Local officials and farmers in the New York portion of the Chesapeake Bay's watershed are complaining that pollution-reduction measures proposed for their area would be exorbitantly costly and still wouldn't clean up the water enough.

They told the Binghamton, NY Press and Sun-Bulletin that the steep reductions in nitrogen and phosphorus called for by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency in the New York portion of the Susquehanna River drainage would be impossible to reach and cost billions in improvements to sewage plants, retrofits of storm drains and pollution control measures on farms.

"We don't feel the EPA's limits are achievable by any means," said Chip McElwee, executive director of the Broome County Soil & Water Conservation District. "You could take the sewage treatment plants off line, we could go live in the woods, and then eliminate half of our farms; that's how you would have to get there."

"We need to try and do everything we can to try to slow this down and try to change it,"  Dean Norton, president of the New York Farm Bureau, said.

EPA put forward its own regimen for reducing bay-fouling nutrients and sediment from New York after finding serious deficiencies in the cleanup plan the state proposed.  EPA officials have said the pollution reductions called for are based on the latest computer modeling and monitoring of water quality.  They added that they're prepared to work with state officials to come up with alternative remedies that might be more palatable and less costly. 

New York wasn't alone in being found wanting by the EPA - the federal agency said there were  significant gaps in plans put forward by five of the six states in the bay watershed.  Only Maryland came away needing no more than minor adjustments in its strategy, in EPA's judgment.  That doesn't mean farmers and local officials here are going to be let off the hook - the state's plan was more thorough than the rest in identifying potential pollution control measures, though Maryland has yet to actually say which ones it plans to pursue. When it does, expect a few howls closer to home, too.

The states have until Nov. 29 to submit revised cleanup plans, with EPA planning to finalize its overall bay pollution diet by year's end.

For details on EPA's and the states' bay restoration plans, and a listing of public comment opportunities in the next month, go here. 

(Downtown Binghamton, NY, 2005. Special to the Baltimore Sun by Kathryn Deuel.)