The Chesapeake Executive Council, consisting of the governors from Maryland, Pennsylvania, and Virginia, convened yesterday to urgently address the urgent state of the Chesapeake Bay and set a new course for its restoration. According to a report from CBS News Baltimore, the council acknowledged the necessity of adjusting their strategies and plans based on the latest scientific findings to update the Chesapeake Bay Watershed Agreement signed back in 2014.
"This is not just a shared blessing, it is a shared responsibility," Maryland Gov. Wes Moore said, as detailed by CBS News Baltimore. Moore emphasized the need to streamline efforts and promised to personally introduce Bay legacy legislation to protect public lands and simplify and make getting into agriculture, including aquaculture, less expensive. In concert, Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro pledged $24 million in investments to cleanse the tributary rivers and streams while announcing an initiative to seriously work with farmers on reducing the pollution they contribute to the bay. "This committee will bring together farmers, including urban farmers, and other agriculture experts and stakeholders to advise the Chesapeake Bay Program on how we can support and engage farmers who want to reap the benefits of cleaning up their local waterways," Shapiro stated, as per WBALTV.
Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin added to the commitment, underscoring the shared future represented by the bay's health. "We have to not hit the reset button," he told CBS News. "That means streamlining, that means focusing, that means clarity in our objectives and that means delivering."
Moreover, the Executive Council has resolved to form an Agricultural Advisory Committee, a pledge that carries particular significance given Pennsylvania's historically passive stance on addressing farm runoff pollution. As part of the re-energized effort to restore one of the nation's crucial waterways, the council's advisory committees are slated to meet over the next 18 months to revise and update the 2014 watershed agreement. The updates will aim to set new, more achievable goals with clear pathways to restore the Chesapeake Bay and benefit the people in the region.
