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Maryland Department of the Environment

Sun: What about Pennsylvania?

If there is any hope for a Chesapeake Bay restoration, the amount of pollution flowing into it on a daily basis must be reduced. It’s really that simple. Maryland and Virginia have made significant progress in that regard, but one state trails particularly badly — Pennsylvania.

The latest numbers produced by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency tell the story in a nutshell. Under an EPA-enforced regional compact, six states and the District of Columbia are aiming to reduce the amount of one pollutant in particular, nitrogen, by 60 percent based on 2009 levels by the year 2017. At the current rate, the agency estimates, the watershed will achieve a bit less than half of that goal.

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