This May, environmentalists hailed two developments that finally seemed to bode well for the Chesapeake Bay.

The Environmental Protection Agency settled a lawsuit with activist and seafood groups to start enforcing bay-related pollution rules. Also, the Obama administration announced it would undertake a pollution survey of bay watersheds to identify and stem pollution.

Unfortunately, the positive moves are running into a brick wall, namely Gov. Robert F. McDonnell.

He and his secretary of natural resources, Doug Domenech are pushing back on Obama's moves to cut pollution from farms and rainwater runoff from residential subdivisions that scientists believe lead to oxygen depleted "dead zones" and too many chemicals that lead to algae blooms.

McDonnell wrote EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson recently that "the EPA's time and energy would be better spent in Virginia educating farmers on best practices and positive actions ... rather than expanding the scope of its regulatory authority through enforcement measures."

Domenech has said in media interviews that with the economy still sputtering, now is not the time to push new regs that could stymie housing construction and forest products.

Read more at The Washington Post website!