Clean Water Act

More than a quarter-century ago, the governors of Maryland, Virginia and Pennsylvania, along with the administrator of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, agreed to a partnership to restore the Chesapeake Bay. Since then, the federal role in that partnership has been helpful but all too limited, with states left to do much of the heavy regulatory lifting on their own. That looks to be changing, and none too soon, given the Chesapeake Bay's compromised...

Environmental activists gathered on Federal Hill yesterday to celebrate Earth Day by accusing the Bush administration of weakening some of the most important environmental legislation enacted in the past 30 years. "The Bush administration should be listening to the public and not to the polluters," said Gigi Kellett, a spokeswoman for Maryland Public Interest Research Group, at a Baltimore news conference coordinated with similar gatherings around the country. Kellett and other environmental leaders said federal agencies under President Bush have quietly crafted regulations that effectively roll back key provisions of the Clean Air Act, the Clean Water Act and federal Superfund legislation, which was enacted to clean up toxic waste sites.

I have an article request for your writing team: the threat of water contamination, including to the Chesapeake Bay, resulting from the process of hydraulic fracturing used by natural gas companies, and their arrival to Maryland. Hydraulic fracturing is a process where natural gas companies drill 5,000-plus feet beneath the surface of the earth into shale deposits, or rocks that contain natural gas. In order to extract the gas, they use a mixture of sand, hundreds of thousands of gallons of fresh water, and toxic chemicals to break the gas away from the shale and bring it to the surface.

In an article about natural gas drilling ("Md. environment chief wants more U.S. oversight of fracking," April 13), The Sun's John Fritze reports that to "extract natural gas through fracking, companies use millions of gallons of liquids," but that explanation is inadequate. Anyone interested in information about fracking for gas extraction should watch the HBO documentary, "Gasland," or drive up to Bradford County, Penn. and see the devastating results of this process. Toxic chemicals are pumped into the ground with water and sand to force the gas up. Sixty-five of the chemicals used are considered dangerous to human health.

The American Farm Bureau recently filed a lawsuit against the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency challenging the agency's "pollution diet" for this 64,000-square-mile watershed. The response of some critics, including this publication's editorial board, might lead readers to believe that the Farm Bureau is opposing the cleanup of the Chesapeake Bay. Nothing could be further from the truth. Despite the rhetoric of critics, the Farm Bureau's lawsuit is not about whether to clean up the bay. Farmers remain committed to working to achieve clean water for the Chesapeake.

Maryland is failing to ride herd on water pollution in the state because of serious funding shortfalls and its own flawed enforcement practices, according to a Washington-based think tank. The Center for Progressive Reform contends in a new report that while Maryland has some of the nation's toughest environmental laws, its enforcement of water pollution is lagging. "They could do better," Robert L. Glicksman, the report's co-author and environmental law professor at George Washington University, said of state environmental officials.

Maryland is failing to ride herd on water pollution in the state because of serious funding shortfalls and its own flawed enforcement practices, according to a Washington-based think tank. The Center for Progressive Reform contends in a new report that while Maryland has some of the nation's toughest environmental laws, its enforcement of water pollution regulations is lagging. "They could do better," Robert L. Glicks- man, the report's co-author and environmental law professor at George Washington University, said of state environmental officials.

Make no mistake, the state Senate has done much more than express some idle curiosity about the University of Maryland's law clinics. Budget language approved by the Senate last week includes a not-so-subtle message: Be careful whom you let your law students represent. The tactics have all the charm of what Sen. Jim Brochin calls "something straight out of communist China." The University of Maryland School of Law is being ordered to produce a list of all the plaintiffs its students have represented over the past two years or lose $250,000 in funding.

Weeks after the weird June 29 windstorm that swept the Mid-Atlantic, I can't shake the feeling of being in an episode of "The Twilight Zone," the 1960s TV series that warned of living selfishly. A dash of Rod Serling spiking a large dollop of Catholic guilt. With a mighty crack, a piece of the giant maple that has reigned in my front yard since Abe Lincoln lived in a log cabin nearly crushed my house during the derecho. Meanwhile, the rest of the country looked like it was burning up. In fact, the whole abused planet seems in desperate need of relief.

The Ehrlich administration has proposed pollution limits for Baltimore's harbor that are weaker than the state suggested in 2003, triggering complaints from some environmental groups. Complying with a requirement of the federal Clean Water Act, the Maryland Department of the Environment proposed limits last month for nitrogen and other nutrient pollution running into the harbor from sewage treatment plants, industries and stormwater drains. Nitrogen pollution from sewage and other sources causes algae blooms and low-oxygen "dead zones" that kill marine life.