Rural county officials are pointing to pollutant-laden sediment
behind the Conowingo Dam as the place efforts should be focused
to clean up the Chesapeake Bay. On that point, Environmental
Matters Committee Chairwoman Maggie L. McIntosh (D-Dist. 43) of
urban Baltimore and the leaders of Dorchester, Caroline, Cecil,
Kent, Frederick, Carroll and Allegany counties agree. But those
same rural officials are balking at expensive state mandates
that require local governments to develop watershed improvement
plans to reduce pollutants running into the Bay. “The counties
want to look at a different way to do the cleanup, starting with
the largest sources first,” said Charles “Chip” MacLeod, a
lawyer at Funk & Bolton in Chestertown, the firm retained by the
seven counties that have organized as the Clean Chesapeake
Coalition. Millions have been spent on measures that have done
little to improve the health of the Bay, and the costs being
passed down to the counties “are staggering and unaffordable,”
MacLeod said. Each c