President-elect Donald Trump’s pledge to ensure clean water while slashing the federal bureaucracy will soon face a major test, with his administration set to influence the future of the nation’s largest estuary.
An Obama-era blueprint for protecting the Chesapeake Bay faces a critical deadline at the end of next year. The states surrounding the sprawling body of water must now determine next steps, working with input from the federal government.
But some bay advocates are uncertain whether the incoming Trump administration will ensure more progress is made toward cleanup and restoration of the estuary.
“Federal leadership is critical to holding the Bay partnership together and making progress,” Jon Mueller, director of the environmental law clinic at the University of Maryland, Baltimore, said in an email. “The prior Trump administration did little to support the Bay restoration effort.”
