Chesapeake Bay goes on a “Pollution Diet!”

We’re very excited to hear the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) Chesapeake Bay cleanup plan released yesterday, December 29th.  “This is a very historic moment in the history and the future of the Chesapeake Bay,” said Shawn Garvin, administrator of the EPA’s mid-Atlantic region.

Much of the Bay’s 4,400 square miles of shoreline lies in Virginia.  Previous government efforts to improve the environmental quality of the Bay have fallen short over the last 20+ years, but President Obama’s administration has given the restoration effort greater attention.

According to the Richmond Times Dispatch “….the EPA plan relies largely on measures Gov. Bob McDonnell’s administration outlined in November, including new pollution cuts for sewage plants in the James River region.”

McDonnell said Wednesday that Virginia’s plan “balances the important environmental protection concerns with the need to protect jobs in agriculture and farming.”

This plan is “the largest water-pollution strategy” in the nation and one of the largest in the world according to the mid-Atlantic EPA administrator.  Keep Virginia Beautiful will partner with many local, regional and state organizations in order to aid in this “pollution diet!”