For the first time in two decades, a Pennsylvania governor will lead the Chesapeake Bay restoration effort.

Gov. Josh Shapiro , a Democrat, was unanimously elected as chair of the Chesapeake Executive Council during its annual meeting at the National Aquarium in Baltimore on Tuesday. The council is the primary policy and leadership body for restoring the Chesapeake Bay.

The council includes governors of all the watershed states, the mayor of Washington D.C., the federal Environmental Protection Agency Administrator, and the Chesapeake Bay Commission chair. Members represent the nine signatories on the 2014 Chesapeake Bay Watershed Agreement .

Shapiro will serve a one-year term. Then-Pa. Gov. Edward G. Rendell served as the chair for the majority of 2005.

At the meeting, the exe

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