Pollution

Environmental groups filed suit in federal court Tuesday accusing an Eastern Shore chicken farm and poultry giant Perdue Farms with polluting waters that flow into the Chesapeake Bay. The Assateague Coastkeeper and Waterkeeper Alliance contend that harmful levels of bacteria and nutrient pollution are flowing from a drainage ditch on the farm into a branch of the Pocomoke River, a bay tributary. The suit, filed in U.S. District Court in Baltimore, comes two months after the environmental groups formally warned Hudson Farms in Berlin and Perdue that it would sue them for water pollution violations after spotting an uncovered pile of what the groups said appeared to be chicken manure draining into the ditch.

— Residents of Kent Island are never far from the water. That's what drew many of them to the largest island in the Chesapeake Bay, where they're close to boating, fishing and all nature's bounty. But for the mostly tidy cottages, bungalows and other homes built decades ago on the southern end of this low-lying island, there's just one problem. Far from the nearest sewer line, they all rely on septic systems to dispose of their waste. Four out of five homes here are pumping water-fouling nitrogen into the bay every time they flush, Queen Anne's County health officials estimate.

Maryland's environmental agency filed with federal regulators Thursday a draft of the most detailed Chesapeake Bay "pollution diet" plan to date. "The Watershed Implementation Plan is going to affect everybody," said Margaret Enloe, spokeswoman for the Chesapeake Bay Program, the restoration partnership of the Environmental Protection Agency, bay states and the District of Columbia. "There are so many benefits that can come out of it. " The draft represents the second part of a "three-phase planning process that extends to 2017," according to the Maryland Department of the Environment's filing, which was made available online, and breaks down the state's pollution-reduction tactics county by county.

State officials say Maryland needs tougher motor vehicle pollution standards than federal law requires in order to eliminate the smog that plagues the Baltimore and Washington areas every summer.The Evening Sun would like to know whether you favor tougher controls.To give your answer, call SUNDIAL at 783-1800 (or 268-7736 in Anne Arundel County). After you hear the greeting, you'll be asked to punch in a four-digit code on your Touch-Tone phone. The code is 4600. The results will be published tomorrow.

GEE, WHAT a surprise! The Environmental Protection Agency is dropping investigations of 50 power plants for past violations of the Clean Air Act because President Bush has weakened standards for the future. Sure, the Bush administration had said earlier that the new rules wouldn't affect enforcement actions already under way. But that assertion wasn't widely believed. Calling off the EPA dogs was a top priority of the energy lobby in its famously secret meetings with a simpatico Vice President Dick Cheney shortly after the administration took office.

Could pollution "trading" really shave billions of dollars from the costs of restoring the Chesapeake Bay?  Or would the long-running cleanup effort suffer at the hands of those looking to make a buck on it? A study presented Thursday to the Chesapeake Bay Commission suggests there could indeed be significant cost savings from letting polluters pay others to make less expensive reductions in bay-fouling nutrient pollution elsewhere.  RTI International, an economic consulting firm from Research Triangle Park NC, found that savings could range from 20 to 80 percent, depending on how trading is structured.

Toll Brothers, one of the nation's largest home-building companies, has agreed to pay $741,000 in penalties for allowing polluted runoff from construction sites in Maryland and 22 other states, the Environmental Protection Agency announced Wednesday. The Pennsylvania-based builder was accused of failing to stabilize disturbed soil or properly install and maintain runoff controls such as silt fences, swales and sediment ponds. Forty of the 370 building sites found in violation by EPA are in the Chesapeake Bay watershed, where officials say storm-water runoff is a significant and growing source of pollution.

Environmental advocates, stream restoration experts and local officials urged state lawmakers Tuesday to require all jurisdictions to charge property owners a fee to deal with the Chesapeake Bay's growing problem - pollution washing off lawns, driveways, buildings and parking lots. Members of the Senate Education, Health and Environmental Affairs Committee heard opposing views on legislation requiring a "storm-water remediation fee" for every city, county and town. Polluted runoff from urban and suburban lands is a significant and growing source of pollution fouling the Chesapeake Bay, advocates noted.

What a surprise to see an article praising Constellation Energy on the front page of The Sun this Saturday ("A new smokestack cleans Baltimore's air," Feb. 20). This is good news for the citizens of Baltimore as they will be breathing cleaner air than they have been in the past. It is amazing that the new technology has made the Brandon Shores Power Plant a virtual non-air polluter. The article also mentions a cost of $1.5 billion for the pollution abatement for this project and others for a utility that provides power for 1 million households.