O’Malley/Brown Unveil BAYSTAT

Innovative environmental initiative will monitor and gauge the health of the Bay; Provide effective coordination of Open Space planning efforts to manage growth

PASADENA, MD (August 7, 2006) – Martin O’Malley and Anthony Brown unveiled an innovative environmental initiative – BayStat will ensure that we are maximizing every dollar we spend on improving the health of Bay and expanding Maryland’s open space program.�

BayStat will bring together the collective resources of the State’s departments of Agriculture, Environment, Natural Resources, Planning, and Budget and Management to ensure the most effective coordination of Smart Growth and open space planning efforts, enforcement of rational environmental policies, the commitment of sustained financial investment, and the promotion of efforts to educate the public about how they can help the Bay every day.

By utilizing pre-existing measures of the Bay’s health, restoration, and protection efforts , including the river-specific tributary strategies for the 36 major basins in the Bay watershed developed as part of the Chesapeake 2000 Agreement, BayStat will monitor, measure, and regularly provide a public accounting of the totality of the State’s efforts on behalf of the Bay.

In its 2005 State of the Bay annual report, the Chesapeake Bay Foundation found that the Chesapeake Bay was “dangerously out of balance� and that the health of the Bay showed no improvement over the last three years. In addition, in 2005, the General Accounting Office found that the lack of integrated approaches that measure overall progress, the lack of independent and credible reporting mechanisms, and lack of a coordinated implementation of strategies is undermining the success of the Bay program.

Each year, over 280 million pounds of nitrogen and 20 million pounds of phosphorous enter the Bay from run-off, wastewater facilities, power plants, and other sources, representing more than seven times the nutrient levels seen prior to modern development. This over-fertilization jeopardizes the Bay’s ability to support life, stressing important marine resources and negating many of our restoration efforts.

In addition to more effective coordination of the State’s Bay-related efforts, BayStat will also be charged with helping to formulate new initiatives aimed at accelerating the Bay’s recovery, including:

• Protect and expand Program Open Space (POS) funding. Martin O’Malley and Anthony Brown will work to protect and expand POS funding to maximize these investments that play such a critical role in providing protective buffers, reducing runoff, sustaining wetlands and underwater grasses, and curbing uncontrolled growth.

• Influence local government decisions by linking State POS investments to policies that more effectively manage growth and conserve open space and working farms. Martin O’Malley and Anthony Brown will develop new criteria for State and local POS funding that factor in and reward POS project requests with the greatest environmental benefits. It is only reasonable that the citizens of Maryland expect to see a return on their restoration investments. Jurisdictions demonstrating the commitment, ingenuity, and initiative to achieve tangible and cost-effective progress, specifically in POS investments, nutrient management programs, and storm water drain improvements, should be encouraged to do more.

• Publish an annual Bay Budget. Budgets are the clearest statements of government’s priorities and should provide a detailed and easy to understand accounting of the totality of investments across multiple agencies as well as the operating and capital budgets. An annual Bay Budget will allow for greater transparency and predictability that will help foster better planning and long-term investments in environmentally-friendly farming practices.

• Create a Baywide body to coordinate species management and restoration efforts. Any future gains in restoring and expanding the Bay’s populations of blue crabs, oysters, and shad will be contingent upon successful efforts to coordinate policies and actions between critical stakeholders. Martin O’Malley and Anthony Brown will work with local and regional partners to formulate sensible and sustainable strategies to guide species management and restoration efforts, including agreeing to more aggressive goals for nutrient management plan compliance and storm water controls.

• Accelerate the upgrade of sewage treatment plants and systems Baywide. Efforts are currently underway to upgrade the State’s largest wastewater treatment plants as well as sewer and septic systems. Martin O’Malley and Anthony Brown will explore options to accelerate this critical work and the realization of the corresponding benefit of reducing nitrogen pollution reaching the Bay by offering local jurisdictions incentives for the early completion of projects. Under the current administration, seventy-two percent (48 out of 66) of the sewage treatment facilities in the restoration program have not even entered the design phase for improvements.

• Increase Maryland’s match to the Chesapeake Bay Program water quality monitoring budget contingent upon complying with an independent reporting process, as called for by the GAO. Increased monitoring funding will support the hiring of research analysts, the procurement of water-borne towing equipment, and the installation of permanent buoy devices.

• Publicize how individuals can help protect the Bay every day. Too few people know that there are simple strategies that every Marylander can practice to help save the Bay. Leaving grass clippings on your lawn, planting trees and shrubs, and recycling toxic products such as used automotive oil are just a few of the easy steps citizens can take to do their part in helping improve the health of the Bay.

BayStat is modeled after the City of Baltimore’s successful CitiStat program, Martin O’Malley’s signature management initiative designed to utilize intensive performance measurement of all municipal agencies and achieve real time sharing of data to improve government accountability and efficiency. In 2004, CitiStat received the $100,000 Innovations in Government award sponsored by the Ash Institute for Democratic Governance and Innovation at Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School of Government from approximately 1,000 applicants. In 2005, CitiStat was named a recipient of the Government Finance Officers Association’s annual Excellence in Government Finance award.