A report released Wednesday by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) said runoff from new development is polluting Chesapeake Bay more quickly than surrounding communites in the Northeast are acting to curb it.
The EPA warned in its report that all levels of government are filing to keep nutrients and mud from running off newly developed land. The restoration of the bay, then, is jeopardized. While development runoff generates less water pollution than agricultural runoff and sewage treatment plants, correcting the issue can be very costly.
The Inspector General, who audits the EPA's performance, called for the agency to push bay states and communities to adopt nutrient pollutant limits regarding new development. The report suggested stricter storm water controls and requiring more concentrated development and environmentally sensitive designs would help alleviate the problem.
The EPA estimates that storm water runoff and septic waste-treatment system seepage account for approximately 24 percent of the nitrogen and 30 percent of the phosphorous dirtying the bay. These numbers, however, continue to rise as development sprawls with only relatively modest runoff controls in effect across the six-state bay region.
The report said that the District is the only one of the region's eight communities that has established tangible goals for reducing urban runoff. Additionally, it stated that while the EPA and bay states have agreed to curb sprawl in order to restore the bay, officials have not been able to agree on a definition for sprawl. No action, then, has been taken toward tracking it in a measurable manner.
Report content pointed the finger at the EPA and bay states for failing to use their legal authority in regulating storm water runoff. Maryland's General Assembly adopted a new storm water law this year, but the state's environmental department is still drafting regulations to carry it out. Federal and state governments have oversight, but local municipalities are left to enforce storm water laws.
"A lot of the local governments, either through [lack of] resources or political will, have not stepped up to the plate," said Neil Weinstein, head of the Low Impact Development Center, a nonprofit in Beltsville, Md., that advises governments and private developers on how to reduce the negative impacts new buildings and pavement can have on the environment.
Source: Baltimore Sun
