10
Chesapeake Bay Health Poor But Improving
Despite efforts by environmentalists, the Chesapeake Bay’s health remains poor, according to the latest report card issued annually by the federal-state program tasked with cleaning up the nation’s largest estuary.
The Chesapeake Bay Program this week released its Bay Barometer, which gave the bay an overall average health score of 45 percent out of 100 percent for 2009. On a positive note, the study said 64 percent of the bay’s overall restoration and protection goals have been met, a score that is six points higher than in 2008.
The Bay Barometer is a comprehensive study of the Chesapeake Bay and its watershed. CBP describes it as a science-based annual review of the progress of achieving Bay health goals and implementing the needed restoration measures. The entire report can be found here.
Although the report may seem disheartening considering all the efforts underway to clean up the bay, there were some positives. For example, the Bay Barometer says that in 2009, “The adult blue crab population increased to 223 million, its highest level since 1993.” It also states that, “Bay Program partners have implemented 62 percent of needed pollution reduction efforts, a 3 percent increase from 2008.”
It is clear that much more needs to be done to improve the health of the bay, but at least there have been slight improvements over the past year.
Beth McGee, a senior water quality specialist with the Chesapeake Bay Foundation, told The Daily Press that, “Overall, we still have a long way top go.”
10
Saving the Bay One Disposable Bag at a Time
Environmentally friendly shoppers face a dilemma when the grocery store clerk asks, “Paper or plastic?” Choose paper, and they’re cutting down trees. Choose plastic, and they’re clogging the landfills.
But Washington, D.C., has found a way to put those disposable bags to use in saving the Anacostia River, a tributary of the Chesapeake Bay.
Considering the city’s Department of the Environment found in a study that plastic bags make up 21 percent of trash in Anacostia – and 47 percent in its tributaries – that claim may seem impossible. How could the pesky pollutants ever help the river?
On Jan. 1, the District started charging a 5-cent bag tax on paper and plastic bags at stores that sell food or alcohol. The goal was not only to encourage the use of reusable bags but to protect and provide for the heavily polluted river that flows past Southeast Washington.
As a part of the D.C. Council’s Anacostia River Clean Up and Protection Act of 2009, the majority of the proceeds go to fund cleanup efforts. For each bag, 1-2 cents goes back to the businesses, while the rest is sent to the Anacostia River Clean Up and Protection Fund, according to the Washington Post. The D.C. Department of the Environment will use the fund, which also receives money from other sources such as a new commemorative license plate, to clean the river and its tributaries as well as to provide citizens with reusable bags.
In the month of January alone, the tax already made almost $150,000, the Washington Post reported this week. And it also has resulted in a significant drop in disposable bag use, benefiting the river from two directions.
Washington has found a creative way to turn a negative but largely unchallenged part of life into a positive force for the city, the Anacostia and the Chesapeake. And shoppers still debating “paper or plastic” can breathe a little easier knowing they can still help save the bay.
10
Meet Jim Perdue, Mr. Maryland Chicken
Photo by Jim Hofman
On March 11, Gov. Martin O’Malley presented Jim Perdue, the chairman and chief executive officer of Maryland-based Perdue Farms Inc., with the state’s 2010 Governor’s International Leadership Award, given annually to a corporate or industry leader that has helped drive Maryland to global recognition. O’Malley called Perdue “one of the great corporate citizens of our state.”
But how much do we know about Jim Perdue?
Some know him simply as the friendly face bantering on Perdue’s TV commercials. Some know him as businessman: He has continued to expand the company built by his father and grandfather to a multi-billion dollar corporation as it celebrates its 90th anniversary this year. Some know him as boss: Perdue Farms Inc. contracts many independent family farms in Maryland to raise chickens, especially along the Eastern Shore. Still others know him as controversial: Agriculture is the single largest source of pollution in the Chesapeake Bay, and many of Perdue’s farms are located in the heart of the bay’s watershed. So the nitrogen, phosphorous and other chemicals and metals from the chicken feces drain to the Chesapeake.
Did you know, though, that despite the bad reputation he receives from some Chesapeake Bay advocates, he received a Ph.D. in fisheries from the University of Washington and worked in aquaculture before coming to work for the family business in 1983? He even considered becoming a marine biologist.
While some of Perdue’s vocal critics might be surprised at that fact, there have been indications of his background. His company started a groundbreaking partnership with the Enviromental Protection Agency, the Clean Waters Environmental Initiative, to help contracted farmers comply with environmental regulations and nutrient management plans.
But how much has his past field of study impacted his views on the health of the Chesapeake Bay, and how much has it impacted his business practices?
10
Hoyer, Vilsack Listen to Md. Farmers
Rep. Steny Hoyer (D-Maryland) and United States Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack visited Southern Maryland last week to hear from area farmers.
The farmers voiced concerns on a wide range of issues, including environmental regulations, water quality and pricing of crops.
Farmers like Susie Hance-Wells provided input regarding federal regulations and the estate tax, according to Americanfarm.com. “Something has to be done, we are losing farms because of this,” Hance-Wells told Hoyer and Vilsack.
Vilsack assured farmers that the Chesapeake Bay is a crucial concern to the USDA and that it hopes to create updated policies for farming in regards to the bay.
Some farmers wished that Hoyer and Vilsack had allowed more time to listen to the farmers in attendance. Wilson Freeland said in an interview with Americanfarm.com, “There’s lots of stories to be told here. It’s worth his while to look over Maryland agriculture as a whole.” But overall, Freeland was impressed with Vilsack’s comments to the crowd.
“In the U.S. we are blessed because of the American farmer,” Vilsack said.
5
Corps to Test Slag Reefs in Severn
The Army Corps of Engineers has found a new way to create oyster beds, but its safety is coming into question.
The Corps obtained slag, a byproduct of steel manufacturing, and placed it in the Severn River, a tributary of the Chesapeake Bay, to stimulate oyster production last December. Slag is believed to have high levels of pollutants.
Environmentalists raised concerns about the dangers to the bay, and now federal agencies have agreed to regulate the use of slag, specifically testing the areas where slag has already been placed. Severn Riverkeeper Fred Kelly said in an interview with the Annapolis Capital that “we would have preferred they’d done the testing before they put the slag down in the Severn River.”
Claire O’Neill, a spokesperson for the Army Corps of Engineers, told the Capital that monitoring already was planned for the area containing the slag, but after meeting with environmentalists, “we’re going to change the protocols a little bit.”
Typically, baby oysters are grown on beds of old oyster shells, but there has been a shortage in available shells.
The Corps hopes to lay the first slat, or baby oysters, on the slag this summer. Harvesting will not be permitted on the reef.
5
Stormwater Regulations, What’s the Point?
When it rains it pours—or at least nitrogen and phosphorus do—into the streams that feed the Chesapeake.
Stormwater runoff is the fastest-growing source of pollution for the Chesapeake Bay. When land is developed, rich dirt and vegetation that once absorbed and filtered rainwater are covered up by turf grass and impervious surfaces. That means the roads, parking lots, driveways, sidewalks, roofs and cars, lawns and golf courses that we encounter on a daily basis all contribute to the problem.
Photo Credit: EPA
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) considers the nitrogen and phosphorus bearing sediment, debris and chemicals found in stormwater discharges to be a type of point source pollution.
At first consideration, this might seem counterintuitive, but in reality it is a simplified explanation of the entire problem. A point source pollutant is one that comes from a traceable, identifiable location like a pipe or ditch. When it rains in developed areas, excess water flows along curbs towards, or directly into drains and gutters. From there the water goes into nearby streams, which lead to the bay.
Although not all stormwater runoff is considered point-source pollution, most discharges are regulated as such under the National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES). Maryland, like most states, has the authority to implement the NPDES program and enforce its own stormwater regulations. Currently, the EPA has direct authority in just some states.
The NPDES permitting program covers Municipal Separate Storm Sewer Systems also known as MS4s (regulates the pipes and storm drains that are not part of sewage treatment plants and that carry stormwater to tributaries) as well as Construction and Industrial activities that have major impacts on waterways.
So the answer to the question, what’s the point of storm water regulations in effect today? Well, it’s quite simple really, to control the point-source pollutants.
5
Will Offshore Drilling Harm the Bay?
The Chesapeake Bay Foundation released a statement opposing President Barack Obama’s decision to allow offshore gas and oil drilling, suggesting that drilling off the coast of Virginia could endanger various species, including the blue crab.
The CBF considers this action a contradiction to the executive order signed last May, which reaffirmed the president’s commitment to restoring the Chesapeake Bay. In a blog post by Tom Pelton on CBF’s Bay Daily, Pelton says that drilling in the Atlantic has “long been banned by the federal government, and for good reasons.”
“America needs to break its addiction to oil,” he wrote on March 31, the day the president announced his new energy plan. ” And you don’t break an addiction by increasing your supply. To make an analogy, if America had an alcohol problem, you wouldn’t solve the problem by hunting around for liquor stores where you could buy more and cheaper vodka.”
On the Washington Post’s Planet Panel blog, Dr. Donald Boesch, president of the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science, explained the amount of oil off the Mid-Atlantic coast will supply the United States’ consumption needs for just a few weeks. Boesch, like many other scientists and experts, suggested the nation should cut its dependence on oil by seeking more efficient sources.
Pending the release of details about the offshore drilling plan, it is hard to fully assess the potential environmental impact. Yet clearly, there are tensions between preserving environmental resources and developing sustainable energy sources. It will be interesting to see how these tensions unfold and what drilling off the shore of Virginia will do to the already dire state of the bay.
4
Porous Pavement in the News
View Porous Pavement Across U.S. in a larger map
Porous pavement has been making headlines in some of the biggest news organizations on the country. Cities, states and residents have been experimenting with porous materials for a number of the benefits, including controlling stormwater, reducing highway noise and decreasing accidents caused by puddles and ice.
In the Chesapeake Bay watershed, the Washington Post has recognized the efforts of Virginia’s Department of Transportation in creating an experimental strip of pervious pavement stretching 1.7 miles of Route 234 in Northern Virginia.
The Post also released a story on the first Leadership in Energy and Design (LEED) certified residential home in the state of Virginia, when the Arlington house hit the market in June of last year. The home has a driveway made of porous pavement, and collects rainwater in barrels as it falls from a solar-paneled roof.
As the Philadelphia Inquirer wrote in February, Philadelphia’s Water Department will begin charging commercial customers for stormwater build-up, incentivizing the installation of retention basins, green roofs and, yes, porous pavement. By the time the plan is implemented, about 1,500 customers could see increases of $1,500 a month in their water bills if they don’t control their share of stormwater. The Inquirer also noted a few dozen customers could see their monthly water bill go up by more than $10,000 a month.
Hopewell, N.J., adopted new land-use ordinances in 2007 and, as the New York Times noted last October, the rain does not puddle on the pavement in Hopewell.
It’s not just an east coast thing either –the Los Angeles Times reported in February that the City of Los Angeles is considering a requirement for the capture and reuse of rainwater in new homes and large developments. Properties would have the capacity to infiltrate 100 percent of the water from a 3/4-inch rain storm, and failure would result in mitigation fees.
And just last week, Mercury News columnist Gary Richards explained in a Q & A how permeable pavement decreases the spray from rainfall that is thrown into the air by car tires.
4
Bay Cleanup Faces Another Challenge
Offshore drilling has been banned for years off the Atlantic Coast, but now that is going to change. Earlier this week President Obama announced that he will allow oil and gas drilling near Virginia and other southern states.
This new development could greatly impact the Chesapeake Bay and has raised concerns with environmental groups in the area. The Chesapeake Bay Foundation has come out in opposition of the move. In CBF’s Bay Daily, Tom Pelton wrote that, “Drilling would punch a huge hole in the Obama Administration’s Chesapeake Bay cleanup plan. And drilling would leave beautiful and fragile coastlines, such as those along Virginia Beach and Assateague Island, vulnerable to a future as black as oil.”
This move could undermine Obama’s promise to clean up the nation’s largest estuary. And the president of CBF, Will Baker, says that a spill from this new drilling “could destroy an entire year of newborn crabs, threatening the livelihoods of watermen and others.” With crab and oyster populations already at all-time lows, environmentalists fear the move to allow offshore drilling may be detrimental to their survival.
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