Restore the Chesapeake Bay

The Chesapeake Bay is one of our greatest natural resources. After years of over-pollution and abuse, the EPA on May 12 proposed tough new plans to protect the Bay. We need to make sure that the EPA hears from concerned citizens and not just polluters so that they will take the strongest possible steps to protect the Bay.

Please send an e-mail to EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson thanking her for making Bay restoration a priority.

The Chesapeake Bay is undoubtedly an important part of America’s natural heritage. Home to a range of wildlife species, it is a beautiful place to boat, fish swim, hike and camp.

Unfortunately, each summer up to a third of the Chesapeake Bay is considered a “dead zone,” uninhabitable for the Bay’s fish and plant species due to a lack of oxygen in the waterways. The main cause of these “dead zones” is nitrogen pollution that comes from sewage treatment plants, runoff from city streets and development sites, agricultural operations, and industrial air pollution. Of all the states surrounding the Bay, Pennsylvania is the largest contributor to the nitrogen pollution that is clogging the Bay.

The good news is that solutions to cleaning up the Chesapeake Bay – and our own rivers and streams – are well known. PennEnvironment supports policies and actions that: promote smart development and reduce runoff pollution, reign in the pollution of agribusiness facilities, and help local townships implement the much-needed upgrades to their sewage systems and infrastructure.