Take Action: Urge Congress to Stand Strong on Clean Water in the Chesapeake Bay

In yet another assault on clean water, the Trump Administration recently proposed a new federal budget that eliminates nearly all funding for EPA's Chesapeake Bay Program—the largest program to restore a body of water in U.S. history.

The program coordinates scientific research on the health of the Bay and provides grants to state and local governments to help reduce pollution. It's successful, bipartisan, non-controversial—and it's a critical part of the Bay restoration efforts that are helping crab and oyster populations rebound, shrinking the Bay's dead zone, and allowing Bay grasses to thrive. Now is not the time to back down, just as the Bay and its rivers and streams are coming back to life.

Cuts to this vital work could reverse years of hard-won progress and threaten clean water for the more than 18 million people who call the Chesapeake Bay watershed home. That's why it's so important that we tell Congress loud and clear that it must continue to stand strong on protecting clean water in the Chesapeake Bay.


To be clear: We are not referring to the Chesapeake Bay Foundation's budget, but the federal budget for EPA's Chesapeake Bay Program, which plays a critical role in coordinating and sustaining the federal/state partnership to restore the Bay and its rivers and streams.