The handoff was as much symbolic as literal.

When Maryland Gov. Wes Moore passed a wooden gavel to Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro at a meeting Tuesday in Baltimore, it marked the start of a new, more prominent role for the Keystone State in the campaign to restore the Chesapeake Bay.

For many in the room, this succession signified Pennsylvania’s increasing importance to the effort, as attention has shifted from Maryland’s big waters to stubborn pollution sources farther upstream.

Shapiro and Moore sat beside one another at Baltimore’s National Aquarium to ratify a new agreement pledging continued support from states across the bay’s watershed to this restoration — the fifth such pact since 1983.

Their signatures usher in a new era. The agreement will act as a roadmap for the next 15 years of the cleanup, and it comes after the “Save the Bay” movement got a dose of reality in the last decade.

The four decade-old restoration effort missed key water pollution goals this year, prompting the states and federal government to revise targets outlined in their 2014 agreement. The effort also faces political headwinds from the Trump administration, while some advocates have expressed disappointment with the reduced ambitions in the new agreement.

After two years with Moore chairing the bay program’s executive council, Shapiro’s leadership holds weighty significance. Long blamed for the bay’s pollution woes, Pennsylvania and its thousands of small farms send nutrient-rich fertilizer and manure pollution into waterways that eventually empty into the bay. Those nutrients fuel oxygen-depleted dead zones and stifle underwater life.

“I think for a long time, Pennsylvania took a back seat when it came to cleaning up the Chesapeake Bay,” Shapiro told the audience Tuesday. “Now we are helping lead that discussion.”

Even as some bay advocates worry about the future of their movement, Tuesday’s gathering drew plenty of prominent names.

Heads of states from across the bay watershed huddled almost shoulder to shoulder. Next to Moore and Shapiro sat Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin and Delaware Gov. Matt Meyer, District of Columbia Mayor Muriel Bowser, along with representatives from New York, West Virginia and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

Over the course of the executive council meeting, leaders touted steps their jurisdictions have taken to stem the tide of pollution running into the bay.

Bowser pointed to D.C.’s expensive tunnel project to protect the Potomac River from sewage, along with major strides in eliminating sewage overflows into the Anacostia River. Youngkin touted oyster resurgence in Virginia and his state’s incentives for better farming practices. Moore pointed to restored wetlands and millions of trees planted in the watershed.

In the last decade, Pennsylvania has started playing catch-up to its watershed peers. Among a raft of policies implemented in recent years, the state is pursuing an aggressive campaign to clear tributaries off the EPA’s list of impaired waterways and now commits tens of millions of dollars a year to support conservation practices on its farms.

Hanging over bay restoration efforts has been President Donald Trump’s efforts to cut environmental funding across the federal government, though his new administration hasn’t reprised prior attempts to defund the Bay Program.

“When the federal government lets us down, we must step up as state and local governments to protect our people,” Delaware’s Meyer said. “And we must unite together to demand that the federal government holds onto its responsibility.”

Meyer was seated a few places down from EPA Deputy Administrator David Fotouhi, who said the Trump administration is “fully committed” to the Chesapeake’s restoration and that his agency would provide states with the support and data they need for the clean-up.

This pledge was encouraging to Kristin Reilly, director of the Choose Clean Water Coalition, who also sees Shapiro’s new position helming the executive council as an important signifier of the state’s commitment to restoring the watershed.

Reilly sees promise in new Pennsylvania initiatives like its cost-share program that pays farmers to use practices that stem runoff from their land. She also noted that states like Maryland and Virginia have had these kinds of agricultural incentive programs in place for years, and she wants to see more money devoted to the approach in Pennsylvania.

A spokesperson from Shapiro’s office did not immediately respond to a question Tuesday about future appropriations for the state’s program.

Still, the problems in Pennsylvania, whose Susquehanna River provides half of the Chesapeake’s fresh water, are big. Nearly 29,000 miles — or over a third — of the state’s streams remain impaired, according to the latest data from the state’s Department of Environmental Protection, an increase over assessments from 2022.

Hilary Harp Falk, president of the nonprofit Chesapeake Bay Foundation, has long pushed for stronger water protections in Pennsylvania. Just five years ago, her organization sued the EPA over its enforcement in the Pennsylvania watershed, but she said she’s been encouraged to see more innovative work coming out of Maryland’s northern neighbor.

“Maryland and Virginia are watching Pennsylvania right now,” said Falk. “We need that to continue. Pennsylvania still has a long way to go.”