Sen. Benjamin L. Cardin's bill to strengthen the Chesapeake Bay restoration effort made it out of the Environment and Public Works Committee today, my colleague Paul West reports, but only after the Maryland Democrat made concessions to Republican opponents.

According to West's report on the Sun's Maryland Politics blog, the bill no longer codifies the baywide pollution limit, or "total maximum daily load," that the Environmental Protection Agency is preparing to impose later this year across the six-state bay watershed.

Environmentalists had seen that as a key provision in the bill, as it strengthens EPA's authority to enforce the "pollution diet," as federal officials have called it, on Maryland and the other bay states.

But farmers and their supporters oppose the Cardin bill because they contend it would give EPA latitude to expand its regulatory authority over agricultural activities. Runoff of manure and chemical fertilizer from farms is a leading source of the nitrogen, phosphorus and sediment fouling the bay. For more, go here.