Restore The Bay

IT WAS 1985, and Secretary of Natural Resources Torrey C. Brown was telling officials from across Maryland about a new program to restore the Chesapeake Bay. "You're going to need a lot of money to do all that," Robert J. DiPietro, the young mayor of Laurel, told Brown. And, tongue in cheek, DiPietro suggested that his colleagues "pass the hat." Brown returned to Gov. Harry Hughes' office that day with about $700 in his pockets. "I told [a Hughes aide], `We can't just put this in the general budget; it'll disappear,' " Brown says.

When the Chesapeake Bay restoration program began in earnest in 1983, with the signing of the first Chesapeake Bay Agreement, it was hailed as the beginning of a new era of interjurisdictional partnering to save a national treasure. And so it was. With the recognition that a "cooperative approach" was needed "to fully address the extent, complexity, and sources of pollutants entering the Bay," Pennsylvania Gov. Richard Thornburgh, Maryland Gov. Harry Hughes, Virginia Gov. Chuck Robb, D.C. Mayor Marion Barry and Environmental Protection Agency Administrator William Ruckelshaus created the Chesapeake Executive Council with a commitment to "assess and oversee implementation of coordinated plans to improve and protect the water quality and living resources of the Chesapeake Bay. " This unique partnership of federal, state and city governments, of Republican and Democratic leadership, grew to be recognized internationally as one of the most successful multijurisdictional restoration efforts in the world.

A group of environmental advocates and experts is warning that pesticide pollution from farm fields and households is contributing to the Chesapeake Bay's decline, and may well be linked to declines in frogs across the region and intersex fish seen in the Potomac River. In a report released Thursday, the group calls on federal, state and local governments to accelerate research into the threat of pesticide contamination to the bay and to step up efforts to reduce such pollution. "The thing that alarms us the most are the endocrine disruptors and the findings that have come out about intersex fish and frogs with reproductive problems," said Robert SanGeorge, director of the Pesticides and the Chesapeake Bay Watershed Project.

The Chesapeake Bay is 200 miles long and 35 miles wide at its widest point. It's the nation's largest estuary, and 17 million people live within its 64,000 square mile watershed, which includes six states and the District of Colombia. But unfortunately, over time the bay's ecosystem has deteriorated because of excess nitrogen, phosphorus, and sediment entering the water as a consequence of human practices. In December 2010, the EPA issued its final Chesapeake Bay Total Maximum Daily Limits — a historic and comprehensive "pollution diet" for the bay and its tributaries.

Worried that the recovery of Chesapeake Bay oysters may be faltering, Rep. Wayne T. Gilchrest convened a congressional hearing in Annapolis yesterday to review state and federal efforts to boost depleted shellfish stocks. Gilchrest, an Eastern Shore Republican and chairman of the House subcommittee on Fisheries, Conservation, Wildlife and Oceans, said he wants to ensure sufficient federal funding for the restoration effort while exploring whether more areas of the bay bottom should be set aside to shield oysters from commercial harvest.

A panel of Chesapeake Bay area legislators decided today to try drawing New York, Delaware and West Virginia into the bay cleanup.The Chesapeake Bay Commission, whose members are legislators from Maryland, Pennsylvania and Virginia, agreed at its meeting in Annapolis to invite officials from those neighboring states to the commission's next meeting in Harrisburg, Pa., in May.The commission's decision was prompted by a new study showing that New York, Delaware...

J. Charles Fox, secretary of Maryland's Department of Natural Resources, has taken a job with the Chesapeake Bay Foundation. Fox, who was appointed by Gov. Parris N. Glendening to lead the DNR in August last year, will join the foundation as a senior policy adviser next month. This will be Fox's second stint at the foundation, where he worked before joining Glendening's administration. His new responsibilities will include developing the foundation's federal affairs program and encouraging the business community to help restore the bay. He will coordinate with environmentalists and politicians in Virginia and Pennsylvania on the "Chesapeake 2000" agreement to clean up the bay. "The science is behind a game plan to save the bay," said William C. Baker, foundation president.

Severna Park directory to be distributed The Greater Severna Park Chamber of Commerce Business & Community Guide 2001-2002 has been published and will be distributed to homes and businesses in the Severna Park area. The publication, a product of Marcom Marketing and Communications, lists telephone numbers and information about community, recreational and educational events in Anne Arundel County. Contact information for county officials, clubs and organizations is included. Copies are available at the Severna Park Library, 45 McKinsey Road.

The Chesapeake Bay Trust has awarded 85 grants totaling $110,262 to community groups for projects to restore the bay and educate students about the bay's importance.The grants will be used for projects ranging from shoreline erosion control to the creation of oyster reefs.Recipients included schools in Anne Arundel and Baltimore counties and Baltimore City, Anne Arundel Rotary clubs, the Magothy River Association and the Baltimore County Recycling Partnership.The grants are designed to help community groups improve the health of the Chesapeake Bay, said Thomas L. Burden, executive director of the Chesapeake Bay Trust.

WHY, AFTER more than 30 years, has the nation's premier watershed restoration effort, a restoration program that has been hailed as a model for the nation, failed to restore the Chesapeake Bay? In the midst of the bay's highly esteemed restoration program, its oyster harvests have fallen to record lows, the crab population has been pushed to the point of collapse, nutrient pollution and low oxygen levels continue to plague it, unhealthy contaminants have been found in many of the bay's fish, and the bay and virtually every one of its tributaries have been listed by the Environmental Protection Agency as impaired bodies of water.

Annapolis intends to test a floating island in a local lagoon that, if successful, could help clean the water in the Chesapeake Bay, according to Mayor Ellen O. Moyer. Moyer also announced an eco-friendly renovation of a city parking lot and the creation of a private-public partnership to offer property owners tax-exempt, low- interest loans to install energy-efficient equipment. The floating island, which would absorb nutrients from the water, will be tested in a lagoon in Back Creek Nature Park.

A group of environmental advocates and experts is warning that pesticide pollution from farm fields and households is contributing to the Chesapeake Bay's decline, and may well be linked to declines in frogs across the region and intersex fish seen in the Potomac River. In a report released Thursday, the group calls on federal, state and local governments to accelerate research into the threat of pesticide contamination to the bay and to step up efforts to reduce such pollution. "The thing that alarms us the most are the endocrine disruptors and the findings that have come out about intersex fish and frogs with reproductive problems," said Robert SanGeorge, director of the Pesticides and the Chesapeake Bay Watershed Project.

The Chesapeake Bay Protection and Restoration executive order recently signed by President Barack Obama is the most assertive act a president has yet taken to protect and restore the bay. It is remarkable for another reason as well: It puts the conservation of landscapes and ecosystems on an equal footing with restoring water quality and recognizes the immense cultural and ecological value of the Chesapeake's landscapes. President Obama and Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar understand that we must conserve the watershed's intact ecosystems and restore others for the Chesapeake Bay to fully recover.

With scientists pointing to some bright spots and even a possible "tipping point" in the long-running struggle to restore the Chesapeake Bay, Gov. Martin O'Malley vowed Monday to more than double the pace of cleanup of Maryland's rivers feeding into the troubled estuary. On the eve of a meeting in Virginia of the bay region's leaders, O'Malley joined bay scientists aboard the state-owned research vessel Rachel Carson for a firsthand look at the Bush River off Aberdeen Proving Ground, one of a handful of places throughout the Chesapeake watershed where there are signs of recovery from decades of pollution and abuse.

The modern concept of property rights substantially contributes to the Chesapeake Bay's continued decline. At this point, tinkering around the edges of the issue with minor changes to laws and regulations will no longer be enough to save the bay. Only a societal decision to redefine an individual's rights regarding property can restore the bay and other critical ecosystems. Developers, industrialists, homeowners and farmers have long assumed that the core bundle of rights attached to a piece of property exists to benefit the property owners.

The top elected officials from the Chesapeake Bay region acknowledged yesterday what scientists and environmental advocates have been saying for years: They will not achieve their goals for cleaning up the bay by 2010. However, members of the Chesapeake Bay Executive Council -- which includes the governors of Maryland, Virginia and Pennsylvania, and the mayor of Washington -- said they will enact programs and policies by 2010 to reach the benchmarks for reducing pollutants such as nitrogen and phosphorus in the bay and its tributaries.

If Hollywood ever decides to do a remake of the movie Groundhog Day - the one where a TV newsman finds himself covering the same event day after day - and is looking for a scenario suitable for a never-ending time loop, it won't have to search any further than the repetitive calls for and ceremonial signings of pledges to save the Chesapeake Bay and its watershed. If such a movie were made, it would, unfortunately, not be a comedy like the original flick. It would be a farce. The latest request for a bay cleanup pledge comes from river-protection environmental groups representing five states and the District of Columbia.

THE BALTIMORE Sun's March 8 editorial, "Port treading water," did not convey the very serious economic and environmental implications of dumping two million cubic yards of dredge spoil a year in the middle of the Chesapeake Bay.The editorial refers to the deeper waters as the bay's "dead area." Ask any waterman who relies on this area to make a living and you'll see such a statement couldn't be farther from the truth.Roughly 50 percent of female blue crabs use waters deeper than 40 feet to migrate during the fall and winter to spawn at the mouth of the bay.Also, ask any sport fisherman who has been fishing in the deep waters and brought home a beautiful rockfish for a family meal and you'll see, once again, that your statement is way off the mark.

We know that the average water temperature of the Chesapeake Bay has increased by nearly 2 degrees Fahrenheit since 1960. If global warming continues unabated, it is likely to rise by an additional 5 or more degrees by the end of this century. We know that the bay's sea level has risen by a foot and a half since the 1930s. Climate science tells us that we should prepare for an additional 2 feet to 4 feet before the next century. We know that over the last four centuries, the bay has lost about 10 inhabited islands to erosion and a rising sea level.

Recent reports on the health of the Chesapeake Bay paint a dismal picture. An Environmental Protection Agency Chesapeake Bay Program report noted that water quality has shown little progress since 1985, and levels of nitrogen and phosphorus - the nutrient pollutants that are the focus of cleanup efforts - show no real long-term improvement. Evidence of these excessive nutrients showed up in recent large fish kills in Baltimore's harbor and in Annapolis' Weems Creek. Bay grasses, essential for crabs and fish, are far short of the goal of 185,000 acres set in 2000 by the Chesapeake Bay Agreement, which drives bay restoration.