SCIENTIFIC AND POLICY EXPERTS CALL FOR NEW CHESAPEAKE BAY REGULATORY PROGRAM; CALL BAY STATUS CRITICAL.

On the eve of the 25th anniversary of the first Chesapeake Bay Agreement, distinguished Bay scientists and policy leaders, each with decades of experience on Chesapeake Bay issues, met in Annapolis and unanimously concluded that a new approach to Bay restoration was urgently needed. Finding the current structure and efforts under the formal Bay Program fatally flawed, the experts concluded that the Bay's health is declining, not improving. They declared that the existing voluntary, collaborative approach must be abandoned and a new Bay program structure established with mandatory, enforceable measures for meeting the nutrient, sediment, and toxic chemical reductions needed to remove all Bay waters from the Clean Water Act impaired waters list.

The concerned scientists and policy leaders noted that the enforceable restrictions should be on a river by river basis, with strict, enforceable deadlines. The required reductions must be based on quantitative, scientific standards, have enforceable limits, precise monitoring, and substantive sanctions for noncompliance, the group declared.

"We in the scientific community have seen strong evidence in our research that efforts to reduce nutrients and sediment over the past 25 years are not succeeding. Water quality is declining in key Bay rivers, like the Patuxent, and consequently the Bay's living resources also are in decline. Unless a new structure of mandatory limits with enforceable deadlines is adopted that will sharply reduce pollutant loads, the Bay may never recover" said Dr. Walter Boynton of the Chesapeake Biological Laboratory in Solomons.

The Bay experts urged the EPA and other federal agencies to give Chesapeake Bay restoration the highest and most urgent priority in funding, enforcement of existing laws, new regulatory actions, and in forming a new and effective approach and organizational structure for Bay restoration with state governments and other key officials.

Dr. William Dennison of the University of Maryland Horn Point Laboratory, Cambridge declared: "The current Bay Program and restoration efforts have been insufficient and are failing to achieve water quality to assure healthy populations of oysters, clams, and finfish. We must act quickly to transition from the voluntary collaborative approach that has failed to a comprehensive regulatory program that addresses the prime sources of nutrient and sediment pollution, or watch the Bay die a death of 1,000 cuts. Drastic change is called for.”

Among issues to be addressed in the new mandatory Bay clean-up were reducing individual pollution loads, changing development patterns from significant population growth and sprawling development, establishing a no net loss of forest and wetlands policy, reducing agricultural pollutants with required BMPs, better fishery management to assure a healthy Bay ecosystem, and requiring pollution reductions on a river-by-river basis to fully implement the tributary strategies.

The distinguished Bay specialists group went on to find that "We believe that the core of this new approach to Bay restoration should be the principles that clean water is a right of all citizens and that polluters should pay." Dr. Howard Ernst, author and Professor, concluded: "The Bay is not dying because we do not know what is wrong. The Bay is dying a slow death because the current approach to regional environmental management has left the area with nonbinding agreements instead of enforceable laws, goals instead of pollution limits, an environmental bureaucracy that lacks enforcement powers, and a severely impaired ecosystem that shows no sign of systemic improvement."

YOU ARE INVITED TO JOIN THE CONCERNED BAY SCIENTISTS AND POLICY MAKERS IN PRESENTING THEIR CALL FOR ACTION ON RESTORING THE BAY THROUGH A NEW MANDATORY APPROACH TO THE DIRECTOR OF THE EPA BAY PROGRAM.

Signatories include:
Walter Boynton, Ph.D., Professor, Chesapeake Biological Laboratory, Solomons
Tom Simpson, Ph.D., Executive Director, Water Stewardship, Inc., Professor, University of MD, Annapolis
William C. Dennison, Ph.D., Vice President for Science Application, University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science, Horn Point Laboratory, Cambridge
Howard Ernst, Ph.D., Author, Associate Professor of Political Science, United States Naval Academy Annapolis, Maryland
Thomas R. Fisher, Ph.D., Professor, University of Maryland, Center for Environmental Science, Horn Point Laboratory, Cambridge
Gerrit-Jan Knaap, Ph.D., Professor, Urban Studies and Planning, Executive Director, National Center for Smart Growth, University of Maryland, College Park
John W. Frece, Adjunct Professor in Urban Studies and Planning, Associate Director, National Center for Smart Growth, University of Maryland, College Park, Maryland
Robert J. Etgen, J.D., Executive Director, Eastern Shore Land Conservancy, Queenstown
John E. (Ned) Gerber, Director/ Wildlife Habitat Ecologist, Chesapeake Wildlife Heritage, Easton
Daniel W. Colhoun, Sportsmen Hall Farm, Upperco, Maryland
Tom Horton, Author and Adjunct Professor, Salisbury University, Salisbury
Richard Pritzlaff, President, The Biophilia Foundation, Annapolis
Charlie Stek, Chief Environmental Staffer, U.S. Senator Paul Sarbanes (Retired), Highland
Senator Joseph D. Tydings, J.D., U.S. Senator (1965-1971), Jarrettsville
Senator Bernie Fowler, Maryland Senator (1983-1994), Dares Beach
Senator Gerald W. Winegrad, J.D., Maryland Senator (1983-1995), Delegate (1978-1983), Adjunct Professor, School of Public Policy, University of Maryland, Annapolis

* THE VIEWS EXPRESSED BY THE SIGNATORIES REPRESENT THE PERSONAL VIEWS OF THE SIGNATORIES AND NOT NECESSARILY THE VIEWS OF THEIR EMPLOYERS. FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Dr. Walter Boynton, 410-326-7275; or former State Senator Gerald Winegrad, 410-280-8956.