Press Release
Mayor Gavin Buckley
Public Information Office
160 Duke of Gloucester Street
Annapolis, Maryland 21401
For Immediate Release:
Media contact: Mitchelle Stephenson, 410-972-7724 or mwstephenson@annapolis.gov
Mayor Buckley Statement on the EPA Stepping Back
from Chesapeake Bay 2025 Pollution Cleanup Goals
Annapolis, MD (January 4, 2020) – On Friday, I spoke to the Chesapeake Bay Commission during their two-day Annapolis meeting about environmental initiatives the City is undertaking and our plans to keep the City safe from rising sea levels. On Saturday, I read in the newspaper that the EPA’s Chesapeake Bay Director is stepping back from the goals that all Chesapeake Bay states are working toward.
The City of Annapolis is committed to continuing to do our part to clean up the Bay. In the city, we are increasing tree canopy, we have tightened requirements for stormwater management, we have improved wastewater treatment, we have applied, with Anne Arundel County, to designate our waters as a No Discharge Zone, and more.
It is my hope that President Trump and EPA will see that policymakers and residents from Annapolis, and all around the Bay watershed, remain keenly interested in continuing our efforts to reduce pollution and restore the Chesapeake Bay.
From the start of this effort, we all understood that meeting Bay Clean-Up plan goals was not going to be easy. That is why the plan built-in opportunities to report on progress, make adjustments and provide support as well as “backstops” to those states lagging behind in their share of the work. The Clean-Up plan was never optional or “aspirational.’ It was and remains a necessity to save what President Obama so aptly described as “a national treasure.”
The Bay is a key driver for our Maryland economy and a big part of our culture and our way of life. The impact of a return to our old polluting ways is not acceptable and has a disproportionate impact on our most vulnerable populations. I urge the Administration to rethink this policy.
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