The Chesapeake Bay Foundation released a report Monday that estimates Virginia's economic loss because of pollution to be in the hundreds of millions of dollars, with the seafood industry taking the worst hits.
The report, released the same day Virginia and others were to submit bay cleanup plans to the Environmental Protection Agency, states that the value of the commonwealth's seafood harvest declined 30 percent between 1994 and 2004. Specifically, a plunge in blue crab numbers led to losses of $640 million in various sectors between 1998 and 2006.
Poor water quality led to losses for businesses related to oysters and rockfish as well.
Pollution is pollution, and residents, especially farmers, in the Northern Shenandoah Valley can help restore the bay by cleaning local streams and rivers and then stimulate the economy in the process, said Chuck Epes, the foundation's assistant director of media relations. He said too many people, including members of the Virginia Farm Bureau and Gov. Bob McDonnell, have focused on the costs farmers would have to absorb to clean up pollution and fears that it will put them out of business.
However, the cost of continuing to pollute the bay is many millions and is already draining the economy, as the report found, Epes said. Watermen, seafood packing houses and river outfitters are among those feeling the effects of "lousy" water quality, he said.
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