Maryland could take legal action against EPA, Pennsylvania due to lack of efforts to protect the Bay

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    Annapolis (WJZ) — Maryland could take legal action against Pennsylvania and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency in an effort to protect Chesapeake Bay restorations.

Governor Larry Hogan directed Attorney General Brian Frosh to pursue legal actions against Pennsylvania and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency on Tuesday.

Since his campaign in 2014, Gov. Hogan has repeatedly called on upstream states — including Pennsylvania — to take responsibility for sediment and debris that pours into the Chesapeake Bay from the Susquehanna River.

“We have a general responsibility to protect the Bay, and we simply cannot afford to fall short of these shared obligations,” Gov. Hogan wrote in a letter to Frosh. “Therefore, I ask that you commence litigation against the EPA and Pennsylvania, and in close coordination with the Maryland Department of the Environment.”

In August, after watershed states submitted their final Chesapeake Bay clean-up plans to the federal administration, Gov. Hogan expressed “alarming concerns” about Pennsylvania’s lack of progress on clean water goals and called on the EPA to use its robust oversight powers to hold states accountable.

Gov. Hogan is serving his second term as chairman of the Chesapeake Bay Executive Council. As governor, he has committed a historic $5 billion toward wide-ranging Bay restoration activities.

Water advocate Angela Haren said the Chesapeake Bay is a destination for pollution.

“Anywhere you live in a watershed, water drains from the land down into streams and rivers and ultimately out into the Chesapeake Bay and into the ocean,” Haren said.

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