Maryland officials criticize upstream states for bay debris

ANNAPOLIS, MD. » After a week of heavy rain, Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan has a message for states upstream of the Chesapeake Bay: step up and take responsibility for the sediment and debris pouring into the nation’s largest estuary.

The Republican governor described the situation as “an economic and ecological crisis” in remarks before a state board meeting on Wednesday, where other state officials decried the trees, tires and garbage floating in the bay.

Comptroller Peter Franchot, one of three members of the Maryland Board of Public Works, said the debris is creating a safety hazard for watermen and ships bound for the Port of Baltimore. Franchot, a Democrat, called it “an absolute disgrace.”

“To be blunt, we’re literally drowning in Pennsylvania’s trash, and I have a huge problem with that,” Franchot said.

Patrick McDonnell, secretary of the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection, said “we are disappointed at these careless and insensitive remarks.” He said they undermine the strides Pennsylvania has made in improving water quality in the Susquehanna and Potomac waters and “insult the many Pennsylvanians still recovering from the record floods we just experienced, where at least two of our residents lost their lives.”

“The ‘trash and debris’ that Maryland politicians are complaining about represent devastated communities, damaged businesses and lives ruined,” McDonnell said, adding that it is “hypocritical to place all the blame on Pennsylvania and New York while Maryland has missed its own goals including nitrogen runoff reductions.”

Since before he was elected governor in 2014, Hogan has cited pollution flowing from upstream states like Pennsylvania and New York from the Susquehanna River over the Conowingo Dam and into the bay. During a major storm, he said up to 80 percent of all debris, sediment and pollutants like phosphorus and nitrogen, come over the dam and end up in the bay.