The Potomac Riverkeeper organization has backed away from one lawsuit in the fight to clean up the Chesapeake Bay.

The organization had been backing a small coalition of environmentalists threatening to sue U.S. EPA, which has a controversial cleanup plan for the bay. While Potomac Riverkeeper still contends that the agency's plan will end up polluting the bay, it backed out of the lawsuit when the Keith Campbell Foundation for the Environment threatened to stop funding the organization.

The foundation has provided Potomac with millions of dollars over the years.

"We do not have the resources to get involved with this particular lawsuit," said Ed Merrifield of Potomac Riverkeeper.

Potomac's withdrawal is just one piece of the puzzle as environmental groups challenge the American Farm Bureau Federation, EPA and each other over state proposals to reduce pollution in the Chesapeake Bay.

Backers of EPA's plan, which came after the agency approved state proposals to reduce pollution, believe it is the bay's last hope. And if the plan unravels, it could take 10 years to draft another plan, according to the Chesapeake Bay Foundation.

But other groups oppose the plan because of a controversial nutrient-trading program, which would allow farmers who exceed pollution-reduction goals to receive credits they could sell to corporations that failed to reach their own reduction goals. The opposition says the lax regulations would make it so that EPA would not know whether farmers have met pollution-reduction goals.

Environmental group Food and Water Justice worked with Earthjustice to draft the lawsuit.

"You expect this from industry; you don't expect it from your friends," said Food and Water Justice co-director Scott Edwards (Darryl Fears, Washington Post, April 29). -- JE