Supreme Court Ends Challenge To The Chesapeake Bay Cleanup Plan

A piece of good news and a substantial step forward in the fight for water quality in the Chesapeake Bay. Once highly polluted, the two most prolific spawning grounds for striped bass, the Hudson River and Chesapeake Bay, seem to be on the road to recovery.

The sky is reflected on Parsons Creek after sunrise in Madison, Md., in August. The Chesapeake Bay estuary is the largest in the United States, at a surface area of 4,480 square miles. (Jonathan Ernst/Reuters)

By Darryl Fears March 1

The Supreme Court has declined to hear a challenge to the Chesapeake Bay cleanup plan, the largest attempt by the federal government and states to rid the pollution from a body of water and to restore its health.

The high court’s refusal ends an attempt by the American Farm Bureau Federation to stop the cleanup. The organization argued that the Environmental Protection Agency overstepped its authority in leading the effort because the bay can be managed only by the states that sit in its watershed.

[Federal judge upholds Chesapeake Bay cleanup plan]

The lower court ruling now stands. In that 2013 decision, U.S. District Court Judge Sylvia H. Rambo wrote that the EPA is within its rights under the Clean Water Act to partner with the six states in the bay watershed to cut the pollution that pours in from sewers, construction developments and chemical and biological waste from farms.

“The ecological and economic importance of the Chesapeake Bay is well documented,” she wrote, concluding that “the court endorses the holistic, watershed approach used here. This approach receives ample support in the [Clean Water Act], its legislative history, and Supreme Court precedent.”

The question is whether the EPA could now move to clean other massive, multistate water bodies. Impaired waters have led to fish-killing dead zones and other marine life die-offs for decades.

Critics of the American Farm Bureau Federation’s challenge said the group had shown little interest in the bay before the suit was filed in 2011, and they called it a strategic effort to preempt the federal government from regulating pollution that runs off mega-farms it represents into the Mississippi River.

They pointed to a speech by the farm bureau’s president, Bob Stallman, to support that claim. “This new EPA approach will not end with the Chesapeake Bay,” Stallman said at the group’s 2011 convention. “EPA has already revealed its plan to follow suit in other watersheds across the nation, including the Mississippi watershed.”

Attorneys general in 21 states joined Stallman when the farm bureau appealed Rambo’s decision. The prosecutors, most of them Republicans from as far as Alaska and Montana, filed an amicus brief in support of stopping the EPA’s plan.

“If this [cleanup] is left to stand,” they argued in their brief to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 3rd Circuit, “other watersheds, including the Mississippi River Basin, could be next.” The appeals judges did not block the plan.

One of the farm bureau’s critics, Chesapeake Bay Foundation President William Baker, described Monday’s outcome as historic. “Everyone who cares about clean water can breathe easier now that the Supreme Court has let stand the lower court decision that Chesapeake Clean Water Blueprint is perfectly legal under the federal Clean Water Act.”

[Opposition threatens Chesapeake Bay cleanup plan]

Baker renewed his call to the farm bureau and others that joined its challenge, such as home builders and chemical companies, to put aside their differences and work to clean the nation’s largest estuary. But his final comment could serve to stoke them. “Our collective … efforts … can be a model for other waters worldwide.”

Farmers worry that regulations such as those in the bay plan could cut their profit margins or run them into debt. The cleanup placed the bay on a pollution diet that called on farmers to spend tens of thousands of dollars to install barriers to fertilizers, soil and manure that poured off farms with storm water into streams, creeks and rivers that lead to the bay.

Municipalities also complained about requirements that called on them to limit sewer overflows during heavy rain that sent human waste awash in storm water into tributaries to the Chesapeake. Those fixes will cost tens of millions of dollars to cities such as the District and counties such as Anne Arundel.

Full Article Source: https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/energy-environment/wp/2016/03/01/supreme-court-ends-challenge-to-the-chesapeake-bay-cleanup-plan/

2016 2nd Annual Fundraiser Auction

Thank you…Thank you…Thank you…to all the generous donors to our recently completed on-line auction and to each of you that participated in the bidding process. This was the most active auction in terms of bids and we had the widest variety and greatest number of items ever. The Auction was a total success and we thank and appreciate everyone who participated in this, one of our major fund-raisers for the year.

If you were not a high bidding winner there will again be an opportunity for you to contribute to the game fish effort by giving to the Stripers Forever Annual Appeal which will begin a bit earlier this year than before. One hundred percent of our fund raising results go directly into underwriting our efforts to make wild striped bass a game fish as Stripers Forever has no paid staff.

In a perfect world we would not be investing our volunteer efforts and hours into asking for money. Even though a large percentage of our administrative operating costs are donated, in order to accomplish our Game Fish Mission we must raise funds to help pay for a lobbyist, create educational materials and keep the game fish issue in front of decision makers.

This all takes money and thanks to both our auction donors and winning bidders we have a good start to moving our message forward in 2016.  Your contributions and participation in support of our shared goals is both appreciated and necessary if our message is to prevail in this conservation fight to save wild striped bass.

Bear’s Den 18th Annual Fly Fishing Expo- February 20, 2016

The Bear’s Den in Taunton continues to be a great supporter of striped bass conservation. Their annual expo is coming up this Saturday the 20th 11am-6PM. Stripers Forever will have a booth there, so stop by, say hello and pick up a new hat. This show features some of the top names in fly fishing. Andy Mill headlines the 2016 show! For full information check out the http://www.bearsden.com/page716.html.

2015 Annual Angler Survey Results

The results of the Stripers Forever 2015 Annual Fishing Survey are finalized and you will find them below. In 2015 we received 657 responses to our annual survey.  This represents the second year in a row of participation decline, and we believe that it reflects a decreasing interest in the fishery due to a decline in the quality of fishing.  This year’s survey has again produced a good representative sampling of sentiments from fishers all along the striper’s migratory range, and as usual MA and NJ vied for the greatest contributions with 154 and 149 completed surveys respectively.

2015 saw very little change in angler sentiment.  82% of anglers reported catching fewer fish compared to 85% in 2014.  73% said they were catching smaller fish compared to 71% in 2014.   In 2015 84% described the striper fishery as worse or much worse compared to 85% last year.  It seems evident that most of the older, larger fish from the great year classes of the 1990s and early 2000s have been removed from the population, and with the exception of an occasional school at certain peak periods the population is much less abundant now, and comprised mostly of smaller fish from the poor and mediocre year classes that have generally characterized the fishery since 2003.

We asked our members about what they were seeing from the 2011 year class.  The results were that 84% felt that this year class, which ASMFC biologist seem to be counting on, was appearing in the fishery at levels far below those that one would expect.  Only 16% of respondents felt that the 2011 year class was evident at levels expected from such a huge year class.

Answers to questions about the need for a slot limit of smaller-sized stripers, and what percentage of the current commercial quotas should be reallocated to recreational quotas, show that our members continue to believe we should not be harvesting large, breeding stripers, that they want to set aside a high percentage of the current commercial catch for conservation – and not harvest it themselves.  75% of our members said that they are willing to buy a stamp to finance the buyout of the commercial fishery.

We had survey results from 61 guides.  Without a doubt the decline in striper fishing is hurting this valuable industry as well as the related fishing tourism and tackle businesses.  The guides know how to fish their areas, though, and can usually produce the best results possible from their home waters.  If you are thinking about a guided trip please check out the guides and tackle shops listed on the Stripers Forever website.

We will send this information to the press and to fishery policy makers everywhere.  We hope that you will use this information personally to help us advocate for the goal of coast-wide striped bass game fish.  Please share the results with your local fishing club, home town newspaper, and elected officials that you may know.

• 2015 Survey Results and Comments Final
• 2015 Summary Data with graphics
• Data_Q27_160119 Guides Comments 2015
• Data_Q20_160119 Management Comments 2015
• Key Comparisons 2003 through 2015

If you have any questions about the survey please don’t hesitate to e-mail us at stripers@stripersforever.org