U.S. Water News Online
CENTREVILLE, Md. -- The state of Maryland will start selling bottles of water to raise money for Chesapeake Bay restoration, as one of two public-private agreements announced by Gov. Robert Ehrlich to clean the bay.
Standing on the banks of the Corsica River in Queen Anne's County, the governor held up the blue-labeled bottles for a group of elementary school children to see. Ehrlich also used the occasion to announce the river will get $19.4 million over the next five years for cleanup. The money, most of it coming from federal agencies, will fund new oysters, bay grass plantings and grants to farmers who plant winter crops, which could reduce pollution into the tributary of the bay.
"The achievements we make here will be taken to other waters," Ehrlich said. Officials said the Corsica River project, which aims to have the river taken off a federal list of "impaired waters" because of its pollution, is unusual because of the level of cooperation between jurisdictions. State and local government are working with federal environmental authorities, along with environmental watch groups, farmers and businesses.
"This is the grand experiment, taking a challenged river and bringing everyone together," Ehrlich said.
Dale Wright, chairman of the private non-profit Oyster Recovery Partnership, described the Corsica Project as the first time all the groups that work in the bay will collaborate.
"So instead of having us do the oysters, and another agency planting bay grasses somewhere else, and land groups or farmers working on soil and runoff, we'll all be working together," Wright said.
Ehrlich said 50 retailers have begun selling bottles labeled "Maryland Natural Spring Water," with 95 percent of proceeds going to bay cleanup.
The bottled water sales could raise $180,000 the first year, with a goal of $400,000 a year in subsequent years for bay-wide projects, said Charles Evans, development director for the Maryland Department of Resources.
The water, sold in 20-ounce bottles and in six-packs or cases, was bottled in Maryland by Brick House Farm Water.
Evans said it would take several years to get the Corsica River off the Environmental Protection Agency's list, even if all goes well. But he called the partnership exciting. "This is a first," he said.
EPA Administrator Stephen Johnson attended the waterside announcements and praised the Corsica cleanup.
"It's through collaborations like this that we're going to accelerate environmental progress," Johnson said.
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