national estuaries. The Act, which combines several unrelated bills, includes two bills that will accelerate ongoing efforts to restore the Chesapeake’s health, which has improved since the early 1980s but is still considered dangerously out of balance.

One bill, introduced by Congressman Wayne Gilchrest (R-MD) in the House and the late Senator John Chafee (R-RI) in the Senate, is the first national legislation to support habitat restoration in bays, sounds, and other estuaries. As North America’s largest estuary, the Chesapeake Bay will be among the principal beneficiaries. This estuary restoration bill sets a goal of restoring 1 million acres of habitat (such as wetlands, underwater grasses, and forested buffers along shorelines) by 2010 and authorizes $275 million in federal funds over five years toward achieving it. To assure a thorough and coordinated effort, the estuary bill creates a national council of several federal agencies (Environmental Protection Agency, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service, and the Department of Agriculture) to select projects.

“Reducing pollution alone won’t save the Chesapeake Bay,” said William C. Baker, president of the Chesapeake Bay Foundation. “We must also repair more than a century of damage to the natural systems that sustain the Bay. This legislation will help to accelerate that effort."

The return on this investment will have significant impact not only for the environment, but also for the regional economy, added Baker.

Wetlands, for example, filter pollutants and are key habitat for roughly two-thirds of the fish and shellfish species commercially harvested on the Atlantic Coast. Underwater grasses improve water clarity while providing shelter to the Bay’s most valuable commercial fishery, blue crabs.

The Chesapeake Bay Foundation worked closely with Congressman Gilchrest, Senator John Warner (R-VA) and other Members of Congress from the Chesapeake Bay watershed who steered this important legislation around the partisan gridlock that blocked other popularly supported bills.

The second bill, known as the Chesapeake Bay Program Reauthorization Act of 2000, was introduced by Senator Paul Sarbanes (D-MD). This bill re-authorizes the Environmental Protection Agency’s Chesapeake Bay Program, the successful federal-state compact directing and coordinating clean-up and restoration activities in the Bay. In June, the state partners to the Bay Program signed “Chesapeake 2000,” the blueprint for cleaning up the Bay and its watershed over the next decade. The bill increases the Bay Program’s overall funding from $18 million to $40 million per year over the next 5 years, expands the Program’s authority to include vital restoration work, and establishes a "Small Watershed Grants Program" for the Chesapeake Bay region. These grants will help organizations and local governments launch a variety of projects to restore pieces of the larger watershed.

“If we are to meet the ambitious goals of Chesapeake 2000, the state and federal governments will have to devote more resources to the effort,” said Baker. “This bill is an important step in ramping up those resources.”

President Clinton is expected to sign The Estuaries and Clean Waters Act of 2000 into law.

Posted: 11-1-2000