FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact:
Tim Whitehouse (240) 247-0299 twhitehouse@peer.org
PEER Urges Maryland DNR to Improve Grant Oversight
Chesapeake Bay Recovery Badly Off Course
Washington, DC —Strict controls must be placed on projects funded under Maryland’s Whole Watershed Act to address the growing scientific consensus that Maryland stream restoration projects are costly and not working to improve water quality in the Chesapeake Bay, according to a letter released today by Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER) to the Maryland Department of Natural Resources (Maryland DNR). The newly enacted Whole Watershed Act establishes a partnership to provide grants and technical assistance to eligible projects over a period of five years.
The PEER letter asks Maryland DNR to incorporate three factors into the upcoming decisions on funding specific project proposals:
- Project proposals must provide site-specific monitoring data that document the issues of concern targeted by the project. In our experience, landowners and permit holders have been able to justify destructive stream restoration projects without providing monitoring data.
- Grant funding and the resulting pollutant reduction credits will be available to stormwater (MS4) permit holders only, and not to private, for-profit mitigation bank projects, which amount to a state subsidy for private companies.
- Grant applications will be available for public review and comment before grant decisions are made to allow for greater public input and the possibility that the project parameters can be modified.
The letter also asks that grants be used to support out-of-stream projects such as tree planting, bioretentions, and permeable pavement, allowing the stormwater to be controlled before it flushes into streams to eliminate the root cause of stream erosion.
The Whole Watershed Act was passed in response to the finding of the 2023 Comprehensive Evaluation of System Response (CESR) report, which concluded that decades of these projects in Maryland had generally not resulted in any improvements in water quality or ecological function in the Chesapeake Bay. Polluted stormwater runoff is one of the most harmful sources of pollution to the Bay and its waters.
“Despite tens of billions of dollars being spent on Bay restoration activities, little progress has been made in cleaning up the Bay,” says Tim Whitehouse, Executive Director of Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility and a former U.S. Environmental Protection Attorney specializing in enforcement of the Clean Water Act. “Unless Maryland applies rigorous, consistent, science-based criteria to its stream restoration funding programs, the Chesapeake Bay recovery will continue to stagnate.”
###
Read PEER Comments to the Chesapeake Bay Program Beyond 2025 Steering Committee
Read the 2023 Comprehensive Evaluation of System Response (CESR) report
