States in the Chesapeake Bay watershed are approaching a 2025 deadline to complete a decades-long cleanup that has cost billions of dollars. But in recent years, some states, particularly Pennsylvania, have fallen behind. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has authority to enforce the cleanup, known as the Chesapeake Clean Water Blueprint , but under the Trump administration, EPA officials took a hands-off approach.

The new EPA regional administrator, Adam Ortiz, has struck a different tone. “I want to be really clear: we are going to turn a corner on the Chesapeake Bay, we are going to fulfill our role here at EPA, holding states accountable,” Ortiz said this week at a virtual meeting with Maryland lawmakers and environmentalists.

Under the Trump administration, the EPA official overseeing the bay cleanup, Dana Aunkst, said that the pollution limits set in the blueprint were not enforceable by the EPA, and that the 2025 pollution reduction goals were an “aspiration.”

“That is not the position of myself, that is not the position of the Biden-Harris administration,” said Ortiz. “Those goals are a commitment. They are an agreement.”

Ortiz was appointed to the EPA position in October; previously he was director of environmental departments in Montgomery County and Prince George’s County. Shortly after taking the new post, Ortiz sent a letter to Pennsylvania officials, warning that they needed to commit to their cleanup plans and fully fund those plans.

“If they don’t, we will take action,” Ortiz said at the meeting in Maryland.

Ortiz warned Pennsylvania officials that the EPA could consider options including increased federal oversight of permits, additional inspections by federal officials, and enforcement actions. In 2016, under President Obama, the EPA briefly withheld $2.9 million in grant funding from Pennsylvania because of the state’s lack of progress curbing pollution.

In 2020, D.C., Maryland, Virginia and Delaware filed suit against the EPA over its lack of enforcement. The Chesapeake Bay Foundation also filed suit.

Alison Prost, vice president of environmental protection and restoration with the CBF, welcomed the change in approach from federal officials.

“Unfortunately, we saw four years of rollbacks under the Trump administration,” says Prost, referring to the many clean air and water protections that were loosened during the Trump years. “We saw regulatory changes that only made the job harder for all of the states and the partnership to make it happen.”

Earlier this month, the CBF released a report showing that the largest bay polluters — Maryland, Virginia, and Pennsylvania — were all falling behind in certain areas of the cleanup. Pennsylvania, whose Susquehanna River is the bay’s largest tributary, is the farthest behind and is facing a $324.2 million funding shortfall for the cleanup.

In his remarks this week, Ortiz acknowledged the cleanup was falling behind.

“We may not get quite to our goals in 2025, but we will accelerate and I will use every power that I have in this role to make sure that all the states and municipalities are doing what we need to do, what we’ve committed to do.”