Nutrient Pollution

IN AN ODD WAY, the Pfiesteria piscicida organism has done us a favor by drawing attention to the fragile health of the Chesapeake Bay. Pfiesteria alerted us to the need to curb nutrient pollution -- phosphorus and nitrogen -- caused by failing septic systems and treatment plants, lawn fertilization and, most notably, agriculture.Last summer, nutrient pollution helped trigger toxic behavior in Pfiesteria, a naturally occurring microbe. That's why Gov. Parris N. Glendening's much-needed $41.5 million plan targets such runoffs.

State environmental officials sued Perdue Farms Inc. yesterday, accusing the huge Eastern Shore poultry producer of polluting a creek that empties into one of Maryland's fragile coastal bays.The Maryland Department of the Environment filed a lawsuit in Baltimore Circuit Court alleging that the former Showell Farms poultry processing plant has repeatedly discharged excessive pollutants over the past year into a tributary of Church Branch in Worcester County.Church Branch feeds into the St. Martin River and into Isle of Wight Bay near Ocean City.

The underwater grasses that sustain fish and crabs in the Chesapeake Bay expanded by 6 percent last year, reversing a two-year decline in one of the key indicators of the bay's health.The 3,500-acre growth of bay grasses, reported yesterday by the Environmental Protection Agency's bay program office, was a welcome surprise because it occurred despite storms that flooded the Chesapeake with record flows of fresh water.Biologists had blamed spring flooding in 1994 and 1995 for declines in underwater grasses during those years.

After being sued by environmental activists, federal and state officials yesterday announced a new get-tough policy for sewage treatment plants that don't meet pollution limits meant to protect the Chesapeake Bay. Plants that spew unhealthy levels of nitrogen and phosphorus, which feed algae blooms and create low-oxygen "dead zones," will be fined up to $32,500 per day per violation, said Robert Summers, director of water management at the Maryland Department...

Residents concerned with the demise of Anne Arundel County's rivers should look no further than themselves for solutions, state officials said last night.The rivers -- Magothy, Severn, South, Rhode, West and Herring Bay -- are severely "stressed" by the effects of clearing forests and land development, said Nick Carter of the state Department of Natural Resources.Before the forests were cleared, trees and other vegetation would absorb the nutrients. But now, the nutrients wash off hard and paved surfaces into those waterways and eventually the Chesapeake Bay, he said.

New state plans for restoring the Chesapeake Bay call for a crackdown on runoff from development, much greater voluntary efforts to curb farm pollution and costly upgrades of dozens of sewage treatment plants in Maryland.The plans, prepared during the past year with local officials, farmers and citizens, provide a map for restoring the bay by cleaning up the rivers and streams that feed it."Now we've got to roll up our sleeves and see how we can accomplish each of these targets," said Robert Magnien, chief of Chesapeake Bay projects for the Maryland Department of the Environment.

ANNAPOLIS -- The governors of Maryland, Pennsylvania and Virginia and the mayor of Washington, D.C., yesterday renewed their pledge to restore the Chesapeake Bay and vowed to extend their efforts to cleaning up the rivers that feed into the bay.But they brushed off criticism from environmentalists that they need to do more to combat toxic chemicals and farm pollution getting into the water."

The effort to restore the Chesapeake Bay will expand to include cleaning up the bay's rivers and restoring its underwater grasses when region officials meet Wednesday in Annapolis.Officials from Maryland, Pennsylvania, Virginia, the District of Columbia and the federal government plan to sign a seven-point agreement that calls for restoring water quality in the bay's 10 major tributaries, where most of the estuary's fish feed and spawn. A draft of the agreement was obtained by The Sun.Officials also will pledge to restore the bay's underwater grasses, vital fish habitat which have been slowly returning since they all but vanished in the early 1980s.

The gubernatorial commission looking into toxic outbreaks of Pfiesteria in the Chesapeake Bay watershed chose pragmatism over political confrontation yesterday as it backed away from imposing controls on the Eastern Shore's chicken industry.In a sometimes rancorous session, the panel refused to recommend a moratorium on building any new chicken houses on the Shore and moved toward keeping farmers' participation in pollution-control plans voluntary.On a 6-2 voice vote, the commission rejected the moratorium proposal, along with the arguments of Sen. Brian E. Frosh, a Montgomery County Democrat, that too many chickens are producing too much manure for the soils of the Eastern Shore to absorb.

Two Washington-based environmental groups filed suit Wednesday to block pollution trading in the Chesapeake Bay, contending the market-based cleanup program violates the federal Clean Water Act and will undermine rather than help efforts to restore the ailing estuary. Food & Water Watch and Friends of the Earth contend in the joint filing that the Environmental Protection Agency acted unlawfully in authorizing Maryland and other bay watershed states to set up programs for buying and selling nutrient "credits" as part of the "pollution diet" that the federal agency has imposed for restoring the Chesapeake's water quality.