Kaine Touts Progress, Seeks Federal Help for More

Virginia's taxpayers paid more than $40,000 to make sure Mark Thompson's cows don't wade in the streams on his Loudoun County farm anymore.

And that's a healthy development for the Chesapeake Bay, which is why Gov. Timothy M. Kaine came calling yesterday.

Kaine (D) visited the 554-acre Corotoman Farm in Upperville to honor Thompson for adopting practices that protect the bay's watershed. Kaine also used the stop to showcase his environmental record as he tries to leverage his friendship with President Obama to engage the federal government more directly in the bay's rehabilitation.

With 10 months left in office, Kaine is highlighting his conservation efforts as he attempts to shape his legacy. He has committed more than $1 billion to the bay's restoration since entering office, his aides said.

Stepping carefully in pastures mined with cow patties, Kaine took in the farm's sweeping views of the Blue Ridge Mountains and wide buffers of unplanted land along a Potomac River tributary that's meant to keep livestock out of the water. Waste from cattle adds to the pollution that is sapping life from the bay.

Kaine told about 30 people that such programs have been critical. He said the administration would meet its goal of setting aside 400,000 acres of open space and committing money toward upgrading water treatment plants in the watershed. But the governor also acknowledged that the state has further to go in controlling pollution from more diffuse sources, such as in runoff from farms and development.

"I think he's done a very fine job of trying to move the cleanup along, but it's an exceedingly complicated task," said Carl W. Tobias, a law professor at the University of Richmond whose expertise includes environmental law and the study of the bay's blue crab.

Three of the most important factors affecting the bay, environmentalists say, are poorly managed farms, rampant development and fishing. Runoff from farms pours nitrogen and phosphorus into the bay, along with sediment. Residential and commercial development create roads, highways and parking lots with hard surfaces that wash pollutants directly into the water system. And some aquatic creatures, notably crabs and oysters, have been overfished.

Corotoman Farm has permanently protected 80 acres by placing the land under a conservation easement and has installed 9,735 feet of fencing since 2006 to keep livestock out of streams.

As an alternative source of water for the animals, the farm invested in gravity-fed spring water troughs in its fields. Patricia McIlvaine, an agronomist with the Loudoun County Soil and Water Conservation District, estimated that since 1999 the farm and the state have invested more than $54,000 in fencing and water troughs, with the state picking up 75 percent of the cost.

Kaine said environmentalists and farmers have backed the program, allowing him to dedicate more than $40 million for such efforts in the current budget despite having to make $6 billion in other cuts.

But environmentalists also have learned to treat upbeat predictions with skepticism. The Washington Post, citing documents and interviews with former government officials, reported last year that officials in charge of the Chesapeake Bay cleanup have overstated progress for years to keep the flow of federal dollars coming.

Kaine is pushing for renewed federal attention for the bay, and there are signs of that. The Environmental Protection Agency has appointed a federal bay czar: J. Charles "Chuck" Fox, an Annapolis resident who served as water chief in the EPA under President Bill Clinton and as Maryland's secretary of natural resources, returned to the EPA as senior adviser to EPA Administrator Lisa P. Jackson for the bay and the Anacostia River.

Kaine also wrote to Obama on Feb. 10, urging that he declare the bay a national treasure. And he called on the administration to find money to upgrade the District's Blue Plains wastewater treatment plant, which is the largest source of bay nutrient pollution.

"He's certainly going to try to get the attention of the Obama administration to make the cleanup of the Chesapeake Bay more important," said Chuck Epes, a spokesman for the Chesapeake Bay Foundation.