No One!

Question: What would get a former Republican Congressman to join a former Democratic Governor of Maryland, a former Dem. U.S. Senator and a former Dem. MD State Senator all in the same room together at the Maryland State House today?


Answer? A Dirty Water Bill in the Maryland legislature that rolls back all the good work these men accomplished for clean, healthy, safe waterways in Maryland.

Thirty + years of work on the part of these lawmakers gave Maryland one of the strongest clean water stormwater laws in the country, the 2007 Maryland Stormwater Management Act. This is a law that addressed the problem of rainwater rushing off of developed land, carrying sediment, pollutants, toxins, bacteria and heavy metals into the Chesapeake Bay, the Coastal Bays and other waters of Maryland. It is a law that requires developers to design sites to retain and reuse rainwater on site.

And now the Maryland Legislature is attempting to weaken, destroy, and generally screw around with the original intent of this law, to the point that the law will have no teeth and developers will be able to continue to build, or redevelop, with all the old stormwater guidelines the SWM Act did away with - the conventional "Pave It, Pond It, Pipe It" method of stormwater control which had failed to prevent the death of local streams and waterways in Maryland.

Does anyone remember the reports that said the Chesapeake Bay is in trouble? All you have to do is google the words 'Chesapeake Bay is in trouble'. I got 5,590,000 hits! I'm sure the watermen know about this, as well as the recreational fishermen, the boaters, the swimmers, and all those who live along the Bay and its tributaries, but somehow members of the Maryland legislature who are sponsoring (and supporting) HB1125 have managed to miss it.

Or is it that they know all about it? Could it be that they just don't care? I doubt it, apathy is not enough to make someone write or sponsor a piece of legislation. Something or someone has to want that legislation badly enough to pressure the legislators to create it. And the legislators, well they just have to be fearful or weak enough to respond to that pressure, even to the point of going against the best interests of their constituents (the watermen, fishermen, etc. I mentioned above).

Those former lawmakers I mentioned above? They came to Annapolis today, March 24, 2010, to speak out. In an effort to make their concerns known to our current lawmakers, they signed up to speak during a hearing on bad amendments being added to the bad Dirty Water Bill HB1125 in the House Environmental Matters Committee. Committee Chairwoman, Del. Maggie McIntosh denied their request. She denied a former Governor of Maryland just 60 seconds to speak his thoughts. I think I need to say this again, she-denied-a-former-GOVERNOR-60 seconds to speak.

Another question: How is it in the best interest of anybody in the state of Maryland to increase the level of pollution in the Chesapeake Bay -who could possibly benefit from that?

Answer: No One.