Gov. Hogan, it's time to sue Pennsylvania over its failed Chesapeake Bay cleanup

It is clear that Pennsylvania has no intention of meeting its obligation to reduce pollution flowing into the Chesapeake Bay.

Gov. Larry Hogan wrote the Environmental Protection Agency in August, urging it to get Pennsylvania to increase its spending in an effort to meet the 2025 "third phase" goals for cutting nutrients and other pollutants.

The EPA responded last week during the Chesapeake Bay Commission meeting in Annapolis, saying the targets don't matter.

Dana Aunkst, director of the EPA's Chesapeake Bay Program, dismissed technical pollution targets, calling the Total Maximum Daily Load "an aspiration" and not an enforceable standard.

Now, Hogan needs to respond by dragging Pennsylvania and the EPA into court to force them to meet their obligations.

States in the bay watershed are supposed to have measures in place by 2025 that will get them to pollution reduction goals set by the EPA under President Barack Obama in 2010.

And that means Maryland is spending $5 billion to meet its targets so Pennsylvania can continue to treat the Chesapeake Bay like a toilet, dumping farm runoff and effluent from outdated sewage treatment systems into the Susquehanna River.

If the EPA under President Donald Trump is no longer willing to enforce the agreement, it's clear Maryland must force the issue by the only means available - the courts.

In April, Pennsylvania submitted plans that fell far short of the 2025 water quality goals.

In a report on the plan, the Chesapeake Bay Foundation said the state's effort to reduce pollution from farms and cities was underfunded by about $250 million a year. It threatened legal action if the EPA failed to enforce the goals.

None of this is a surprise.

Aunkst was appointed to head the Annapolis-based Chesapeake Bay Program in December 2018. He worked for 33 years in private industry and local and state government - and was an architect of Pennsylvania's policy on the environment as both deputy and acting secretary.

Under the EPA goals, the bay watershed has a maximum limit of 185.9 million pounds of nitrogen a year, 12.5 million pounds of phosphorus and 6.45 billion pounds of sediment. That requires reductions ranging from 20 to 25% for each pollutant.

Environmental groups, including those that have threatened to sue Pennsylvania and the EPA to force them to stick to the 2025 goals, were united in their condemnation of Aunkst's retreat. Last year, the Chesapeake Bay Foundation recommended going to court to force compliance.

Maryland isn't the only government that has invested in meeting the targets that now appear to be moot. Anne Arundel County Executive Steuart Pittman released a statement Saturday saying state and local government must now take the lead and send a message to the EPA.

"If the federal government won't lead this effort, then state and local governments must," he said. "Together, we will send a message back to the EPA that we will not sacrifice our bay-dependent local economies or our children's environment when we have already come this far."

He's right.

Maryland and local jurisdictions like Anne Arundel County have invested years of work and billions in this plan. To protect it, Hogan should instruct Attorney General Brian Frosh to head to court and force Pennsylvania to meet its obligations and the EPA to stand by the targets it created.