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(AP) -- The governors of Maryland, Virginia and Pennsylvania will renew their vows to protect the Chesapeake Bay under a broad agreement that federal officials said is the first of its kind to address urban sprawl. The governors, together with the mayor of Washington, D.C., will pledge today to reduce by 30 percent the rate of urban sprawl in the combined three-state area by 2012. They also will agree to permanently protect 1.6 million acres in the bay watershed and restore 25,000 acres of wetlands by 2010. "We acknowledge that future development will be sustainable only if we protect our natural and rural resource land, limit impervious surfaces and concentrate new growth in existing population centers or suitable areas served by appropriate infrastructure," a draft copy of the agreement states. The accord is scheduled to be signed in Rose Haven by Govs. Tom Ridge, R-Pa.; Jim Gilmore, R-Va.; and Parris Glendening, D-Md., along with Mayor Anthony Williams. Carol Browner, the head of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, also is expected to attend. The pact is a major overhaul of the last Chesapeake Bay agreement signed in 1987, which was primarily concerned with reducing the nutrient pollution in the bay, environmental officials said. While the new agreement commits to further reductions in levels of nitrogen and phosphorous, it will also focus 3,600 species of plants, fish and animals that live in the nation's largest estuary. "The way we will judge our success is not by water clarity," said Peter Marx, a spokesman for the EPA's Chesapeake Bay Program, "the standard will be how the living creatures respond." The agreement calls for a tenfold increase in the bay's oyster population by 2010, based on a 1994 baseline, when low numbers were recorded due to a ravaging parasite. A target harvest for blue crabs will also be set next year. Environmentalists welcomed the agreement. The latest accord improves on its predecessor by outlining specific numeric goals, especially in key areas of oyster replenishment, sprawl reduction and land preservation, said Mike Hirshfield, vice president of the Chesapeake Bay Foundation. The accord also calls for voluntary elimination of a loophole in the Clean Water Act that allow 100 industrial sites in the bay watershed to spew toxic chemicals into the bay and its tributaries, officials said. Bill Matuszeski, director of the EPA's Chesapeake Bay Program, said the accord was the first multistate agreement to tackle sprawl on a regional level. Much of the credit for the commitment to reduce sprawl, the most controversial provision in the 21-page agreement, goes to Glendening, who has made his "Smart Growth" plan to concentrate growth in developed areas a centerpiece of his administration, he said. Gilmore, who has clashed with Glendening on growth issues, held out for six months, arguing land use decisions should be made locally and not be dictated by the state. But Glendening insisted on an effort to reduce sprawl in anticipation of the estimated 3 million people expected to settle in the bay watershed by 2020. "For the agreement to be effective, we needed to address land use issues," said Michelle Byrnie, Glendening's press secretary. In the end Gilmore agreed to sign after the sprawl provisions were changed to apply to the entire bay watershed, as opposed to the earlier call for a 30 percent reduction in each state. "If we were going to sit around and wait for the political stars to line up perfectly, it was never going to happen," Matuszeski said. "We simply had to see how far we could get." "I think everybody realized that this is our only chance," he said. |