Cup o' Joe
Food, travel, and news on the Chesapeake Bay
Save the Bay: The Waiting Game
Last week was a big one for the Bay. At least that’s what everybody was saying. First, the Chesapeake Bay Foundation settled its 16-month-long lawsuit with the Environmental Protection Agency and then the Obama Administration released its long-awaited plan to restore the Chesapeake.
As I write this, it’s been nearly an entire week since the plans were announced. Is the Bay cleaned up yet? What’s taking so long? Forgive me for being impatient, but I think I’ve waited long enough.
Right now, I’d like to go for a swim in the Severn River—without having to take a very long shower afterward. And then I’d like catch and eat a whole boat load of rockfish—many more than the government says it’s safe to eat per month. Then I’d like to go out with a waterman friend of mine and dredge so many oysters, he’ll be able to support his family for a month.
But I guess I’ll have to wait a little longer to do these things.
When CBF’s settlement with the EPA was announced, Naval Academy prof and longtime CBF critic Howard Ernst weighed in with typical skepticism: “I for one will withhold my excitement until the EPA actually follows through on its threats. [Until] they prove they are willing to deny permits to polluters, this is all bark and no bite, and it is all too familiar.”
Yes, Howard, maybe we’ve heard this all before. But as EPA point man Chuck Fox (and dead ringer for rocker Ben Folds) told writer Rona Kobell in our current issue, he thinks this time will be different. This is a binding agreement, after all. The CBF could bring another lawsuit if the feds don’t follow-up on their promised enforcement. But lawsuits, as we know, take many months or years to settle. And even the Obama plan calls for purifying 60 percent of the Chesapeake Bay’s waters within 15 years. Fifteen years!
In the meantime, I wait; my bathing suit as dry as Eastern Shore cornstalks in October.
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