The agency isn’t certain where all the money will come from to pay for what it has planned. The effects of climate change have driven the price higher.
The Chesapeake Bay watershed has received an overall grade of C+ on its latest report card.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency says Pennsylvania is not on track to meet its goal to reduce pollution in the Chesapeake Bay.
Rep. Keith Gillespie (R-York) represents an area of York County that borders the Susquehanna River, which is the Chesapeake Bay’s largest source of fresh water.
Eligible projects include improvements to state parks and forests, local parks and riverfronts.
The watershed of the nation’s largest estuary includes Maryland, Virginia, Delaware, Pennsylvania, West Virginia and New York. The bay also is troubled by pollution from nitrogen fertilizer runoff and other pollutants.
Advocates are hoping lawmakers will use federal money to fund a few Republican-backed proposals when they return this fall.
The Department of Environmental Protection is awarding 2020 Environmental Stewardship Fund grants to Adams, Bedford, Centre, Cumberland, Franklin, Lancaster, Lebanon, and York counties.
EPA says Pennsylvania has the largest commitment to reduce nitrogen among bay states.
The Environmental Integrity Project’s analysis estimates that about 1 million more pounds of nitrogen pollution are entering the Chesapeake Bay each year from the poultry industry than state and federal cleanup programs estimate.
