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The Fight to Restore Chesapeake Bay Funding

Pamela D'Angelo

A bipartisan array of state officials went to bat for the Chesapeake Bay yesterday, lobbying their Congressional representatives to restore $73 million in bay restoration funds that was chopped out of the 2018 federal budget.

Legislative and regulatory representatives from Maryland, Virginia, Delaware, Pennsylvania and Washington, D.C. are keeping the pressure on Congress to leave funding for the bay alone. Virginia’s Secretary of Natural Resources Molly Ward called it a catastrophic death by a list of cuts.

“This is a perfect example of when you need federal oversight and coordination between localities because the water doesn’t know boundaries. It doesn’t were the states start and stop.”

States are at a critical turning point in their cleanup efforts. Maryland’s Secretary of Environment Ben Grumbles.

“Governor Hogan wanted me to be here to help deliver in the strongest bipartisan way possible the message of fight the cuts keep the backstops and grow the partnerships for the Chesapeake Bay. We all need to stick together and continue making the progress.”

The gathering of regulators, legislators, scientists and environmentalists are asking people who live in the bay watershed to contact their senators and congressmen. 

Chesapeake: A Journalism Collaborative is funded with grant support from the Clayton Baker Trust, The Bancroft Foundation, Michael and Ann Hankin, The Jim and Patty Rouse Foundation, The Rob and Elizabeth Tyler Foundation, and the Mid-Shore Community Foundation. 

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