Attorney General Gansler Issues 2009 Chesapeake Bay Watershed Environmental Audit
Annual Report Includes St. Mary’s, West and Rhode, Miles,
and Lower Susquehanna Rivers

BALTIMORE, MD ( April 22, 2010) - Attorney General Douglas F. Gansler today announced the release of his 2009 Chesapeake Bay Watershed Environmental Audit. Attorney General Gansler’s second annual report included audits of the St. Mary’s, West and Rhode, Miles, and Lower Susquehanna Rivers. Beginning in April 2008, the Office of the Attorney General embarked on a river-by-river environmental audit to identify problems at their source and formulate solutions that will benefit the Bay. Traveling into communities, river by river, the Attorney General is learning first-hand from those who know, use, and love the State’s rivers. Each year, the Attorney General visits four of the Bay’s tributaries, meeting with citizens, environmental leaders and elected officials to learn about the specific problems in each individual watershed, as well as pollution issues common throughout the greater Chesapeake Bay watershed.

In each watershed, the Attorney General spent a full day meeting with local elected officials, environmental leaders, students and citizens. He traveled by boat and walked the shores of the waterways to learn about the watersheds, their problems and ongoing restoration efforts, and also to identify unique sources of pollution. River-by-river, the Attorney General’s focus is on gathering information from those most intimately familiar with the rivers in order to develop solutions and enhance enforcement of environmental laws that serve to protect the rivers and the Chesapeake Bay. The Attorney General’s ultimate goal is to improve the health of the Bay.

“Communities and local activists know where problems exist, and the residents can offer practical and innovative solutions to improve the health of the Bay and its tributaries,” said Attorney General Gansler. “This approach is central to our audits and these environmental visits allow my office to establish meaningful relationships with watershed communities and provide critical information to help us identify and target individuals and corporations that pollute, as well as to determine where legislation is needed.”

The 2009 audits revealed recurring concerns common among the watersheds including:

• pollution related to agriculture and growth;
• insufficient agency resources to investigate and prosecute polluters; and,
• inadequate penalties and fines to deter polluters.

As this information was gathered from each watershed, the Attorney General referred a number of matters to appropriate regulatory agencies; initiated and concluded enforcement actions and lawsuits; and supported significant legislation that ultimately will benefit the Chesapeake Bay, including a bill that enhances the ability of the Natural Resources Police to enforce conservation laws and a bill that provides for the licensure and regulation of marine contractors in the State. The Attorney General also supported a variety of other bills concerning issues raised during his audits, including bills to prohibit arsenic in chicken feed and boat sewage discharge in the Bay.

Each year, Attorney General Gansler will continue to visit four of the Bay’s tributaries to conduct similar audits and open lines of communication that will continue long after the day spent at each river as new issues and problems arise. These ongoing relationships will provide eyes and ears to help identify environmental problems and solutions, and what has been learned will inform future audits and enhance their effectiveness. Attorney General Gansler issued his first annual report on Earth Day 2009, which included the results of visits to the Chester, Pocomoke and Monocacy Rivers and Great Seneca Creek.

A copy the Attorney General’s 2009 Chesapeake Bay Watershed Environmental Audit can be found at http://www.oag.state.md.us/Reports/2009EnvironmentalAudit.pdf.