Directive 04-1: Funding the Restoration of the Chesapeake Bay Watershed

Description

In December 2003, the Chesapeake Executive Council directed the Chesapeake Bay Program to establish and convene a Chesapeake Bay Watershed Blue Ribbon Panel to consider funding sources to implement tributary strategies basin-wide and to make recommendations regarding other actions at the federal, state and local level. The Blue Ribbon Panel submitted its report to the Executive Council in October 2004. The central conclusion of the Blue Ribbon Panel's deliberations was that current funding does not meet the needs for restoring Chesapeake Bay water quality by 2010 because the Chesapeake Bay Program does not have a permanent funding base sufficiently large enough to fund the necessary management measures. Directive 04-1 urges the Principals’ Staff Committee to convene a committee of federal, state and regional finance and legal experts to provide a specific proposal for the establishment of a Chesapeake Bay Financing Authority.