Choose Clean Water Coalition Statement on EPA's Evaluations of State Watershed Implementation Plans

(ANNAPOLIS, MD)—Following the release of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) evaluations of the plans of each state and the District of Columbia to meet their pollution reduction goals, Choose Clean Water Coalition Director Kristin Reilly issued the following statement:

"The Chesapeake Bay watershed covers 64,000 square miles across six states and is home to more than 18 million people. With this size comes the inevitable need for governments, businesses, and institutions of all sorts to partner together in the name of clean water. But the partnership to restore our local rivers, streams and the Bay is only as strong as its weakest link.

"In August, the six Bay states and District of Columbia released their final Watershed Implementation Plans (WIP). While many state plans had issues, there was a glaring weak link: Pennsylvania. The Keystone State's WIP not only falls short of reaching their pollution reduction goals, but they also have a more than $324 million funding gap for the work outlined in their plan. Our hope was that, in their evaluations of these plans, EPA would take substantial action in response to these failures. However, we are disappointed to see that EPA is, once again, failing to hold Pennsylvania and other states accountable to their commitment to clean water.

"The Coalition and our more than 240 members across the watershed are committed to ensuring that progress continues to be made on the ground and that the appropriate changes are made to Pennsylvania's clean up plan with funding support from the local, state and federal level. Our efforts to restore the Chesapeake Bay and its rivers and streams will be delayed indefinitely if all the stakeholders do not do their part in this effort."

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Media Contact:
Drew Robinson
443-927-8049
RobinsonAQ@nwf.org