Hampton Roads panel to meet over EPA's Bay cleanup

CHESAPEAKE

The Hampton Roads Planning District Commission today called a special meeting for March 31 to discuss concerns over a federal plan to help clean up the Chesapeake Bay, including considering “legal options.”

The regional body, representing the area’s 16 local governments, today also heard from several speakers representing environmental groups who urged it not to sue to get out of or delay implementation of the new effort.

A U.S. Environmental Protection Agency plan approved in late 2010 created a state-by-state “pollution diet” to reduce harmful material entering the Bay.

“No one around this table opposes clean air and water,” said Stan Clark of Isle of Wight County, the commission’s chairman.

Still, the commission wants to make sure that the EPA's science is valid and the costs are fair, he said.

The special meeting would allow commission members to learn more details about the EPA’s requirements, hear from Virginia authorities and confer with their lawyers, said Dwight Farmer, the commission’s executive director.

Christy Everett, Hampton Roads director of the Chesapeake Bay Foundation, was one of those urging the commission not to fight the EPA.

“Litigation will only delay, not eliminate, the cost to restore clean water and will in fact pass on higher, long-term costs to future taxpayers and future generations,” her foundation said in a statement.

The American Farm Bureau Federation filed suit against the EPA plan in January.