Everyone knows the Chesapeake Bay has problems, but it’s a comfort to think that some $3 billion invested in clean up since the 1980s are slowly healing what was one of the world’s most biologically productive estuaries. But maybe not. A University of Maryland professor has issued a downer of a report arguing that the Environmental Protection Agency has overstated progress, relying on formulas that exaggerated improvements in pollution, according to a new scientific review.
The Washington Post reports that Tom Simpson concluded that a computer model of the Chesapeake, used by the EPA’s Chesapeake Bay Program to gauge improvements in the estuary’s health, tended to inflate the impact of some cleanup measures. Bottom line: We’re further behind than we thought.
Merry Christmas.