The EPA's New Year's resolution for the Chesapeake

Last week, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency formally unveiled a plan to restore the Chesapeake Bay by 2025, a regulatory framework officials called "historical" and "monumental." But whether that's true depends a lot on what happens in the next two years.

As anyone old enough to recall the days when oysters were harvested by the millions and rivers bubbled with spawning fish in the spring can attest, the road to a polluted Chesapeake Bay has long been paved with good intentions.

This latest restoration plan gives the EPA a far bigger say in what Maryland, five neighboring states and the District of Columbia must achieve to reduce what is known as the TMDL — the total maximum daily load of pollution, chiefly in the form of sediments and nutrients that have so badly choked the bay and its tributaries. States that fail to achieve long-term pollution-reduction goals of 20 percent to 25 percent may be ordered to implement harsher regulatory measures than their governors or legislatures might otherwise have approved.

But just how tough is the EPA prepared to be? The cost of these measures, particularly for such big-ticket items as new sewage treatment plants or storm water management controls to prevent run-off from fouling creeks and streams, could run into the billions of dollars. The agency already softened some of its more ambitious requirements in recent months, as officials negotiated with states over the specifics in what some have called a "pollution diet plan."

With states like New York already facing back-breaking budget deficits — and post-election Washington with a Republican-controlled House and a tea party ethos seemingly in no mood to bail them out — it's hard to believe the Obama administration will want to spend much effort pushing a clean water agenda between now and 2012. Words are one thing, deeds are another.

That the last Congress failed to approve landmark legislation sponsored by Maryland's U.S. Sen. Benjamin L. Cardin and others that would have helped states in the watershed defray a portion of their cleanup costs does not bode well. Such a proposal would seem to have little chance of passage now in the realigned Congress.

These realities are no cause to abandon the effort, only to face the harsh realities ahead. Among the half-dozen states in the watershed, Maryland's cleanup plans received the highest marks, and Gov. Martin O'Malley has pledged to meet the goals five years earlier than his neighbors.

The Chesapeake Bay Foundation's most recent report card on the bay's health also gives some hope for the future. Though a "D-plus" for overall health is not exactly a parent-pleaser, it indicates some modest improvement.

The recent rebound of blue crabs in the Chesapeake is just one of the more visible positive signs noted in the evaluation. Gains were also reported for submerged aquatic vegetation, disease-resistant oysters and dissolved oxygen, to name a few more.

So while an economic recession may not be the ideal time for such a sweeping environmental initiative, it is as good a time as any. There is always an excuse to delay and defer: cost, inconvenience, jobs put at risk. Everyone knows what that gets us — the nation's largest estuary simply becomes more polluted, the solutions that much more difficult.

What is needed is not just a legally enforceable EPA plan with tough but fair pollution standards, like the one unveiled last week. What is needed are the will and resources to actually enforce it. Agency officials say that is their intention, but we have heard such promises before.

As is the case with all regulatory solutions, what matters is the details. Will Maryland poultry producers be held accountable for animal waste? Will Pennsylvania curb storm water run-off? Will New York upgrade sewage plants? Will local governments adopt smart growth principles that preserve open spaces from development sprawl?

Actions in the coming months by local, state and federal authorities could speak volumes about what may be accomplished over the next 15 years to clean up and protect this important environmental treasure. Let 2011 be remembered as the year when the dream of a restored Chesapeake Bay resulted in something more than just another broken promise.

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