Crossing the Bridge
It’s always fascinating to see the difference between what people say and what they do. As I’ve said before, this is very evident when it comes to protecting our environment. We’re all for it and we loudly want someone else to do it.
The three primary sources of pollution of our Chesapeake Bay, and for that matter, our streams, rivers and coastal bays are, in no particular order, agriculture, runoff from paved surfaces and developments and discharge from sewage treatment plants. Farmers loudly blame development and poorly treated sewage for the pollution, developers blame the sewage and agriculture and city and suburban dwellers blame the farmers. And, of course, the citizens of our fair state blame all the other states around us.
But, of course, when it comes to actually doing something (besides putting a
Save the Bay sticker on our cars) there is reticence. When the Stormwater Control Act was passed in 2007, there was a degree of self satisfaction in Annapolis that they had finally done something to control runoff as a source of pollution. This year, when it was finally to go into effect our legislators decided that three years was not enough notice for our developers to comply with the act and they voted to essentially void the act for any development that was under consideration. The farmers didn’t object and the legislators told us they had to ‘respect the needs of the developers’.
When a local environmental organization sued a local farmer and chicken producer to enforce the clean water act, many legislators tried to intimidate the legal clinic that was supporting the suit because they had to ‘respect the needs of the farmers’.
And our legislature is totally unwilling to deal with the inadequate sewage treatment plants that serve our cities, suburbs and towns and the runoff from existing development. While the ‘flush tax’ enacted some years ago is helping upgrade sewage plants around the state, the amount of money is wholly inadequate to address the large plants that serve Baltimore and Washington and there is simply nothing being done about storm water runoff from existing developed areas. You can almost hear them saying that we have to respect the need of city, suburb and town dwellers to spend more on their fast food rather than responsibly dispose of their waste.
But our legislators have to be responsible to their constituents and we know we’d rather put a bumper sticker on our car than actually do anything that might be the least bit painful. But some of our legislators are responsible and do try really address the problems and some of us watch them. So here, for your reading pleasure, I present Environment Maryland’s scorecard for the legislators from the Eastern Shore based on their actual votes. The scores show the percentage of times in key votes the legislator voted to protect the environment.
District 38
Senator Lowell Stoltzfus (R) – 2010 score: 20% lifetime score: 11%
Delegate Norman Conway (D) – 2010 score: 100% lifetime score: 63%
Delegate Jim Mathias (D) – 2010 score: 88% lifetime score: 82%
Delegate Page Elmore (R) – 2010 score: 43% lifetime score: 51%
District 37
Senator Richard Colburn (R) 2010 score: 0% lifetime score: 14%
Delegate Rudy Cane (D) 2010 score: 75% lifetime score: 83%
Delegate Adelaide Eckardt (R) 2010 score: 83% lifetime score: 39%
Delegate Jeannie Hadaway (R) 2010 score: 63% lifetime score: 46%
District 36
Senator E. J. Pipkin (R) 2010 score: 0% lifetime score: 28%
Delegate Michael Smigiel (R) 2010 score: 40% lifetime score: 48%
Delegate Richard Sossi (R) 2010 score: 38% lifetime score: 36%
Delegate Mary Roe Walkup (R) 2010 score: 57% lifetime score: 40%
The apparent opposition of Republican legislators to environmental legislation puzzles me. Tourists and retirees flock to the Eastern Shore because of our beautiful environment, not because of the chickens. Destroying our environment and polluting our waterways will not improve our economy, it will destroy our economy. The beauty we see in the Japanese woodcut above comes from the harmonious integration of man and nature, not from man opposed to nature.
This is an election year. Look at the ratings above and decide who will help us protect our environment. It’s important.
[note: the woodcut is by Hokusai Katshusika and was created between 1826 and 1833]