Bay Journal: With 2025 Chesapeake Bay Cleanup Goal Out Of Reach, Region Plans For What's Next At Oct. 11 Executive Council Meeting
By Karl Blankenship, Chesapeake Bay Journal With its 2025 deadline a little more than three years away, environmental leaders are publicly acknowledging what’s been increasingly obvious for years — that the Chesapeake Bay region will for the third time miss a self-imposed cleanup deadline. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and Chesapeake Bay Foundation recently released separate evaluations of states’ cleanup efforts, and both concluded the region is not on track to reduce the amount of water-fouling nutrients that reach the Bay. The question of what comes next is expected to be taken up by the Chesapeake Executive Council when it meets in Washington, DC, on Oct. 11. The council, which is the senior policy-making body for Bay cleanup efforts, is expected to kick off a yearlong planning process to examine next steps and new timelines for Bay restoration activities. The council includes the EPA administrator; the governors of Maryland, Virginia, Pennsylvania, Delaware, West Virgin