Environmental Advocates Ask Biden EPA to Address Chesapeake Bay Stormwater Runoff

Pennsylvania and Maryland Arie Backsliding On Past Commitments To Reduce Stormwater Pollution Into Chesapeake Bay Tributaries

Washington, DC — Today, the Environmental Integrity Project and thirteen other environmental advocates sent a letter to the Biden Administration EPA demanding stronger EPA action to enforce the Chesapeake Bay cleanup, with more aggressive enforcement actions aimed in particular towards Pennsylvania and Maryland and their urban and suburban stormwater pollution.

The letter reads in part:

“Stormwater runoff from urban and suburban areas is the fastest-growing source of pollution in the Bay – in part because of increasing rainfall from climate change, coupled with suburban sprawl – and Pennsylvania is the source of a third of all the stormwater nitrogen pollution pouring into the Bay every year, according to EPA. For this reason, EPA must take strong ‘backstop’ actions under the TMDL to require Pennsylvania and the other Bay states to invest in more effective stormwater pollution control systems.”

Pennsylvania and Maryland’s backsliding on their past commitments to reduce pollution from this stormwater sector are documented in the Environmental Integrity Project’s August 17, 2020, report, “Stormwater Backup in the Chesapeake Bay Region.”

The fourteen signatories include:

Eric Schaeffer, Executive Director, Environmental Integrity Project
Nick DiPasquale, Director, EPA Chesapeake Bay Program, retired
Delegate Kumar Barve, Chairman Maryland House Environment & Transportation Committee
Betsy Nicholas, Executive Director, Waterkeepers Chesapeake
John Rumpler, Clean Water Program Director, Environment America
David Masur, Executive Director, PennEnvironment
Kate Breimann, State Director, Environment Maryland
Elly Boehmer, State Director, Environment Virginia
Jenn Aiosa, Executive Director, Blue Water Baltimore
David Reed, Co-Executive Director, Chesapeake Legal Alliance
Phillip Musegaas, Potomac Riverkeepers Network, Vice President of Programs and Litigation.
Ted Evgeniadis, Lower Susquehanna Riverkeeper
Betsy Southerland, Director of Science and Technology, Water Program, EPA, retired
Mary Greene, Deputy Director, Environmental Integrity Project