Capital Gazette Communications

I have no particular aversion to cooperation. In fact, it's my preferred means of dealing with a situation if everyone at the table is operating in good faith.

The problem is, however, that in terms of taking the necessary steps to clean up the bay and its tributaries, by and large, the regulated community hasn't been. And in a world where there are no real consequences for non-compliance with the law, why would we expect them to?

Regulation is one of the most fundamentally political acts of government, and even in cases where good laws are on the books (and believe it or not, there are many good laws aimed at protecting the bay), it's fair to expect that lax enforcement, or no enforcement at all, will occur if the political will to deal with the inevitable blowback is missing.

To an extent, I think, because of their novelty and also because their "victim" is the public at large, environmental laws seem to muster vast quantities of indignation on the part of violators. As such, cracking down on critical area violators, polluting poultry operations or poorly maintained construction sites frequently results in a well-placed phone call to people in important places.

It probably only takes one or two instances of a mid-level bureaucrat and his subordinate inspectors having their legs cut out from under them by the political powers-that-be for the assembled government employees to get the message: "Find a way to resolve this nicely."

This, in practice, often translates into turning a blind eye to violations or deferring compliance indefinitely. Even in cases where political meddling doesn't exist, perpetually serving as the "enforcer" can be difficult, and it's important for government employees doing their job and carrying out the law to have the support of those in office.

If there was any evidence that the cooperative approach had worked, I would likely be more supportive of its application, but if there's anything we can take away from the last 30 years of dithering on the bay, it's that a voluntary, collaborative approach to enforcement has been a miserable failure.

We should be able to count on city and county governments to enforce these clean water laws on businesses, residences and themselves. If that breaks down, the Maryland Department of the Environment should step in to make sure these laws are enforced. In their absence, the "cop" of last resort is the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

My sense, through repeated conversations with each of these groups, is that none of these entities is particularly interested in having the buck stop with them. Each would instead prefer to have the agency above it issue the ferocious directives, so it can enjoy the solace of commiserating with the violators, aligned, at least at some unspoken level, against the "bad cop."

We've seen how that plays out. Right now, we need a lot fewer Barney Fifes and a lot more Dirty Harrys if we ever expect to see a clean bay.