This article was originally published by the Chesapeake Bay Journal, an award-winning nonprofit news organization that has been covering environmental issues in the Bay region for more than 30 years.
President Trump on Wednesday repealed a policy that has guided federal participation in Chesapeake Bay cleanup efforts for nearly two decades.
The policy, established through executive order by the Obama administration in 2009, tasked federal agencies with ramping up their leadership for the Bay restoration.
Though it did not create the broader federal-state partnership under the Chesapeake Bay Program, which was established in 1983, Obama’s policy did assert the roles of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and other agencies in regulating Bay water quality through policies and enforcement mechanisms allotted by the Clean Water Act.
It also called for formal coordination among federal agencies, regular reporting for enhanced transparency and consultation with Bay states, among other measures.
Trump’s new executive order repealed Obama’s policy, stating that its “lack of clarity has led to harmful economic impacts on affected Americans."
Trump’s order singled out the fees some localities charge property owners to support municipal stormwater infrastructure, which captures, filters and sometimes treats polluted runoff before it enters Bay waterways, claiming that successes in pollution reduction make the economic tradeoff unnecessary.
Chesapeake Bay Foundation President Hilary Harp Falk refuted those claims and cited the 2009 policy as the cornerstone for many of the Bay’s modern restoration efforts.
“For 17 years, the 2009 executive order has helped provide the federal leadership, coordination, science and accountability needed to restore the Chesapeake Bay,” Harp Falk said in a press release. “Its replacement undermines the federal government’s role while eroding the ability of states and local governments to fix problems ranging from pollution to flooding.
Kristin Reilly, director of the Choose Clean Water Coalition, said the order seems to contradict itself by touting Bay water quality improvements that federal partnerships and local stormwater fees helped make possible.
Reilly said that although those stormwater programs are established at the municipal level, Trump’s order signals that the administration could challenge the authority of local governments to implement them.
“Our big concern is whether local governments have sort of lost a little bit of their rights and their autonomy to make these decisions based on the needs of their local communities,” Reilly said.
This story will be updated as more information becomes available.
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