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Cityscape: More studies of bay's woes are just pork
By ERIC SMITH, Staff Writer
People who are concerned with cleaning up the bay have suspected for years that the Chesapeake Bay Program is just a big, sloppy boondoggle. Now those suspicions have been confirmed.
A recent report by the Government Accountability Office concludes that the program, which supposedly coordinates federal and state cleanup efforts, needs at least as much fixing as the bay itself.
According to the auditors, its goals are confused, its methods are questionable and its monitoring is erratic. Way too much money is being spent on doing way too little for the bay.
The GAO auditors are right, of course, but unfortunately for all the wrong reasons.
They blame the program for "downplaying" the deteriorated condition of the bay, for example, but in fact it often does just the opposite.
Hardly a month goes by without a mournful pronouncement by some branch of the program that the bay is sick, dying fast or already dead. Aquatic grasses are disappearing, shellfish are being poisoned, acid rain is falling and tons of toxic crud are polluting our waterways. The news is never good.
In a massive irony that only bureaucrats could concoct, the same GAO auditors who found so much fault in the Chesapeake Bay Program are also recommending in their report that more money needs to be thrown at it.
Yes, the investigators who suddenly discovered that $5.6 billion has been largely frittered away over the last decade now have the nerve to suggest that many additional billions of dollars must be frittered away to make things better.
The ironies don't stop there. GAO auditors criticize the program for not developing a "clear, realistic plan" to meet its bay restoration goals.
This sounds a lot like an endorsement of more plans and studies, and more plans and studies are exactly what the Bay program doesn't need. Much of the money piddled away in the last ten years went to reams of redundant analyses of why the bay was in trouble, what could be done about it and who should organize it.
At this point every person with a pulse knows pretty much where bay pollution comes from and how it can be reduced. No one needs to read (or pay for) yet another academic treatise on the finer points of particulates or pollution management minutia.
It's a good sign that federal auditors have finally gotten around to exposing the Bay Program for what it is - a pork program for environmental burteaucrats. It's not such a good sign that the auditors seem to favor filling up the pork barrel again.
------SAD, Isin't the word for this type of wasted time & money---Many are driven by these reports to put forth thier efforts to improve matters based on what they hear & read --I, for one try to keep up with the daily GLOOM & DOOM images that fill the papers & airwaves---Hopefully, SOME good will come of these programs, in the near future & the proper Leadership will prevail in getting the job done.
----It is aparent , that funds are not lacking, But getting what you paid for is!!---OH WELL------
[shy][shy][shy]
Cityscape: More studies of bay's woes are just pork
By ERIC SMITH, Staff Writer
People who are concerned with cleaning up the bay have suspected for years that the Chesapeake Bay Program is just a big, sloppy boondoggle. Now those suspicions have been confirmed.
A recent report by the Government Accountability Office concludes that the program, which supposedly coordinates federal and state cleanup efforts, needs at least as much fixing as the bay itself.
According to the auditors, its goals are confused, its methods are questionable and its monitoring is erratic. Way too much money is being spent on doing way too little for the bay.
The GAO auditors are right, of course, but unfortunately for all the wrong reasons.
They blame the program for "downplaying" the deteriorated condition of the bay, for example, but in fact it often does just the opposite.
Hardly a month goes by without a mournful pronouncement by some branch of the program that the bay is sick, dying fast or already dead. Aquatic grasses are disappearing, shellfish are being poisoned, acid rain is falling and tons of toxic crud are polluting our waterways. The news is never good.
In a massive irony that only bureaucrats could concoct, the same GAO auditors who found so much fault in the Chesapeake Bay Program are also recommending in their report that more money needs to be thrown at it.
Yes, the investigators who suddenly discovered that $5.6 billion has been largely frittered away over the last decade now have the nerve to suggest that many additional billions of dollars must be frittered away to make things better.
The ironies don't stop there. GAO auditors criticize the program for not developing a "clear, realistic plan" to meet its bay restoration goals.
This sounds a lot like an endorsement of more plans and studies, and more plans and studies are exactly what the Bay program doesn't need. Much of the money piddled away in the last ten years went to reams of redundant analyses of why the bay was in trouble, what could be done about it and who should organize it.
At this point every person with a pulse knows pretty much where bay pollution comes from and how it can be reduced. No one needs to read (or pay for) yet another academic treatise on the finer points of particulates or pollution management minutia.
It's a good sign that federal auditors have finally gotten around to exposing the Bay Program for what it is - a pork program for environmental burteaucrats. It's not such a good sign that the auditors seem to favor filling up the pork barrel again.
------SAD, Isin't the word for this type of wasted time & money---Many are driven by these reports to put forth thier efforts to improve matters based on what they hear & read --I, for one try to keep up with the daily GLOOM & DOOM images that fill the papers & airwaves---Hopefully, SOME good will come of these programs, in the near future & the proper Leadership will prevail in getting the job done.
----It is aparent , that funds are not lacking, But getting what you paid for is!!---OH WELL------
[shy][shy][shy]