Save the Bay!
Good evening...
I want to ask a question that I fear will not be very popular.
Nonetheless, I think it is an important one to ask.
Why is my water less valuable than someone who happens to live in the Chesapeake Bay watershed?
Here's the context for this question...
I've been exploring the world of conservation funding lately. I keep hearing about the "huge" sums of money that are flowing into conservation around the country in the last few years, and we're trying to make sure that that money flows to the right places.
This is not a debate about whether or not we should have this funding.
Here is one example of recent funding being discussed on the USDA website:
"Under the Agriculture Improvement Act of 2018 (2018 Farm Act), the Congressional Budget office (CBO) estimates mandatory conservation spending of $29.5 billion over 5 years." Source
This is on top of the 6-6.5 billion that flows through the main USDA conservation programs each year.
This is a lot of money we're talking about.
This money is already being spent. That's not the decision.
The decision is where should this money go.
What should this money fund?
Who should this money support?
These are important questions. We are not talking about small amounts of money here.
There is a whole different conversation that I want to explore about the role of humans in the models of conservation we are funding.
My believe is that we need more focus on achieving human wellbeing using models of production that are in harmony with nature.
The dominant narratives in the conservation space seem to position "human" as something antithetical with nature, and this worldview is reflected in how conservation funding flows.
Right now, I'm just having a hard time wrapping my head around how many times I inquire about some sort of conservation funding in PA and find out that the western half of the state has to wait until the Chesapeake Bay watershed projects get funded.
Or that we'll get some amount of money out this way, just not as much as the Chesapeake drainage.
Just to be clear, I am not asking for an explanation of why the Chesapeake Bay watershed is important. That is well documented.
I'm just not clear why that water is more important than our water.
Why is the Ohio River less important? Why is the Mississippi less important? Why is the dead zone in the Gulf of Mexico not as concerning as the one in the Bay?
If the answer is that they are all important and need attention, why is public conservation money flowing to property and people on the east side of PA more than the west?
If the claim is being made that the Chesapeake Bay watershed is more important than others, on what grounds is this claim made?
We seem to be facing the same challenges all over.
There is too much pollution, from agriculture and elsewhere, that is dumping into our waters. This pollution is causing problems with water quality and biodiversity downstream.
I'm just not seeing where the logic comes into play where we can say that the water on one side of the PA Appalachians is more important than water on the other. (At the moment, I can only speak to the PA conservation funding structure.)
Here's another part of the rub.
The Chesapeake Bay watershed is getting priority funding, and reports suggest they aren't doing a particularly good job at instigating change.
The Chesapeake Bay Foundation is the loudest voice that I know of that advocates for the Bay, and they release a report called State of the Bay every two years.
The 2022 report recently came out, and it basically shows no improvement since the 2020 report. The current report gives the Bay an overall D+ grade.
Everyone seems to agree that agriculture is where the biggest gains can be made.
Is it concerning that many farmers have no interest in participating in the programs? Is it worth looking at how you could get a bigger buy in from farmers if the conservation models took their needs into account?
I say yes to both, and I'd like to discuss this further in the near future.
For now I'm still pondering, why is their water more important than mine?
Why is public, tax payer money prioritizing some watersheds over others? Are there objective criteria for this prioritization? Does performance matter? What does the actual law state?
These are some questions I intend to ponder further.
Here's to clean water for all of us!
Life is good.