(Posted by Gerald Winegrad.)

In the anti-regulatory fervor prevailing in the House of Representatives, Virginia Congressman Bob Goodlatte (R-VA) succeeded in gaining the adoption of an amendment that would prevent the EPA from implementing the long-awaited, court-ordered Chesapeake Bay restoration plan known as the Chesapeake TMDL (total maximum daily load). The amendment was attached to the continuing resolution to keep the federal government operating. It was adopted on a vote of 239-185 on February 19, 2011, mostly along party lines and would block funding for overseeing the pollution diet that caps Bay-killing nutrients and sediment. Worse yet, all federal funding for the states to implement their pollution reduction plans through watershed implementation plans also would be blocked.

This rider was one of dozens of anti-environmental riders attached to the must-pass resolution to keep the government open. The pollution diet under the TMDL was necessitated by the Bay states repeated failures to meet agreed upon reductions for nutrient and sediment pollutants so as to clean-up the 90 percent of the Bay that is so polluted that it violates Clean Water Act standards. The Goodlatte amendment could actually block more than $300 million in federal funding to curb agricultural, sewerage, and urban runoff pollutants. The language provides: