Nutrient Pollution

Smart Growth can help state cut nutrient pollution The Sun's article about the Little Patuxent Water Reclamation Plant was wrong to state that "Smart Growth's success could add to nitrogen problems in the Chesapeake Bay" ("Control of growth vs. harm to environment," June 3). Maryland's sewage-treatment plants do face increased discharges because of population growth, but the Chesapeake Bay Foundation believes Smart Growth will play a critical role in solving, rather than exacerbating, the discharge problem.

Gov. Parris N. Glendening is reintroducing himself to Marylanders with a new, personalized television commercial that talks of his humble beginnings and his accomplishments in office.What the ad says: The 30-second spot that began running yesterday shows a different side of the pragmatic, professorial Democratic incumbent. Lt. Gov. Kathleen Kennedy Townsend introduces Glendening as a private man who "doesn't talk much about himself," who grew up in poverty and found "a lifeline" through education.

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.

WASHINGTON -- Most rivers that feed into the Chesapeake Bay are running clearer, but the bay overall is a long way from being restored to the natural vitality it once had, Maryland's congressional delegation learned yesterday.While water clarity, underwater grasses and some fish stocks have rebounded -- dramatically in the case of striped bass -- speakers at a Capitol Hill briefing said the bay remains ecologically degraded -- with oysters, shad and sturgeon still scarce and with troubling indications of subtle damage from low-level toxic pollution.

Despite making progress in restoring Chesapeake Bay, the multistate cleanup effort is falling short of its major goal of reducing the bay's nutrient pollution 40 percent by 2000.Preliminary projections presented yesterday at a bay cleanup meeting show that Maryland, Pennsylvania, Virginia and the District of Columbia appear likely to meet their goal of reducing phosphorus, one of two key nutrients fouling the Chesapeake.But unless the cleanup pace quickens dramatically, the projections show that current efforts to reduce the other nutrient, nitrogen, will fall 28 percent short of the goal set a decade ago.Officials have warned for some time that the cleanup campaign may not achieve the 40 percent reduction in nutrient pollution by the deadline, which is just 3 1/2 years away.

Rural legislators and agriculture industry representatives have tentatively agreed to a compromise under which they would accept mandatory controls on farm nutrient pollution, a powerful House committee chairman said yesterday.Del. Ronald A. Guns, a Cecil County Democrat and a leading advocate for farm interests, said the emerging compromise would give farmers more time to comply than under Gov. Parris N. Glendening's proposal for fighting outbreaks of toxic Pfiesteria in Maryland waters.

Nine in 10 residents of the Chesapeake region support the bay cleanup, and six of 10 want a stronger effort, a federally funded poll shows.The survey, released Thursday, also shows that the public tends to blame industry for the bay's woes, rather than farms and air pollution -- causes cited by many experts.Two-thirds of the 2,004 people interviewed ranked chemicals as more harmful to the Chesapeake than nutrients, even though nutrient pollution has been the principal target of the cleanup.

Here is a recipe, for an elegant poultry dish, from Kay and Sid Richardson of near Willards, Md. It goes nicely with a toast to the health of Chesapeake Bay:One part straw; one part dead, rotting chicken carcass; two parts chickenhouse litter (manure and sawdust), well mixed and aged a few weeks.Moisten with just a sprinkle of water, and build a 4-foot pile of the above ingredients in alternating layers.Let the pile cook for several weeks -- it will reach an internal temperature of 150 degrees -- and turn occasionally.