Epa Cuts Could Hurt Bay Cleanup

Long-standing efforts by farmers and others to clean up the Chesapeake Bay could be crippled if a proposal to cut funding for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is approved, officials involved in the cleanup say.

The Trump administration is seeking steep cuts to the EPA's bay cleanup funding - specifically a 93 percent reduction from $73 million now to $5 million next year, according to published reports based on a U.S. Office of Management and Budget analysis.

If such a cut holds - it's still early in the budget process and Congress ultimately controls the purse strings - it could mean a lot less money for Lancaster County farmers for barnyard improvements and other efforts to clean local rivers and streams that flow into the bay.

Farm runoff is often cited as the main source of pollution entering the nation's largest estuary.

However, a scaling back of the state-federal cleanup, first mandated in 2002, could remove the target on the backs of local farmers who are increasingly under pressure to reduce runoff of soil, manure and commercial fertilizers.

EPA funding accounts for about 70 percent of Pennsylvania's bay cleanup funding. The cuts would reduce money going to the state Department of Environmental Protection from $6.6 million to $462,000, an agency spokesman told LNP.

The cutbacks come at a time when definable progress is being made in pollution reductions and the bay's health.

Relief or 'excessive' cut?

"We are not commenting at this point in the process," EPA spokeswoman Michael D'Andrea told LNP.

But many others are.

"If that were to happen, that would essentially kill the effort," said Christopher Thompson, director of the Lancaster County Conservation District.

Deborah Benner, who manages five dairy farms in Rapho Township, says an end of bay funding might be a good thing.

"Their blaming of farmers predominantly for the bay is false. Farmers have been very, very responsible in responding to all of the regulations that have come down from EPA that has put a lot of hardship of our ability to farm.

"If this will relieve us of regulations when we are all responsibly farming, then I'd say we welcome it."

Robert A. Funk, a farmer in Conestoga Township said he thought a 93 percent cut was "a little excessive."

"There are some things I don't agree with with the Chesapeake Bay, but I'm not against cleaning it up, of course," Funk said.

The grassroots Octoraro Watershed Association has spent millions in getting farmers on board in improving their land, especially Plain Sect farmers.

But, if federal funding goes away, "it will make future funding really tough," said Pat Fasano, director of the group.

"There may still be Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection and conservation attention. May not be enough."

"We have seen the beginning of restoration. I had hoped we would make it through to the point where the streams were clean," State Rep. Mike Sturla of Lancaster said.

Cleanup helps local streams

Don Ranck, a farmer, Paradise Township supervisor and vice president of the Lancaster County Farm Bureau, said if federal funding dried up and the cleanup effort ground to a halt, it would "be a shame that farmers who have been responsible for many of the Chesapeake Bay improvements would not be given credit."

But he suggested Pennsylvania farmers would continue their trend to use more conservation measures to clean local streams as well as help the bay.

"It's not a hammer held over farmers' heads to use best-management practices - it's farmers wanting to use them," he said. "It's in our own best interests, and it's in the best interest of society."

But the grassroots Chesapeake Bay Foundation said the proposed reduction in federal funding for cleanup efforts "would reverse restoration successes," according to its president, William C. Baker.

Even without the federal aid, experts say, Pennsylvania is likely to continue to honor its commitment to bring down pollution levels flowing down the Susquehanna.

"The bay states, Pennsylvania included, developed their own plans to restore water quality in local rivers and streams that are part of the Chesapeake Bay watershed, and made commitments to meet those goals set out in the Clean Water Blueprint," said Harry Campbell, executive director of the foundation's Pennsylvania office.

Credit: ACRABLE@LNPNEWS.COM