Jeremy Cox

jcox6@dmg.gannett.com

The Trump administration is planning deep cuts to a program that helps Delmarva towns, farmers and environmental groups meet their cleanup goals under the Chesapeake Bay restoration project.

The White House is seeking to reduce the cleanup's annual funding from $73 million to $5 million as part of a one-fifth cut in the Environmental Protection Agency's budget, according to a Washington Post report.

Environmental advocates have denounced the proposal, saying it would cripple the restoration just as early signs suggest it may be resulting in cleaner water and healthier ecosystems.

“It’s so drastic you can’t even finish the sentence," said Eric Schaeffer, executive director of the Washington-based Environmental Integrity Project. "It’s basically shut down."

BACKGROUND: Environmental groups were worried about the Trump administration from the outset

Many of the Chesapeake region's lawmakers have heaped similar criticism on the proposal.

“The Chesapeake Bay is an essential economic engine in our region, supporting thousands of jobs in the fishery and tourism industries and generating millions in revenue each year," Virginia Democratic Sens. Tim Kaine and Mark Warner said in a joint letter to the president. “While we’ve seen real improvements in the health of the Chesapeake Bay in recent years, we are deeply concerned about the potential consequences of such a significant and jarring cut in funding.”

The administration is expected to formally release its budget request figures to Congress later this week. It is common for budgeted amounts to change between an administration's deliberative stage and when they're made public. Furthermore, Congress could — and often does — ignore how a president recommends spending the nation's treasure.

For his part, Rep. Andy Harris, Maryland's lone Republican in Congress, has previously called on the Trump administration to continue fully funding the Chesapeake cleanup. He plans to use his perch on the House Appropriations Committee to obtain funding for bay cleanup efforts "within the constraints of the discretionary budget cuts necessary to increase defense spending," Harris said in a statement.

The Office of Management of Budget, which the Post said authored the EPA funding proposal, couldn't be reached for comment. The spokeswoman for the EPA's Chesapeake Bay Program said that office doesn't comment on the federal budget while it is being drafted.

MORE COVERAGE: How Trump EPA reform affects Delmarva's wetlands

"It's critical"

Under a 2010 agreement, the EPA oversees the project's scientific work, including the computer modeling that tracks how actions in the watershed affect the bay's health. The agency also distributes millions of dollars in grants each year to cleanup programs in the six states that signed onto the pact.

That federal funding has steered hundreds of thousands of dollars to the Eastern Shore of Maryland. Two notable examples are a $195,000 grant to the Nature Conservancy to partner with the Delmarva agribusiness industry on limiting nutrient pollution and $75,000 to the city of Salisbury for Main Street drainage upgrades.

The EPA funding cuts would fulfill one of Donald Trump's campaign promises. On the campaign trail, he called the EPA's actions a "disgrace" and threatened to cut it to "little tidbits." In one of his first executive actions, he began rolling back an Obama-era rule that had broadened the EPA's ability to shield wetlands from potential development.

Such federal meddling, Trump has said, hamstrings economic growth and the creation of new jobs.

Trump raised environmentalists' eyebrows with his nominee to head the EPA. As Oklahoma's attorney general, Scott Pruitt joined a lawsuit over the Chesapeake cleanup, arguing that the federal government had overstepped its authority. The Supreme Court declined to take up the case last year, leaving in place a lower court ruling that allowed the EPA to continue the campaign.

READ MORE: Perdue aims to be 'industry leader' on bay cleanup

The cleanup centers on a "pollution diet" aimed at limiting further water-quality degradation. It requires states to have the steps in place to reduce nutrient and sediment pollution by 60 percent by the end of this year. The deadline for completing the work is 2025.

Several critics have questioned the timing of the Trump administration's cuts. In recent years, the bay's crabs and oyster populations have rebounded to levels not seen in decades, its infamous "dead zone" has been shrinking and underwater grasses have vastly expanded.

“The proposed reduction in federal investment in Chesapeake Bay would reverse restoration successes," William Baker, president of the Chesapeake Bay Foundation, said in a statement. "The EPA role in the cleanup of the Chesapeake is nothing less than fundamental. It’s not just important, it’s critical."

If federal funding were cut, even by some smaller amount, it could mean that the state partners have to dig deeper into their own budgets to continue restoration efforts.

Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan's office declined to comment on the funding proposal itself but said he remains a "fierce advocate" for the bay who will "always fight to protect our state's most important natural asset."

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