Annapolis-The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) appears to be backing away from some tough measures to clean up the Chesapeake Bay, according to Environmental Maryland, even as more than 43,000 bay area residents expressed their support for tighter controls to agency officials in one of the largest outpouring of public comments on the issue. “The message from the public is deafening and crystal clear: the EPA should be using every tool available to rein in bay polluters ?Çô including tough penalties if states fail to do their part,” said Tommy Landers, the group’s clean water advocate. Landers and other environmental advocates are concerned that EPA appears to be backing away from its previous proposal. EPA responded with a draft report last September to President Obama’s May 2009 executive order on the bay, Landers pointed out, but subsequent documents omit or modify key proposals, including expanding or strengthen permits for agriculture and urban development, which represent the largest sources of pollution in the bay. Landers declared, “The EPA came out swinging, but now they’re pulling their punches. As we and more than 40,000 people across the watershed have said, the EPA should immediately strengthen and expand permits for urban stormwater and farmland runoff. After 26 years of state action, it’s clear that a wait-and-see approach will not work. The EPA should also use the strongest penalties at their disposal to push states to meet their goals.”
Transparency Across the Fertilizer Value-Chain