The lagging Chesapeake Bay cleanup has been criticized over the years for its largely voluntary approach to restoring North America's largest estuary. Now, with the Obama administration vowing to step up the pressure to make progress, federal officals are toying not just with new regulations and mandates, but with sanctions that they might impose on state and local governments in the region if they fail to live up to their commitments to reduce pollution.

J. Charles "Chuck" Fox, special bay advisor to the Environmental Protection Agency administrator, said in a telelphone briefing Wednesday that agency officials are mulling ideas for "consequences" should the cleanup effort continue to dawdle.  Among them: EPA scrutinizing or even blocking permits for new or expanded releases of nutrient pollution into the bay or its tributaries, and possibly withholding federal funding. 

That could slow economic or residential growth in some areas, if new businesses or sewage treatment plant expansions are held up.  Environmental groups, though, contend the bay will never be restored if new pollution is allowed before already fouled rivers get cleaned up.

But Fox indicated the federal government also wants to extend a helping hand, not just a hammer. He  said he would be seeking additional funding for farmers to help them keep manure and fertilizer from their fields and feedlots from fouling the bay's waters.  He also said state and local governments need financial help to fulfill their obligations to clean up the growing tide of polluted storm runoff from urban and suburban lands.   But he warned that the federal government faces its own funding crunch, so all the additional resources to clean up the bay can't come from Washington.