(See the list of signatories here.)

We are Chesapeake Bay scientists and policy makers from Maryland, Virginia and Pennsylvania who have concluded that after decades of effort, the voluntary, collaborative approach to restoring the health and vitality of the largest estuary in the United States has not worked and, in fact, is failing.

An Environmental Protection Agency analysis of the Bay Program determined that the Chesapeake is so severely degraded that, under efforts underway in 2009, it would be the year 2034 before the nitrogen reduction goal is met and 2050 for the phosphorous goal to be achieved.

Despite a generation’s worth of public funding and official commitments to address the Bay’s problems, the Chesapeake remains in decline. Though perhaps well-intentioned, measures to clean the Bay adopted in the years since 1983, when the first Bay Agreement was adopted, and the EPA’s Chesapeake Bay Program was formed, have not been successful.

The states have failed by a wide margin to reach the 2010 deadline for pollution reduction targets and most of the Bay’s waters do not meet basic Clean Water Act requirements.

The continued gravity of the Bay’s condition demands that we put aside those 20th Century antidotes and, in this new century, initiate more forceful solutions to achieve goals of reducing non-point source pollution loads and to meet caps set for nutrients and sediment.

At best, the agricultural sector has only achieved one-half of the agreed-upon nutrient and sediment reductions after 26 years of funding enhancements.

Our group urges all the Bay states to transition from the voluntary collaborative approach, in place for more than two decades, to a more comprehensive regulatory program that would establish mandatory, enforceable measures for meeting the nutrient, sediment and toxic chemical reductions needed to remove the Bay and its tributaries from the Clean Water Act impaired waters list.

Pollutants flowing from developed lands are the only major pollution source that has been increasing, not decreasing, and it is clear that the states are not doing all that is necessary to control development and the resultant significant increases in impervious surfaces.

This group unanimously recommends that all states draining into the Chesapeake Bay adopt our 25 action items in their Watershed Implementation Plans (WIP) and implement them to improve the Bay’s water quality and to meet the requirements of the Clean Water Act.

Dissolved oxygen is critical for the Bay’s living resources, but declined from 37 percent of the goal in 2006 to 14 percent in 2009.

These measures should be under existing laws and regulations, as well as under new regulations or legislation that may be necessary to achieve the pollution reductions necessary for Bay restoration. These measures also must be undertaken in a definitive, regulatory manner with enforceable deadlines with the certainty of penalties.

The signatories include officials who were instrumental in beginning the formal Bay restoration program back in 1983, including former Maryland Governor Harry R. Hughes, Secretary of the Maryland Department of Natural Resources Torrey Brown, former head of Maryland’s environmental agency Bill Eichbaum, former Secretary of the Virginia Department of Natural Resources Tayloe Murphy, and former State Senators Bernie Fowler and Gerald Winegrad.

Signatories of prominent Chesapeake Bay senior policy makers also include former Maryland Governor Parris N. Glendening, former U.S. Senator Joe Tydings, former Congressman Wayne T. Gilchrest, and current Maryland State Senators Brian Frosh and Paul Pinsky, the latter the Chair of the Senate Subcommittee on the Environment.

Other signatories include some of the most prominent Bay scientists, including agricultural specialists, who were instrumental in developing the 25 proposals and these signatories include prominent Marylanders and Virginians at the Chesapeake Bay’s most prestigious research institutions. Collectively, these scientists have more than 200 years of Bay research expertise.

Scientists generally are reticent about publicly endorsing such bold calls for action as those in the attached statement, but these scientists helped lead the efforts to develop the 25 items suggested for inclusion by states and the federal government for Bay restoration strategies. This is because of the continuing serious decline of the Bay they see and their certainty of the need for a new direction. Prominent Pennsylvanian leaders have joined in and include senior scientists, water quality advocates, and policy makers from that key state.

Leaders of the NGO community also have joined in, and they include the Chesapeake Bay Foundation, five Bay Riverkeepers, the Maryland League of Conservation Voters, Environment MD, Environment VA, Environment America, and the National Wildlife Federation Bay Office. In addition, two of the signatories are farmers.

Here is the entire list of signatories:
Harry R. Hughes
Former Governor of Maryland (1979-1987)
24800 Pealiquor Road
Denton, MD 21629

Parris N. Glendening*
Former Governor of Maryland (1995-2003)
President Smart Growth Leadership
1707 L Street, NW Suite 1050
Washington, DC 20036

Wayne T. Gilchrest
U.S. Congressman (1991-2009)
13501 Turner’s Creek Road
Kennedyville, MD 21645

Senator Joseph D. Tydings, J.D.
U.S. Senator (1965-1971)
1825 I Street, NW
Washington, DC 20006

Senator Bernie Fowler
Maryland State Senator (1983-1995)
P.O. Box 459
Prince Frederick, MD 20678

Delegate C. Richard D’Amato
Former Member Maryland House of Delegates (2003-2007) VP, Synergics Wind Energy
6 East Lake Drive
Annapolis, MD 21403

Walter Boynton*, Ph.D., Professor
Chesapeake Biological Laboratory
University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science
1 Williams Street
Solomons, MD 20688

Senator Brian E. Frosh (on Twitter)
Chair, Senate Judicial Proceedings Committee
Former Chair, Senate Environment Subcommittee (1995-2003)
Miller Senate Office Building, 2 East Wing
11 Bladen Street
Annapolis, MD 21401

William C. Dennison*, Ph.D., Vice President for Science Applications
University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science
Horn Point Laboratory
Cambridge, MD 21613

Romuald N. Lipcius*, Ph.D., Professor of Marine Science 2009 Kavli Fellow, National Academy of Sciences, Virginia Institute of Marine Science, The College of William & Mary
1208 Greate Road
Gloucester Point, VA 23062

Russell Brinsfield, Ph.D.
P.O. Box 401
Vienna, MD 21864

Gerrit-Jan Knaap*, Ph.D. , Professor
Urban Studies and Planning
Executive Director, National Center for Smart Growth
University of Maryland
College Park, Maryland 20742

Thomas W. Simpson*, Ph.D., President and Executive Director, Water Stewardship, Inc
222 Severn Ave
Annapolis, MD 21403

Tom Horton*
Author and Adjunct Professor
Salisbury University
6633 Oak Ridge Dr
Hebron, MD 21830-1180

Brad Heavner, State Director
Environment Maryland
3121 St. Paul St. #26
Baltimore, MD 21218

Howard Ernst*, Ph.D.
Associate Professor of Political Science
United States Naval Academy
Annapolis, Maryland

Frederick Tutman, Patuxent RIVERKEEPER® 18600 Queen Anne Road
Rear Barn
Upper Marlboro, MD 20774
Robert J. Etgen*, J.D.
Executive Director, Eastern Shore Land Conservancy
P.O. Box 169
Queenstown, MD 21658

Fred Kelly, Severn River RIVERKEEPER®
329 Riverview Trail
Annapolis, MD 21401

Ms. Cindy Schwartz, Executive Director
Maryland League of Conservation Voters
9 State Circle, Ste 202
Annapolis, MD 21401

Debra Bowman, Executive Director
Central Pennsylvania Conservancy
401 E. Louther St., Suite 308
Carlisle, PA 17013

William R. Worobec*,
Commissioner, Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission
240 Reservoir Road
Williamsport, PA 17701

Robert. A. Bachman*, PhD
Commissioner, Pennsylvania Fish and Boat
Commission
675 Blue Lake Road
Denver, Pa. 17517-9520

Joseph P. Hepp
Aquatic Ecologist and Angler
340 Cartref Rd
Etters, PA 17319

Michael R Helfrich
Lower Susquehanna RIVERKEEPER®
Stewards of the Lower Susquehanna, Inc.
324 W Market St
York, PA 17401 Robert Jay

Robert Jay Clouser, Owner
Clouser’s Fly Shop.
101 Ulrich St.
Middletown, Pa. 717-944-6541

Jan Jarrett, President & CEO
Citizens for Pennsylvania’s Future
610 North Third Street
Harrisburg, PA 17101

Robert J. Schott
Senior Aquatic Biologist
1411-D Skyview Circle
Harrisburg, PA 17110

Drew Koslow, Choptank Riverkeeper
Choptank River Eastern Bay Conservancy
PO Box 1276
St. Michaels, MD 21663

Jeff Kelble, Shenandoah RIVERKEEPER®
PO Box 405
Boyce, VA 22620-0405

Torrey C. Brown, M.D.
Secretary, Maryland Department of Natural Resources (1983 -1995); Maryland House of Delegates (1971- 1983); Chairman, Environmental Matters Committee (1979 -1983)
The Warehouse at Camden Yards, Suite 675
323 W Camden Street
Baltimore, Maryland 21201

Senator Gerald W. Winegrad, J.D.
Maryland State Senator (1983-1995), Delegate (1978-1983)
Adjunct Professor, UM School of Public Policy
1328 Washington Drive
Annapolis, Maryland 21403

Senator Paul G. Pinsky
Chair, Senate Environment Subcommittee
James Senate Office Building, Room 220
11 Bladen Street
Annapolis, MD 21401

W. Tayloe Murphy, Jr.
Virginia Secretary of Natural Resources (2002-2006); Virginia House of Delegates (1982-2000)
King Copsico Farm
Mount Holly, Virginia 22524-0218

William M. Eichbaum*, Vice President
Marine and Arctic Policy
World Wildlife Fund U.S.
(Former Assistant Secretary for Environmental Programs, MD Dept. of Health and Mental Hygiene–1980 to 1987)
1250 Twenty-Fourth Street, N.W.
Washington, DC 20090-7180

Robert J. Orth*, Ph.D., Professor of Marine Science
Virginia Institute of Marine Science
School of Marine Science
College of William and Mary
1208 Greate Rd
Gloucester Pt., VA 23061

Jack Greer*, Ph.D., Director
Assist. Director, Maryland Sea Grant College
UM Environmental Finance Center (1992-2004)
4321 Hartwick Road, Suite 300
College Park, MD 20740

Thomas R. Fisher*, Ph.D., Professor
University of Maryland, Center for Environmental Science
Horn Point Laboratory
Cambridge, Maryland 21613

Keith D. Campbell*
2850 Quarry Lake Drive
Baltimore, Maryland 21209

Richard Pritzlaff, President
The Biophilia Foundation
61 Cornhill Street
Annapolis, Maryland 21401

William C. Baker*, President
Chesapeake Bay Foundation
Philip Merrill Environmental Center
6 Herndon Avenue
Annapolis, MD 21403

Chris Trumbauer, Riverkeeper
West/Rhode RIVERKEEPER®
4800 Atwell Road, Suite 6
Shady Side, MD 20764

Tony Caligiuri, Regional Executive Director
Chesapeake Mid Atlantic Office
National Wildlife Federation
706 Giddings Avenue, Suite 2B
Annapolis, MD 21401

Diana L. Muller, South River RIVERKEEPER® South River Federation
2830 Solomons Island Rd., Suite B
Edgewater, MD 21037

Brian Chalfant
Aquatic Ecologist
711 North Second Street
Harrisburg, PA 17102

Dr. Edward Bellis*, Professor Emeritus of Biology
The Pennsylvania State University
107 Bloom Road
Spring Mills, PA 16875

John E. Williams, PhD
Professor of Biology (Retired)
1385 Spring Road
Summerville, PA 15864

John C. Rossi*, President, Overview Anglers Club
(Susquehanna River)
105 Beagle Club Rd.
Carlisle, PA 17013

Ken Okorn*, Board of Directors of the Central
Pennsylvania Conservancy and Member, Cumberland Valley Trout Unlimited
12 Brandywine Drive
Mechanicsburg, PA 17050

Eliza Smith Steinmeier, Executive Director
and Waterkeeper
Baltimore Harbor WATERKEEPER
4901 Springarden Drive, Suite 3A
Baltimore, MD 21209

Ned Gerber, Habitat Ecologist/Director
Chesapeake Wildlife Heritage
P. O. Box 1745
Easton, MD 21601

H.W. Weider, Convener/Director Susquehanna River Heartland Coalition for
Environmental Studies

J.R. Tolbert, Advocate
Environment Virginia
212 West 7th Street #125
Richmond, VA 23224

Russell B. Stevenson, Jr.*
Chesapeake Legal Alliance
733 Dividing Road
Severna Park, MD 21146

Erika Staaf, Clean Water Advocate
Penn Environment
1831 Murray Avenue, Suite 219
Pittsburgh, PA 15217

Ted Onufrak, President
The Pennsylvania Federation of Sportsmen’s Club
P. O. Box 21
Mingoville, PA 16856 100 N. Academy Ave.
Danville, PA 17822

Stephen Barry*
Coordinator Environmental/Outdoor Education
Anne Arundel County Public Schools
Arlington Echo Outdoor Education Center
975 Indian Landing Road
Millersville, MD 21108

Kathy Phillips
Assateague COASTKEEPER
Executive Director, Assateague Coastal Trust
PO Box 731
Berlin, MD 21811

*The views expressed in this document represent the personal views of the signatories marked with an * and not necessarily the views of their employers or organizations.