A week after Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan complained to the Environmental Protection Agency that Pennsylvania was lagging behind in meeting clean water goals, he told reporters there鈥檚 no 鈥渢iff鈥� between the two states.
But Hogan, who chairs the Chesapeake Executive Council, said at the body鈥檚 meeting Thursday in Oxon Hill that Maryland would not fund Pennsylvania鈥檚 efforts to reach clean water benchmarks.
鈥淲e鈥檝e invested $5 billion in cleaning the Bay, and we鈥檙e not going to be able to handle the sewage problems in Pennsylvania.鈥�
The governors of five other states 鈥� Pennsylvania, Virginia, West Virginia, New York and Delaware 鈥� are also on the council.
Pennsylvania has been a focus of concern over the amount of agricultural runoff that washes into the Susquehanna River, which is part of the Chesapeake Bay watershed. While Hogan called Pennsylvania 鈥渁 good neighbor鈥� and said he鈥檚 confident the situation could be resolved, Will Baker, president of the Chesapeake Bay Foundation, was more critical.
鈥淧ennsylvania has to be more vigorous in using its own funds鈥� to reach clean water goals, Baker said. 鈥淭hey have a self-identified $320 million annual gap 鈥� that there is no identified funding to help farmers reduce pollution.鈥�
But programs that Pennsylvania has enacted aren鈥檛 given the credit they deserve toward meeting clean water goals, said Patrick McDonnell of the state’s Department of Environmental Protection: 鈥淲e haven鈥檛 just sat around a table writing things out. It鈥檚 really been about engagement with our farmers, engagement with our community about what鈥檚 been effective.鈥�
In response to the letter Hogan sent last week to the EPA, an official with Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf鈥檚 office said the state would 鈥済ladly accept鈥� any money Maryland wanted to contribute to its efforts. Neither McDonnell nor Hogan mentioned that exchange during the council’s Thursday meeting.
McDonnell did say that the state would look for additional funding, including from the EPA. Andrew Wheeler, EPA administrator, didn鈥檛 comment on the issue at Thursday鈥檚 meeting.
91欧美激情’s Kate Ryan reported from Oxon Hill, Maryland.
