HARRY HUGHES, Governor

3547

No. 18

(Senate Joint Resolution No. 35)

A Senate Joint Resolution concerning

Highway Deicing Salts and Chemicals - Effects on Chesapeake Bay

FOR the purpose of establishing a task force to study the effects
on the Chesapeake Bay of salts and other chemicals used to
deice highways.

WHEREAS, The Chesapeake Bay is a natural resource of
inestimable value to the State and the nation; and

WHEREAS, This State has acknowledged the great importance of
the Chesapeake Bay by taking measures to restore and protect the
Bay, its tributaries, and adjacent lands; and

WHEREAS, Salts and other chemicals used to deice highways
may have a detrimental effect on soils, vegetation, and surface
and groundwater supplies, thereby negating the positive efforts
made to clean up the Bay and to protect its delicate ecosystem;
and

WHEREAS, In order to truly protect the Chesapeake Bay, road
deicing chemicals with potentially serious negative impacts on
the Bay, must be carefully studied and weighed against the
alternatives; now, therefore, be it

RESOLVED BY THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF MARYLAND, That the
Legislative Policy Committee is requested to establish a task
force to study the effects on the Chesapeake Bay of salts and
other chemicals used to deice highways; and be it further

RESOLVED, That the task force be composed of:

(1)  2 members of the House of Delegates, appointed by
the Speaker of the House, and 2 members of the Senate of
Maryland, appointed by the President of the Senate; and

(2)  2 representatives of the Department of
Transportation, including a representative of the State Highway
Administration, appointed by the Secretary of Transportation; and

(3)  A representative from the Department of Natural
Resources appointed by the Secretary of Natural Resources, and a
representative of the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene
appointed by the Secretary of Health and Mental Hygiene; and be
it further

RESOLVED, That the task force designate its own Chairman;
and be it further