Senators Write Bush: "Concerned" With Chesapeake Cleanup Programs

[hatrack]

Ooh! They're "concerned"! The gloves are off now!

U.S. Sen. John W. Warner and two colleagues sent a letter Tuesday to the White House expressing “serious concerns” about how the Chesapeake Bay cleanup is being managed and asked for immediate reforms and more money. Warner, R-Va., and Sens. Paul S. Sarbanes and Barbara A. Mikulski , both Maryland Democrats, made their pitch following the release Tuesday of a watchdog report that, among other things, found “a rosier picture of the bay’s health being reported than may have been warranted.”

The senators had asked the Government Accountability Office to investigate the Chesapeake Bay Program, led by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, after news articles in The Washington Post detailed how the program may have skewed data depicting progress in restoring the Bay.

The accountability office’s report confirmed this problem of merging computer estimates and real-world monitoring data, saying that, as a result, “the public cannot easily determine whether the health of the bay is improving or not.”

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The Chesapeake Bay Foundation, a leading environmental group that has been highly critical of government efforts of late as too bureaucratic and timid, expressed support for the report and the senators’ letter. “We don’t have enough resources, particularly from the federal government,” said Roy A. Hoagland , a foundation vice president. Hoagland said the Bush administration “has been less than generous” to the Bay, noting budget cuts for sewage plant improvements and farm conservation. Bush has asked for about $20 million a year for the EPA’s Bay Program during his tenure. That is less than half of what Sens. Warner, Sarbanes and Mikulski now are seeking annually.

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http://home.hamptonroads.com/stories/story.cfm?story=95445&ran=217076