Chesapeake Bay Program Federal Funds Eliminated by Trump Budget
President Donald Trump's budget proposal would eliminate federal funding for the program that coordinates Chesapeake Bay cleanup efforts, and environmental groups are warning the cut would threaten decades of progress.
Trump's spending plan for the 2018 budget year, released Thursday, significantly reduces funding for the Environmental Protection Agency. As part of those cuts, it eliminates money that goes to the Chesapeake Bay Program.
The program, formed in 1983, received $73 million in federal funds last year, most of which was doled out in grants to states, local governments and community groups for cleanup efforts in the nation's largest estuary. It also coordinates and monitors the efforts of the six Bay watershed states and the District of Columbia in meeting pollution reduction goals.
"If this program is eliminated, there's a very real chance that the bay will revert to a national disgrace" with poor water quality, unhealthy fish and shellfish and waterborne diseases that threaten to human health, Chesapeake Bay Foundation President Will Baker said in a conference call with reporters.
Read more: http://www.nbcwashington.com/blogs/first-read-dmv/Trump-Budget-Cuts-Funding-for-EPAs-Chesapeake-Bay-Program-416373673.html
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