At the very outset I want to commend Chairman Chafee and Senator Torricelli for their leadership in crafting legislation to restore America's estuaries. I am pleased to be a cosponsor of both S.835, Chairman Chafee's Estuary Habitat Restoration Partnership Act, and S.878, Senator Torricelli's bill, which would authorize grants to implement conservation management plans developed under the National Estuaries Program. Both measures would help rehabilitate estuary habitat by improving the financial mechanisms by which the Federal government participates in restoration projects.
As you know, the Chesapeake Bay is the largest estuary in the United States and the key to the ecological and economic health of the mid-Atlantic region. The Bay, in fact, is one of the world's great natural resources. We tend to take it for granted because it is right here at hand, so to speak, and I know many Members of this body have enjoyed the Chesapeake Bay. The Bay provides thousands of jobs for the people in this region and is an important component in the national economy. The Bay is a major commercial waterway and shipping center for the region and for much of the eastern United States. It supports a world-class fishery that produces a significant portion of the country's fin fish and shellfish catch. The Bay and its watershed also maintain an enormous tourism and recreation industry.
The Chesapeake Bay is a complex system that covers more than 64,000 square miles and parts of six states. The Bay's relationship to the people, industries, and communities in those six states and beyond is also complex and multifaceted.
I could continue talking about these aspects of the Bay, but my fellow Senators are aware of the Bay's importance and have consistently regarded the protection and enhancement of the quality of the Chesapeake Bay as an important national objective.
Through the concerted efforts of public and private organizations, we have learned to understand the complexities of the Bay and we have learned what it takes to maintain the system that sustains us. The Chesapeake Bay Program is an extraordinary example of how local, State, regional, and Federal agencies can work with citizens and private organizations to manage complicated, vital, natural resources. Indeed, the Chesapeake Bay Program serves as a model across the country and around the world.
When the Bay began to experience serious unprecedented declines in water quality and living resources in the 1970s, the people in my state suffered. We lost thousands of jobs. We lost much of the wilderness that defined the watershed. We began to appreciate for the first time the profound impact that human activity could have on the Chesapeake Bay ecosystem. We began to recognize that untreated sewage, deforestation, toxic chemicals, agricultural runoff, and increased development were causing a degradation of water quality, the loss of wildlife, and elimination of vital habitat. We also began to recognize that these negative impacts were only part of a cycle that could eventually impact other economic and human health interests.
Fortunately, over the last two decades we have come to understand that humans can also have a positive effect on the environment. We have learned that we can, if we are committed, help repair natural systems so that they continue to provide economic opportunities and enhance the quality of life for future generations.
We now treat sewage before it enters our waters. We banned toxic chemicals that were killing wildlife. We have initiated programs to reduce nonpoint source pollution, and we have taken aggressive steps to restore depleted fisheries.
The States of Maryland, Virginia, and Pennsylvania deserve much of the credit for undertaking many of the actions that have put the Bay and its watershed on the road to recovery. All three States have had major cleanup programs. They have made significant commitments in terms of resources. It is an important priority item on the agendas of the Bay States. Governors have been strongly committed, as have State legislatures and the public. There are a number of private organizations -- the Chesapeake Bay Foundation, for example -- which do extraordinary good work in this area.
But there has been invaluable involvement by the Federal Government as well. The cooperation and attention of Federal agencies has been essential. Without the Federal Clean Water Act, the Federal ban on DDT, and EPA's watershed-wide coordination of Chesapeake Bay restoration and cleanup activities, we would not have been able to bring about the concerted effort, the real partnership, that is succeeding in improving the water quality of the Bay and is succeeding in bringing back many of the fish and wildlife species.
The Chesapeake Bay is getting cleaner, but we cannot afford to be complacent. There are still tremendous challenges facing Bay.
As you may recall, two years ago we faced a major outbreak of toxic Pfiesteria which had impacts, not only on the fish population, but on human health as well. The suspected cause of the 1997 bloom was the excessive release of nutrients to the Bay. While we've been fortunate not to have suffered toxic Pfiesteria outbreaks last summer or so far this summer, we have had other problems.
Earlier this month, an estimated 200,000 dead fish were found in the Magothy and Patapsco rivers, both tributaries to the Chesapeake Bay. That was the largest fish kill in Maryland in a decade. The cause was low dissolved oxygen.
The Blue Crab catch is down this season. In Maryland, this year's early season catch was down 23% from the same time last year.
And then there is the drought. Now in its third year, the drought we are experiencing has exacerbated problems in the Bay. If the drought continues, it could prove catastrophic, in part, because the Bay's natural resiliency has been compromised. We can't stop droughts, but we can stop undermining the natural processes that the Bay's ecology relies upon to recover from periods of natural stress.
We need to remain vigilant in continuing to address the needs of the Bay restoration effort. The hard work, investment, and commitment, at all levels, which has brought gains over the last three decades, must not be allowed to lapse or falter.
This legislation reauthorizes the Bay program and builds upon the Federal Government's past role in the Chesapeake Bay Program and the highly successful Federal-State-local partnership to which I made reference. The bill also establishes simple agency disclosure and budget coordination mechanisms to help ensure that information about Federal Bay-related grants and projects are readily available to the scientific community and the public.
As I mentioned before, the Chesapeake Bay Program is a model of efficient and effective coordination. Still, there is always room for improvement as experience informs and enlightens our judgments. While coordination between the various levels of government has been exemplary, coordination among Federal agencies can be strengthened. This legislation begins to develop a better coordination mechanism to help ensure that all Federal agency programs are accounted for.
In addition, this bill requires the Environmental Protection Agency to establish a Small Watershed Grants Program for the Chesapeake Bay region. These grants will help organizations and local governments launch a variety of locally-designed and locally-implemented projects to restore relatively small pieces of the larger Chesapeake Bay watershed. By empowering local agencies and community groups to identify and solve local problems, this grant program will promote stewardship across the region and improve the whole by strengthening the parts.
This bill was carefully crafted with the advice, counsel, and assistance of many hard working organizations in the Chesapeake Bay region, including the Chesapeake Bay Commission, the Chesapeake Bay Foundation, The Alliance for the Chesapeake Bay and various offices within the state governments of Maryland, Virginia, and Pennsylvania.
I would like to close by pointing out that the need for federal assistance is great. State and local governments and community organizations are ready and willing to help preserve the Chesapeake Bay.
This is a critical time for the Bay community. Many of the goals of the multi-jurisdictional Chesapeake Bay Program were originally indexed to the year 2000. Now, the community is setting new goals. The governors of Pennsylvania, Maryland, Virginia, the Mayor of the District of Columbia, the Chairman of the Chesapeake Bay Commission and the Administrator of the EPA are renegotiating their cooperative agreement. In this time of change one thing is absolutely certain -- the entire Bay community expects the Federal government to continue its unwavering support for restoring the Chesapeake Bay. Our state and local partners are prepared to go the distance and they expect that we are willing to do the same.
I hope that the Committee can swiftly approve S.492.