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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsCleaning Up The Chesapeake Bay Would Bring $130 Billion In Annual Economic Benefits
Fully implementing an EPA policy that aims to clean up the Chesapeake Bay would result in billions of dollars in economic benefits, according to a new report.
The peer-reviewed report, published Monday by the Chesapeake Bay Foundation, analyzed the economic benefits of implementing the EPAs Clean Water Blueprint for the Chesapeake Bay, a plan that sets a Total Maximum Daily Load (TMDL) for how much nitrogen, phosphorus and sediment can enter the bay each year, with the potential of cutting this pollution by 20-25 percent.
The group started with the 2009 environmental conditions of seven kinds of land in the bay region: agricultural land, forest, wetland, open water, urban open space, other urban spaces (such as paved areas) and other, a category that included mostly barren land. Then, the researchers calculated what the productivity of these land types would be if the Clean Water Blueprint were fully implemented, using economic studies to figure out what the monetary benefit of the land would be under the plan.
The report found that the economic benefits of the restored Chesapeake Bay would total nearly $130 billion each year an annual increase of more than $22 billion from the $107 billion the bays ecosystem services are valued at currently. If the Blueprint were to be scrapped entirely, the annual benefits of the land would decrease by $5.6 billion.
more
http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2014/10/06/3575828/chesapeake-bay-economic-benefit/
marions ghost
(19,841 posts)for humans and animals alike.
"The EPAs Clean Water Blueprint was created at the request of the six Chesapeake Bay states* and the District of Columbia after numerous other attempts to clean up the bay failed. The Chesapeake Bay Foundation has long argued that the Blueprint is necessary to solve the bays environmental problems, but with this report, it now argues that a cleanup is a smart economic investment for the region, as well."
PLEASE READ MORE:
http://www.cbf.org/how-we-save-the-bay/chesapeake-clean-water-blueprint
*SIX STATES: Virginia, Maryland, Delaware, Pennsylvania, New York, and West Virginia--and Washington D.C. Approximately 17 million people live in the Bay watershed.
zappaman
(20,606 posts)Spent a lot of time on the body of water while growing up!
This is a good thing!