{"id":5512,"date":"2020-08-17T13:31:11","date_gmt":"2020-08-17T17:31:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/waterkeeperschesapeake.org\/?p=5512"},"modified":"2020-08-21T14:52:08","modified_gmt":"2020-08-21T18:52:08","slug":"new-report-documents-retreat-by-pa-and-md-in-efforts-to-control-stormwater-pollution-in-chesapeake-bay","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/waterkeeperschesapeake.org\/es\/new-report-documents-retreat-by-pa-and-md-in-efforts-to-control-stormwater-pollution-in-chesapeake-bay\/","title":{"rendered":"Nuevo informe documenta la retirada de PA y MD en los esfuerzos para controlar la contaminaci\u00f3n de aguas pluviales en la bah\u00eda de Chesapeake"},"content":{"rendered":"

During a Time of Growing Rainfall Caused by Climate Change, Many States and Cities Planning Infrastructure Based on Outdated Data<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Washington, D.C. \u2013 <\/strong>During a time of growing rainfall, flooding, and runoff pollution caused by climate change, \u00a0a new report<\/a>\u00a0by Environmental Integrity Project<\/a> documents that Pennsylvania and Maryland have gone backwards in their efforts to control stormwater pollution in the Chesapeake Bay.\u00a0Because of increasing amount of development and rainfall, the stormwater planning of many municipalities is outdated, leading to more pollution and increased risks of flooding, according to EIP\u2019s study.<\/p>\n

Pennsylvania\u2019s 2019 Bay cleanup plan will allow almost 7 million pounds (or 87 percent) more nitrogen pollution \u2013 the Bay\u2019s biggest killer \u2013 from urban and suburban stormwater runoff in the state into the estuary by the Bay cleanup deadline of 2025, compared to the state\u2019s plan back in 2012, according to the report by the Environmental Integrity Project, \u201cStormwater Backup in the Chesapeake Region<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n

Maryland\u2019s most recent plan (called its \u201cPhase III Watershed Implementation Plan\u201d) will allow about 1.5 million pounds (or 20 percent) more nitrogen from stormwater runoff into the estuary from the state by the cleanup deadline, compared to the state\u2019s 2012 plan, which used 2009 as a starting point.<\/p>\n

Fewer investments by these two states in stormwater pollution control projects \u2013 including converting parking lots to greenspaces, planting trees, and building rain gardens \u2013 will hurt urban communities with large expanses of blacktop, which act as heat islands in the summer, a problem that is becoming worse because of \u00a0climate change, according to EIP\u2019s report.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is inexcusable that Maryland and Pennsylvania are backtracking on their commitments to control urban stormwater pollution at a time when climate change and increasing rainfall are having such a huge impact on the Chesapeake Bay,\u201d said Abel Russ, Senior Attorney for the Environmental Integrity Project<\/strong> and co-author of the report.\u00a0 \u201cThese states must step up, start planning for the precipitation and flooding we are already experiencing because of global warming, and invest in the kinds of stormwater control projects and greenspaces that will provide a range of benefits to both the Chesapeake Bay and urban and suburban communities.\u201d<\/p>\n

Overall, in 2019, stormwater runoff from developed land \u2013 the only major source of pollution in the Bay that is growing \u2013 contributed 16 percent of the total nitrogen pollution in the Chesapeake (40 million pounds), as well as 17 percent of the phosphorus pollution (2.6 million pounds) and 9 percent of the sediment (1.7 billion pounds), according to figures from the EPA-led Chesapeake Bay program.<\/p>\n

\"\"\u201cAt a time of increased concerns about public health, Pennsylvania really needs to start getting serious about controlling its stormwater pollution, because our water monitoring shows it is creating a health hazard even down the street from the State Capitol Complex \u2013 which is a disgrace,\u201d said Ted Evgeniadis, the Lower Susquehanna Riverkeeper<\/strong>. \u201cPennsylvania needs to invest more in not only Harrisburg\u2019s water quality, but clean water for everyone downstream.\u201d<\/p>\n

Water quality monitoring by the Lower Susquehanna Riverkeeper in Harrisburg this summer found unsafe E. coli<\/em> bacteria levels on a third of the testing days (in 20 of 60 samples taken from June 5 to July 31), with worse fecal contamination downstream of the city\u2019s combined stormwater and sewage outfalls. [Read More<\/a>]\n

Virginia is heading in the opposite direction of Pennsylvania and Maryland and is planning and investing more to stop urban and suburban runoff. Virginia\u2019s 2019 Bay cleanup plan would reduce nitrogen pollution from runoff into the Bay by an additional 4 percent, or 540,000 pounds, by the Bay cleanup deadline of 2025, compared to its 2012 plan.<\/p>\n

Together, Virginia, Maryland, Pennsylvania account for 90 percent of the stormwater pollution in the Bay.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf Virginia can step up its efforts to stop stormwater pollution running into our rivers and streams and ultimately the Bay, there is no reason that Pennsylvania and Maryland should be backsliding,\u201d said Betsy Nicholas, Executive Director of Waterkeepers Chesapeake<\/strong>.\u00a0 \u201cBecause of climate change and increased rainfall and flooding, this is really an area in which all the states \u2013 and EPA \u2013 should be increasing their planning and investments, not the opposite.\u201d<\/p>\n

Alice Volpitta, Baltimore Harbor Waterkeeper with Blue Water Baltimore<\/strong>, said: “Our data shows that several measurements of water health are getting significantly worse in Baltimore’s waterways over time. The status quo isn’t working for our urban ecosystems or city residents.\u00a0 Over-reliance on street sweeping and trash reduction efforts, at the expense of green infrastructure projects that both treat and reduce polluted stormwater while providing tangible community benefits, is a losing strategy.”<\/p>\n

READ FULL PRESS RELEASE AND EIP’S RECOMMENDATIONS<\/a><\/p>\n

READ FULL REPORT<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Durante una \u00e9poca de crecientes precipitaciones, inundaciones y contaminaci\u00f3n por escorrent\u00eda causada por el cambio clim\u00e1tico, muchos estados y ciudades planifican infraestructura bas\u00e1ndose en datos obsoletos Washington, DC \u2013 Durante una \u00e9poca de crecientes precipitaciones, inundaciones y contaminaci\u00f3n por escorrent\u00eda causada por el cambio clim\u00e1tico, un nuevo informe del Environmental Integrity Project documenta que Pensilvania y Maryland han retrocedido en sus esfuerzos por\u2026 Lee mas<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":5515,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[18,27],"tags":[159,544,487,632,657,71,84,95,324,96,238,97],"class_list":["post-5512","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-polluted-runoff","category-press-statements","tag-baltimore-harbor-waterkeeker","tag-chesapeake-bay-tmdl","tag-combined-sewage-overflow","tag-environmental-integrity-project","tag-harrisburg","tag-lower-susquehanna-riverkeeper","tag-maryland","tag-ms4-permits","tag-pennsylvania","tag-polluted-runoff","tag-sewage-overflow","tag-stormwater","resize-featured-image"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/waterkeeperschesapeake.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5512","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/waterkeeperschesapeake.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/waterkeeperschesapeake.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/waterkeeperschesapeake.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/waterkeeperschesapeake.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5512"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/waterkeeperschesapeake.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5512\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/waterkeeperschesapeake.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5515"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/waterkeeperschesapeake.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5512"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/waterkeeperschesapeake.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5512"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/waterkeeperschesapeake.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5512"}],"curies":[{"name":"gracias","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}