Nutrient Pollution

After 13 years of trying, the multistate effort to clean up the Chesapeake Bay will not meet its goal of reducing harmful nutrient runoff by 40 percent this year, and there are no signs that water quality has improved. But cleanup experts say the goals will be met by 2003, and the bay's health should get noticeably better soon after. Bay scientists are setting even more daunting goals for 2010. The new goals, to be set by the end of this year, can be met only if all the bay states reduce polluted runoff from every source - including farm fields and suburban back yards, sewage plants and automobile tailpipes.

A National Academy of Sciences report identifies nitrogen pollution, the environmental problem that Chesapeake Bay managers have been trying to control for more than a decade, as the most serious threat to coastal waters nationwide. The report by a dozen top marine scientists, made public yesterday, calls for a national strategy to reduce the flow of nitrogen and phosphorus into rivers, streams and bays. The overabundance of these two key nutrients is causing serious environmental damage all along the nation's coast, the report said.

"THIS WILL FORCE us to rethink how we grow or expand to question growth as a measure of prosperity. It raises the long term issue of limits to growth in all sectors. "Yet, if we do not accept this challenge, all of the gains that have been made in restoring the Bay will disappear " You seldom find such refreshing and challenging vision in government documents. But the above-referenced "Holding the Line on Nutrient Pollution," a report to the federal-state Chesapeake Bay Program, is a milestone.

WE HAVE BROKEN the 15 million population barrier in the Chesapeake Bay basin on our way to 18 million by 2020.Simultaneously, we are making great claims about -- and real progress toward -- cleaning up the bay. Our strongest commitment is to reduce the impact of nutrient pollution on the bay's living resources -- the crabs, fish and oysters, and the underwater grasses that provide critical habitat.We are committed to maintaining our progress in restoring the bay. However, will population growth and development, along with our consumptive lifestyles, halt and reverse our progress?

Maryland's U.S. senators and a congressman laud Gov. Parris N. Glendening in a new television commercial airing in Western Maryland and on the Eastern Shore, courtesy of the state's Democratic Party.What the ad says: Sen. Paul S. Sarbanes introduces Glendening as a decisive leader who moved to protect the Chesapeake Bay after last year's outbreak of a fish-killing microbe. Sen. Barbara A. Mikulski calls the Democratic governor "a fighter" who created the "toughest standards in the nation" for public schools, and Rep. Albert R. Wynn of Prince George's County says the state gained 150,000 jobs during Glendening's tenure.

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.

Spurred by last year's outbreaks of the toxic microbe Pfiesteria, General Assembly negotiators reached agreement yesterday on sweeping legislation intended to improve water quality in the Chesapeake Bay.While the bill has been scaled back from the administration's original proposal, the accord is considered an important victory for Gov. Parris N. Glendening. Environmentalists and farm interests said they could accept the compromise."This is a tremendous day for everyone who treasures the Chesapeake Bay," Glendening said.

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.

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.