The Board Of Zoning Appeals will hold a Public Hearing on August 9th at 10:00 a.m.
On the docket:
• Variance application from Dave & Pam Hainsworth for the property at the corner of Bay
Avenue and Washington Avenue adjacent to the Chesapeake Bay and further described as
the majority portion of Tax Map #83A1-3-A and 50% of Tax Map #83A1-3-C totaling
approximately .85 acres or 37,037 sq. ft. and further identified on the proposed Site Plan as
Lot A located in the Residential-1 (R-1) Zoning District and in the Chesapeake Bay
Preservation Act (CBPA) Overlay Zoning District; said application is seeking an exception to
the CBPA of the Cape Charles Zoning Ordinance (CCZO) Section 7.7 (A3) to allow for a
residential dwelling unit pursuant to CCZO Section 7.5 which provides by-right single family
dwelling in the R-1 Zoning District.
• Variance application from Dave & Pam Hainsworth for the property at the corner of Bay
Avenue and Washington Avenue adjacent to the Chesapeake Bay and further described as
the remaining portion of Tax Map #83A1-3-A not identified in the application above, 50%
of Tax Map #83A1-3-C and all of Tax Map #83A1-3-B1 totaling approximately .84 acres or
36,933 sq. ft. and further identified on the proposed Site Plan as Lot B located in the
Residential-1 (R-1) Zoning District and in the Chesapeake Bay Preservation Act (CBPA)
Overlay Zoning District; said application is seeking an exception to the CBPA of the Cape
Charles Zoning Ordinance (CCZO) Section 7.7 (A3) to allow for a residential dwelling unit
pursuant to CCZO Section 7.5 which provides by-right single family dwelling in the R-1
Zoning District.
Water/Wastewater Quick Looks
The Wastewater plant treated an average of 203,364 gallons a day as of July 22, 2022. The biggest run tallied a high of 213, 772 gallons (July 22). Wastewater staff completed 18 mark-outs around town (Mark-outs are indications on the ground where different utilities are underground. They are mostly done for new construction, home repairs, or irrigation work.)
Water Plant staff performed routine maintenance processes including filter backwashing and softener regenerations, and conducted daily water quality testing and analysis. Bacteria samples were collected for VDH.
The plant operated for 115 hours with an average daily operation of 16.42 hours, producing 1,553,435 gallons–approx 195,000 was used for processes. The average daily production for the plant was 221,919 gallons. The peak day was 7/16/22, which used 242,960 gallons.
Pet of the week: Meet Becky
Hi, I’m Becky. I am a one-year-old Australian Shepherd mix, small in stature, weighing in at only around 30 pounds. I’m full grown so I shouldn’t get much bigger than I am now.
I am full of energy (a sign of the Aussie breed I’m mixed with) and love to play with my brother here at the shelter. I do however seem to want to chase cats, so I have probably never been in a home with one.
I have a very striking appearance, right down to my one eye that is half blue and half brown. I seem to be clean in my kennel so I am holding on to house training rather well.
I have a loving nature, and enjoy a good rub. I should do okay with older children in the home, as I seem to really love people and attention. I am spayed and up to date on my vaccines.
If you’re interested in adoption you can email and request an application at shorespca@gmail.com. You can also print one out via our website www.shorespca.com. You can call the shelter at 757-787-7385 Tuesday-Saturday 10am-3pm.
History Notes this week of July 24
1655: Death of Cyrano de Bergerac (b.1619), French dramatist, poet and duelist whose actual life was the basis for the 1897 play bearing his name by Edmund Rostand.
1715: A Spanish treasure fleet of 11 ships departs Havana, stuffed to the gunwales with gold, silver and precious stones from the New World. Seven days later, the entire fleet founders and is lost in a hurricane off the coast of southern Florida. Treasure hunters have long sought the wrecks, without success. This is not to be confused with entrepreneur and explorer Mel Fisher’s 1985 discovery and excavation of the wreck of the Senora de Atocha, which was not from this fleet, but was lost under similar circumstances in 1622.
1725: Birth of John Newton (d.1807), English slave ship captain, redeemed Christian, priest, hymnist who wrote Amazing Grace, and spiritual mentor to the great English Parliamentarian William Wilberforce.
1750: Death of Johann Sebastian Bach (b.1685). The German composer created “…what may be the most celestial and profound body of music in history,” and was the patriarch of 20 children between his two marriages, a clan of whom 10 survived to adulthood, four of whom became great composers in their own right.
1778: First Battle of Ushant– The French government, taking an early opportunity to confront “L’Albion perfide” in support of their new American ally, sends a fleet of twenty-nine ships to do battle with the Royal Navy. They meet thirty British ships, with HMS Victory in the vanguard, off the French island of Ushant near the western approaches of La Manche (the English Channel). Although no ships were captured or sunk on either side, the British suffered over 1100 casualties, including 407 killed, compared to just over 500 casualties in the French fleet.
1794: After a year in office as head of the ill-named Committee of Public Safety, during which he instigated the frenzied bloodletting of Le Terreur, Citizen Maximilian Robespierre is arrested by what passes as responsible authorities in the French Revolutionary government. What finally ended Robespierre’s reign was not just the 17,000+ heads he ordered lopped off already, it was the sudden increase of executions that came from his brainchild, Law of 22 Prarial (10 June). The law established a tribunal that was no more than a court of condemnation which dispensed with the bothersome trouble of evidence and procedures and witnesses: it permitted executions to be carried out under the simple suspicion from any citizen of anti-revolutionary activity by any other citizen. As a result, the intervening six weeks between its passage and his own execution on the 28th saw Robspierre’s new law responsible for 1285 new guillotine deaths.
1834: Death of Samuel Taylor Coleridge (b.1772), English poet, literary critic and debater, best known as the author of epic poems, The Rime of the Ancient Mariner and Kubla Khan. His writings profoundly influenced both the Romantic movement in Europe and the Transcendentalist movement in the United States.
1890: Death of Vincent van Gough (b.1853). The Dutch painter’s work defines the beginning of the post-impressionistic movement.
1847: Mormon pioneers under the leadership of Brigham Young arrive in the Salt Lake Valley, where they end their flight from Illinois to create a new society in the Utah territory.
1848: Birth of Arthur Balfour (d.1930), 33rd Prime Minister of Great Britain, and author of the Balfour Declaration.
1866: Birth of Beatrix Potter (d.1943), author of the Peter Rabbit and friends book series.
1897: A company of 20 black “Buffalo Soldier” infantrymen stationed in Fort Missoula, Montana, successfully arrive in Saint Louis after a grueling six-week march- on bicycles- across the vastness of Montana (including a stop at Little Big Horn battlefield), Wyoming, Nebraska, and Missouri. The bicycle corps was an experimental group formed a year earlier to test the military viability of bikes to speed infantry movements.
1898: Continuing the earlier success of forcibly evicting Spain from her worldwide island empire in Cuba, Guam and the Philippines, the United States invades Puerto Rico, landing at Guanica after two months of preparatory shelling of San Juan.
1903: The Ford Motor Company sells its first car, a “quadracycle.”
1907: Sir Robert Baden-Powell sets up the Brownsea Island Scout Camp on south coast of England. The Boer War hero kept it open the entire month of August; the opening is considered the birth of the Scouting movement.
1909: French aviation pioneer Louis Bleriot, flying a machine of his own design and construction, takes off from a field in Calais, and 33 minutes later, becomes the first man to fly across the English Channel
1914: The Empire of Austria-Hungary issues an ultimatum to the Republic of Serbia to allow Austria to conduct the investigation and trial of whomever it was that shot Archduke Ferdinand last month. To no-one’s surprise, Serbia rejects the demand, setting in motion Austrian plans that have been in place since 1912 to once and for all crush Serbian nationalism and its constant interference in Bosnia. During the post-assassination dragnet, one of the conspirators spills his guts, leading not only to the arrest of several more conspirators, but also to six bombs built by the Serb arsenal, four pistols, training documentation, suicide pills, and a map, annotated with locations of the Gendarmerie and escape routes out of Sarajevo. Leading up to this ultimatum were a series of diplomatic notes and tense diplomacy between Austria and Germany, the bottom line being that Germany needed to goad Austria into declaring war in order to trigger a wider war with France and Russia for which they were much better prepared than either. From the Austrian perspective, it was crucial to ensure Germany would support an Austrian mobilization for yet another Balkan war, particularly since Russia had signaled its support for Serbia. Germany, in fact, gave a Austria a famous diplomatic “Blank Cheque” to destroy Serbia. To help prop up the façade that Germany was caught completely unawares by the ultimatum, the entire General Staff, the Kaiser, and the majority of his ministers went on vacation on the 23rd.
1914: Austria-Hungary declares war on Serbia.
1929: The Fascist state of Italy bans the use of foreign words in the Italian language.
1932: President Hoover orders the US Army to remove by force the Bonus Army which has been encamped in the flats of Anacostia since late May, and campaigning and protesting in the Capitol district almost every day since mid-June. Army Chief of Staff General Douglas McArthur took personal command of the 12th Infantry Regiment from Fort Howard, Maryland, supported by 3rd Cavalry Regiment with six tanks commanded by Major George Patton. The Army formed up on Pennsylvania Avenue at 4:45 in the afternoon, while thousands of civil service personnel were streaming out of their offices at the end of the work day. Tradition says that the Bonus Marchers thought the Army was being formed in their honor, but what actually happened was a cavalry sweep directly into the protesters. Following close on their heels were the infantry marching with fixed bayonets, clearing out all the shanties littering the route. The veterans fled back across the Anacostia River to their largest “Hoovertown” settlement. Hoover then ordered the assault stopped, but General McArthur, believing the Bonus Marchers were part of a larger Communist plot to overthrow the government, ignored the President and ordered another assault across the river to clear the marchers out for good. Hundreds of vets were injured and several killed. The Bonus movement lingered through 1933, when newly-elected President Roosevelt dragooned thousands of them into the Civilian Conservation Corps during the early stages of the New Deal.
1935: Peak temperature for the Dust Bowl period- 109 degrees recorded in Chicago, 104 in Milwaukee.
1935: First flight of Boeing’s B-17 prototype heavy bomber.
1938: Birth of Gary Gygat (d.2009), inventor of Dungeons and Dragons.
1942: The National Socialist German government opens the Treblinka extermination camp.
1948: Birth of 1968 Olympic Gold Medalist Peggy Fleming.
1948: After a twelve year hiatus since the 1936 Berlin Olympics, the XIV Olympiad opens in London.
1956: Forty-five nautical miles south of Nantucket Island, the Swedish liner MS Stockholm collides with Italian luxury liner SS Andrea Doria in a heavy fog, destroying the bow of Stockholm and fatally puncturing the hull of Andrea Doria, which capsizes and sinks the next day. 51 people die in the collision. The tragedy sparked a number of safety improvements for the shipping industry, not the least of which was mandating that a functioning radio be installed for use on the navigation bridge, instead of in its own space elsewhere. In 1956, Radio Rooms delivered notes to the navigation bridge by pneumatic tubes. The wreckage is a popular and dangerous dive site, considered by many to be “the Mount Everest of diving” because of its depth (~160 feet at the top) and the strong currents that surge through the sound.
1965: President Lyndon Johnson steps up U.S. combat engagement in Vietnam, boosting our troop commitment from 75,000 to 125,000.
1967: French President Charles de Gaulle, on an official State visit to Canada, gives a rousing speech to over 100,000 French Canadians in Montreal, during which he proclaims: “Vivre le Quebec libre!” (Long live Free Quebec!). The rest of Canada was not happy with the proclamation.
1967: At 10:50 in the morning aboard USS Forrestal (CVA-59), while conducting Vietnam combat operations in the Gulf of Tonkin, a 5” Zuni rocket from a just-starting F-4 Phantom aircraft suddenly fires from its launching tube and streaks into the full external fuel tanks of two A-4 Skyhawks on the other side of the fantail. The fuel bursts into flame under the aircraft, one of which is piloted by LCDR John McCain, USN. In the tense minutes that follow, the entire aft section of the flight deck becomes an inferno of burning jet fuel and detonating ordnance. 131 sailors are killed, 161 injured, and the ship suffers $73 million in damage, not counting the loss of the aircraft. Nine bombs exploded in the flames, the ones under the A-4s ripping gaping holes in the armored deck. The flight deck fire was finally brought under control at 12:15; the fires below decks continued until 13:45, and flare-ups continued until 04:00 the next morning. There is a Navy training movie called Trial By Fire that narrates the PLAT camera footage and other combat photography of the event.
1969: The crew of Apollo 11 splashes down in the Pacific Ocean, completing President Kennedy’s goal of sending a man to the moon and safely returning to Earth. Over an unknown threat of extraterrestrial infection, the crew are required to don Biological Isolation Garments before opening the hatch to the Command Module, and a disinfectant crew follows them all the way to an Airstream trailer outfitted as a biological isolation living space, where they remain with a flight surgeon for 21 days.
1973: Death of Eddie Rickenbacker (b.1890), pioneering race car driver, World War I fighter ace (26 confirmed kills), owner of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, and CEO of Eastern Airlines. Rickenbacker also acted as President Roosevelt’s personal courier during World War II, commandeering a B-17 to transport him to meet with General Douglas MacArthur on a subject that remains unknown to this day. During the trip across the Pacific, the crew became lost, and the pilot was forced to ditch the aircraft at sea, which led to an ordeal of survival for 26 days in a rubber raft. Rickenbacker would always credit God-directed miracles for their survival, most notably the time when a seagull alighted on his head and remained there for nearly an hour while Rickenbacker slowly reached up and captured it. They carefully divided all the parts evenly, which kept them alive for several more days. During his time at the helm of Eastern, he wrote in his autobiography what many of us in the aviation world believe is a fundamental truth: “I have never liked to use the word ‘safe’ in connection with either Eastern Airlines or the entire transportation field; I prefer the word ‘reliable.’” There’s something charming about that sentence, but I may be biased. His military awards include the Medal of Honor and Seven Distinguished Service Crosses.
1981: Charles, Prince of Wales, marries Lady Diana Spencer in a televised wedding estimated to have been watched by 750,000,000 people worldwide. Believe it or not, the British press had lip readers in place to record the comments of the royals while they were on display at Buckingham Palace prior to a little wedding banquet inside. The crowd along the fence began chanting “Kiss her!” as soon as they came out. Charles looked at her: “They are trying to get us to kiss.” She looked back, “Well, what about it?” After a pause, Charles relented with, “Why ever not?” The crowd goes wild.
Chincoteague Pony Auction sets records
The Chincoteague Pony Auction saw sisters, Betsy Anderson and Cristy Zimmerman, buy their first pony for a record of nearly $31,000. Back for the first time since 2019, the 97th annual Chincoteague Pony Auction raised $450,200 Thursday.
This year’s buy backs (ponies purchased and then donated back to the herd)were also impressive, ranging from $10,000 to $32,000.
The Chincoteague Legacy Group purchased the record-breaking $32,000 buy back horse.
Rep. Luria Votes to Keep Dangerous Weapons off Our Streets, Protect Communities, and Save Lives
WASHINGTON, D.C.— Rep. Elaine Luria (D-VA) voted for the Assault Weapons Ban of 2021 today to reduce the prevalence of assault weapons and high-capacity magazines and reduce the lives lost to gun violence and make our communities safer.
The legislation prohibits the sale, manufacture, transfer, or possession of semiautomatic assault weapons and high-capacity magazines. The prohibition does not apply to the possession, sale or transfer of any semiautomatic assault weapon lawfully possessed on the date of enactment.
“As a 20-year Navy veteran, I am a firm believer that we must strike the right balance between responsible gun ownership and keeping our communities, churches, and schools safe,” Rep. Luria said. “Assault weapons and high-capacity magazines have enabled mass shooters to deal maximum death and damage, and I urge the Senate to act on this legislation to save lives.”
Rep. David Cicilline (D-RI) introduced the bill on March 11, 2021. The Judiciary Committee then reported the bill to the House on July 20, by a party-line vote of 25 to 18.
The bill currently has 212 cosponsors.
Key Provisions of the Bill
- Similar to the 1994 ban, H.R. 1808, the Assault Weapons Ban of 2021, prohibits the sale, manufacture, transfer, or possession of semiautomatic assault weapons and high-capacity magazines.
- The prohibition does not apply to the possession, sale or transfer of any semiautomatic assault weapon lawfully possessed on the date of enactment (a grandfathered semiautomatic assault weapon.)
- The bill also allows for the transfer of grandfathered semiautomatic assault weapons through a federal firearms licensee following a background check using the National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS).
- Importantly, the bill requires that semiautomatic assault weapons be securely stored so that they are not accessible to those who are prohibited from possessing them.
- The bill allows states to use Byrne Justice Assistance Grant funds for voluntary buyback programs for semiautomatic assault weapons and high-capacity magazines.
- Like its predecessor, the bill is intended to gradually reduce the prevalence of the deadliest tactical weapons, while containing numerous provisions that protect the rights of hunters, gun collectors, farmers, sport shooters, and those who use firearms for self-defense.
- Like the 1994-2004 ban, the bill includes exemptions for specific uses such as law enforcement, nuclear security, and testing authorized by the Attorney General.
- The bill also allows for temporary transfers without a background check for target shooting at a licensed target facility or established range.
- The bill specifies that the bill’s restrictions do not apply to antique firearms and more than 2,000 specified models of hunting and sporting firearms.
Do we need to talk about the Aquifer?
The following article is written by Ken Dufty.
Do we need to start talking about the impact on the aquifer that the HRSD project could cause? No one is talking about it. What are the true implications of dewatering our aquifer? Have we learned nothing from watching the pump down of the Potomac starting in 1946 after the formation of the HRSD and the first project at the Navy Base? A 220 foot drop in that aquifer and now they have to flush their toilets into their drinking water, claiming they can “pump” the land back up to combat saltwater intrusion because they did not monitor what was happening as they developed on steroids because there was no barrier regarding wastewater disposal.
That aquifer had hundreds of trillions of gallons of water in it, is thousands of feet thick, and stretches from Georgia to New Jersey. And they overpumped it and had to build a 500 million dollar pipe from Lake Gaston so they could survive and grow to another day where they again resumed theirs overpumping.
The ESVA draws from a cereal bowl-like finite water supply formed partially by a meteor strike. The water we drink from the Yorktown-Eastover complex took 10-30,000 years to perk down there through the confining units. We need to adopt and implement the recommendations in the HFESVA report in real-time…like now.
Many on the shore share these concerns and are troubled that the aquifer issue is not being talked about or factored into planning discussions.
For more data and information, read the USGS publication Hydrogeologic Framework of the Virginia Eastern Shore.
Exmore is being told that because they are in the Paleo channel, there is absolutely no issue with the availability of groundwater. However, as an HFESVA report documents, the paleo channel is a conduit for saltwater intrusion and actually cuts across three aquifers.
While the recent water quality report found chloride levels at 14mg/l +/- in Exmore’s drinking water. The report also cautions that because of the rate of transmissivity in the Upper and middle Yorktown, we are only seeing saltwater intrusion from pre-development timeframes. Thus, we should not be whistling past the hydrogeological graveyard and should be pursuing the report’s recommendation on page 24, last paragraph.
Indeed, I have about given up speaking to the Planning Commission and the BOS because I am speaking to a stopwatch and a gavel.
Like many of you, I have been doing this work for a very long time, and for nearly a decade as chief advisor to the Republican majority of the Rensselaer County Legislature in Troy, NY. Not once did they ever silence a constituent who took the time to come to the monthly meetings, warning them they only have 3 minutes and then countering what they said after they speak, not giving them a chance to respond because they blew out their time limit at the mike. And now both county governing/advisory bodies have decided they will no longer read into record citizens’ comments that were sent in through the mail or the net. They simply dismiss them by saying “they are part of the record”
NOAA has released the first comprehensive Mitigation Policy for Trust Resources
NOAA has released the first comprehensive Mitigation Policy for Trust Resources, which will improve conservation through avoiding, minimizing, and compensating for adverse impacts to natural resources, simultaneously advancing clean energy, infrastructure, and environmental goals.
Mitigation is a conservation tool that includes avoiding, minimizing, or compensating for negative impacts to natural resources and their habitats resulting from regulated actions (such as federal permits) or injury (such as an oil spill).
This policy supports NOAA’s mission to conserve and restore marine, estuarine, and freshwater resources and the ecosystems that support them. NOAA’s policy strives to implement climate resilient mitigation options that will last into the future. NOAA will use effective mitigation principles to reach our program objectives, expand best practices across the country, and incentivize private-sector investments in mitigation banks. The policy emphasizes collaborating with underserved communities and stakeholders to incorporate social equity objectives into mitigation planning.
Eight principles will guide mitigation decisions:
- Apply the mitigation sequence appropriately.
- Employ the best scientific information available.
- Apply a holistic landscape and/or seascape approach.
- Promote mitigation strategies that have a high probability of success.
- Consider climate change and climate resilience when evaluating and developing mitigation measures.
- Implement mitigation that is proportional to impacts to NOAA trust resources and fully offset those impacts.
- Use preservation of intact habitat as compensation appropriately, taking into account the high risk of habitat loss in many rapidly developing coastal and marine landscapes and seascapes.
- Collaborate with partner agencies and stakeholders.
The policy applies to all appropriate areas of NOAA’s work from the projects we review for permits to the projects we fund or conduct ourselves. It also gives us the opportunity to consider a wide range of mitigation options and encourage the development of multi-use mitigation strategies.
The draft policy was released for public comment in May 2021 and revisions were made based on input received from a wide range of stakeholders. NOAA looks forward to working with our partners as we implement this policy.
Pew Trusts: VA, MD work to re-establish oyster reefs
In 2014, the six states that are part of the Chesapeake Bay watershed—along with Washington, D.C., the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, and the Chesapeake Bay Commission—signed the Chesapeake Bay Watershed Agreement, which included among its goals restoring oyster populations in 10 bay tributaries by 2025. The parties are on track to meet that target, with six tributaries restored as of the end of 2021 and the remaining four expected to be completed on schedule. The project is the largest oyster restoration and recovery effort in the world.
Oyster restoration benefits ecosystems and coastal communities. Oysters filter water, making estuaries cleaner and clearer, and their beds and reefs offer refuge and habitat for wildlife. And under the right conditions, they can also absorb wave energy, increasing the coast’s resilience to storms. Restoration can increase the scale of these benefits, making projects such as the Chesapeake Bay effort a worthwhile investment of public funds.
In Maryland and Virginia, the goal of restoring oyster habitat in 10 tributaries is advancing thanks to robust partnerships involving the two states, industry, nonprofit organizations, and academic institutions, in coordination with federal efforts. As the 2025 target approaches, the partners should build on this foundation to set new goals for restoring vital oyster reefs and other coastal habitats.
- Restoration blueprints are complete for all 10 identified tributaries, and projects remain on target despite the COVID-19 pandemic.
- Partners even restored 23.7 acres of reefs in a “bonus” 11th tributary: the Eastern Branch of the Elizabeth River in Virginia.
- Monitoring indicates that projects are meeting or exceeding metrics for success outlined by the parties to the agreement.3
- Before the agreement, Chesapeake Bay oyster restoration took place on a smaller scale; but by 2025, the partners will have restored nearly 2,000 acres of reefs.
Table 1
Chesapeake Bay Agreement Partners Have Restored Oyster Beds in
6 Rivers and Creeks Projects by state, tributary, size, and completion status
State | Tributary | Planned restoration area in acres | Status |
---|---|---|---|
MD | Harris Creek | 348 | Complete |
MD | Little Choptank River | 358 | Complete |
MD | Manokin River | 421 | In progress |
MD | St. Mary’s River | 25 | In progress |
MD | Tred Avon River | 130 | Complete |
VA | Great Wicomico River | 24 | Complete |
VA | Lafayette River | 12 | Complete |
VA | Lynnhaven River | 63 | In progress |
VA | Piankatank River | 241 | Complete |
VA | Lower York River | 198 | In progress |
Source: Maryland and Virginia Oyster Restoration Interagency Workgroups, “2021 Chesapeake Bay Oyster Restoration Update: Summary of Progress Toward the Chesapeake Bay Watershed Agreement’s ‘Ten Tributaries by 2025’ Oyster Outcome” (2022), https://www.chesapeakebay.net/documents/2021_Chesapeake_Bay_Oyster_Restoration_Update_FINAL. pdf
Chesapeake Conservancy Statement on Release of U.S. Senate Interior Appropriations Bill for Fiscal Year 2023
Annapolis, MD – Today, the U.S. Senate Committee on Appropriations released its Fiscal Year 2023 (FY 23) spending bill for Interior, Environment, and Related Agencies. The bill would provide funding for several programs supporting environmental conservation and restoration efforts in the Chesapeake Bay watershed.
The Senate’s proposed FY23 Interior appropriations bill would increase funding for the Chesapeake Bay Program to $91 million, an increase of $3 million over FY 22 levels. The Chesapeake Bay Program is a regional partnership of federal agencies, states, local governments, universities, and non-governmental organizations that work together to restore and to protect the Chesapeake Bay.
The bill would also provide full funding for the National Park Service’s Chesapeake Bay Gateways and Watertrails Network program at $3 million.
The bill would increase funding for the U.S. Geological Survey’s (USGS) Chesapeake Bay work by $2 million for a total of $17.39 million. The USGS is an important federal partner in the science and monitoring of fish, wildlife, and habitats as well as in providing forecasting and modeling on the impact of land use change on the Chesapeake Bay Watershed.
The bill also provides $6 million for the Chesapeake WILD program, a U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service program that supports on the ground efforts to enhance fish and wildlife habitat and outdoor recreation opportunities in the Chesapeake Bay.
Chesapeake Conservancy Manager of External Affairs Reed Perry commended the Senate Appropriations Committee’s FY 23 bill, stating
“We commend the Senate Appropriations Committee for the strong provisions supporting conservation and watershed protection that are included in the FY 23 Interior and Environment bill, particularly those supporting the Chesapeake Bay watershed. These critical investments will improve the health and resiliency of the Chesapeake Bay and its watershed and in turn, bolster the health and economic resiliency of our region.
“We applaud Senate Appropriators for their work on this bill, particularly Senator Chris Van Hollen, for supporting the Chesapeake Bay watershed in FY 23. We urge Congress to support these vital Chesapeake Bay provisions in conference, and we encourage full funding for the Chesapeake Bay WILD program at the $15 million level put forward by the U.S. House Appropriations Committee earlier this summer.”
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