As surely as water flows downhill, Pennsylvania will not meet its ambitious 2025 goals for water pollution reductions to boost the Chesapeake Bay’s recovery.
Pennsylvania is the largest source of freshwater that flows into the Chesapeake. About half of the state, including most of Northeast Pennsylvania, lies within the Susquehanna River watershed that drains into the bay.
Of the 27,500 square miles of that watershed, more than 20,000 square miles are in Pennsylvania.
Crucially, about 16% of the Susquehanna watershed in Pennsylvania is agricultural land. In the southern part of the state, 36% of the land in the watershed is agricultural.
Agricultural pollution is the biggest problem for the Chesapeake. Manure and fertilizer than drain from thousands of farms foul water and provide nutrients for plants in the bay that block sunlight and inhibit life below the surface.
Pennsylvania is a part of a federally led bay cleanup plan — along with New York, Maryland, West Virginia, Virginia and the District of Columbia. All of the parties have made major progress on reducing pollution from sewer system discharges.
Pennsylvania has lagged regarding agricultural pollution, to the point that the other states sued the EPA for its alleged failure to force Pennsylvania to meet its goals.
EPA settled the suits, promising to press and help Pennsylvania increase its pollution-control efforts, especially in agriculturally rich Lancaster, York, Bedford, Cumberland, Centre, Franklin and Lebanon counties.
The state Department of Environmental Protection’s recently released report for 2022 on the bay cleanup reveals significant progress.
State DEP Secretary Rich Negrin, Conservation and Natural Resources Secretary Cindy Adams Dunn and Agriculture Secretary Russell Redding noted large infusions of money and widescale implementation of best farming practices, including introduction of cover crops that reduce runoff on farms covering 1.5 million acres.
The state also has dedicated $700 million to improvements, including $220 million in federal pandemic recovery money for a permanent Clean Streams Fund.
The bay cleanup is beneficial even for Pennsylvanians who live far from the Chesapeake because it mandates cleaner water for everyone upstream. That’s why the effort has broad bipartisan support in the Legislature, and why the state should further accelerate the effort.
— Republican & Herald, Pottsville via TNS
