It may be frigid outside, but the rhetoric is heating up over the Chesapeake Bay as the federal government works to finalize a new bay restoration strategy by May.

Despite the upbeat pronouncements of Chesapeake Bay restoration leaders at this week's changing of the guard in Arlington, no one is happy, it seems, with the Obama administration's  draft strategy for jump-starting the lagging cleanup effort. 

As WYPR's Joel McCord reports in "Restoration Redux", environmentalists are disappointed with the plan unveiled in November. They welcomed President Obama's executive order last May directing federal agencies to play a greater role in the cleanup.  But they're complaining that the feds' plan isn't specific or tough enough, given the failures of Maryland and other states to achieve the cleanup goals they set over the past 26 years.

Gov. Martin O'Malley's a bit testy, too. He's said he wants the feds to pony up more money to help the states, but go easy on the regulation. He worries that making more demands of farmers could drive the Delmarva poultry industry away. And farmers and developers are pointing fingers at each other, while insisting their own activities are not to blame for the bay's woes.

What's your view? The official window for commenting on the draft federal bay strategy ends tomorrow (Jan. 8). Go here to find out more and to give the feds a piece of your mind.

(1994 Baltimore Sun photo by Doug Kapustin)