NORFOLK, Va. (WAVY) – The Chesapeake Bay Foundation is encouraged by the incoming Biden administration, because the last couple of years it’s had to play defense – trying to accomplish its initiatives, but having to do it with far less funding.
“We’re really excited to work with President-elect Biden. He has been a friend to the bay,” said CBF local director Christy Everett during a Tuesday interview near a natural shoreline adjacent to Shore Road in Norfolk.
Everett said now it’s time to seize an opportunity. “If it doesn’t happen now, in the next few years we’re gonna lose all the momentum to push all of our partners – Pennsylvania, Maryland, other states and jurisdictions – to clean up the bay,” Everett said.
CBF spearheads clean water programs through oyster restoration, underwater grasses, natural shorelines and water clarity. While most of its money comes from private donations, it relies on matching grants from the Chesapeake Bay Program. That $70 million federal fund was slashed by the Trump Administration.
“Those funds were essentially zeroed out in the last few years,” Everett said.
That meant the agency had to paddle harder to move its key initiative forward. The Chesapeake Clean Water Blueprint is an effort to clean up the bay by 2025. It was launched when Biden was vice president during the Obama administration.
“Over the last few years we’ve been a little reactive, and there’s been a lot of assaults on clean water programs and clean water regulations, and we’ve had to play defense,” Everett said.
Despite the Trump budget cuts, Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.) and Rep. Elaine Luria (D-Virginia Beach) sponsored legislation earlier this year that helped restore the funding.
Everett said the people of Hampton Roads see direct benefits from cleaner water.
“It’s better for recreational fishing, better for commercial fishing. Our tourism really depends of clean water. People come to our beaches, they swim in our waterways and swim in our bay,” she said.
CBF says another reason it’s encouraged by Biden coming into the White House is his time as a senator from Delaware, so he knows all about the Bay, and a crucial appointment for Biden will be his choice for administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency.