Comment submitted by D. Bowman

The EPA's efforts to help clean up the waterways on the Chesapeake Bay are a long time coming and a real need. Having grown up on the Bay and watching both water quality decline and the amount of crabs and fish in the Bay decline is not some grand statement, it's an observable and measurable fact. I've been involved in the Bay as a crabber, fisherman, assistant to a crab pickers when a kid, power boater and predominantly now, sail boater and I appreciate the place the Bay holds for both a production and harvest economy and its value for the recreational and tourism economies and I know that they are not independent from each other. A clean Bay would be a more productive Bay in terms of crab, fish and oyster harvests. Improving water quality and setting limits to harvests will allow the Bay to recover and grow. As it grows and cleans up, its real value as a regional economic driver will grow. And its intrinsic value to everyone that lives within its watershed areas will grow. The rescue of the Bay needs to be presented as a long term benefit to local economies and the health and welfare of citizens in the region. But this will not happen if left to local politics which have failed to produce anything more than studies, not results. I will only make one direct comment that might help the Bay. Ban the purchase of soil fertilizers by private citizens and the use of commercial fertilizers by services on privately owned land. Maybe make some concession for golf courses but require a significant reduction. The only group that should be allowed to use fertilizers are farmers and those need to have strict controls with monitoring of outflows. Thank you for reading this and good luck. I try and do my part locally to improve conditions, I hope more will come to see the value of doing so as well.