The Bay, a national treasure and regional economic resource, suffers from severely degraded water quality. This campaign is designed build on last session's successes and further Maryland's waterways and the Chesapeake Bay itself down the path of steady improvements in water quality and quality of life for those who live, recreate, and work on and near the Chesapeake. The suite of policies we are pursuing will build on last session's successes by improving the stormwater pollution regulation, ensuring that funding sources are protected and secured, that beneficial regulations on septic systems and manure spreading are enacted, and significantly reduce the number of disposable bags used and entering the waste and litter stream.

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The Maryland General Assembly took three important steps in the 2012 regular session which will help protect Maryland's natural waterways and the Chesapeake Bay: increasing funding for wastewater treatment plants; controlling development growth on septic systems; and requiring our most developed counties to establish a dedicated funding source for projects to reduce stormwater runoff pollution.

Now, in 2013, we must protect those initiatives, and finish the job that these initiatives started. The suite of policies we are pursuing will build on last session's successes by improving the stormwater utility requirements, ensuring that dedicated funding sources pollution regulations are protected and secured, and that legislation keeping trash out of our waterways is enacted.

The Clean Water Healthy Families campaign is designed to put Maryland's waterways and the Chesapeake Bay itself onto a path of steady improvements in water quality and quality of life for those who live, recreate, and work on and near the Chesapeake. Focused on several legislative initiatives to be undertaken during the regular General Assembly Session of 2013, successful outcomes would ensure new policies, regulations, and revenues for implementing critical pollution reductions well into the future and dramatically improve water quality for years to come.

Bill Frameworks

1. Defend existing dedicated revenue funds for the environment
2. Prevent roll-backs of recently approved regulations protecting the environment
3. Ensure that local governments can assess federal properties for the stormwater pollution created by their impervious cover
4. Reduce the amount of trash making its way into our waterways

For more information, please contact:

Alison Prost, Chesapeake Bay Foundation / 410-268-8816
Dru Schmidt-Perkins, 1000 Friends of Maryland / 410-385-2910
Erik Michelsen, South River Federation / 410-212-3309
Julie Lawson, Anacostia Watershed Society/Trash Free Maryland / 301-699-6204