Water Quality

Monitoring of water quality to end week of Aug. 30The Anne Arundel County Department of Health will end its summer water-quality monitoring program for fecal coliform bacteria the week of Aug. 30.The water-quality phone line at 410-222-7999, installed for access to the results, will remain in operation through Sept. 6.The program and phone line will be activated again next year during the Memorial Day weekend.Information: www.health.co. anne-arundel.md.us.

NEWS THIS WEEK from north and south of us: encouraging signs of an environmental turnaround in Virginia; and in Pennsylvania, bringing "ecosystem management" to a mammoth forest coveted by loggers and deer.It is a pleasure to write of good environmental news out of Virginia, where Gov. George F. Allen's administration has spent the last few years welshing on Chesapeake Bay commitments.Before the legislature adjourned last month, it passed two bills called "historic" in importance by the Chesapeake Bay Foundation's Richmond, Va., office.

Saving streams protects legacy for our children Forty years ago, children swam safely in Herring Run, a small tributary that flows through Baltimore County and northeast Baltimore City. Now it is contaminated from sewage leaking from our aging sewer system, trash dropped and swept into storm drains, nutrient pollution from fertilizers and pollutants surging into the stream with every storm. Yet the stream remains a beautiful place that gives urban children a small sense of the wild. And it can become better.

When I was 7, I wanted a creek for Christmas. I could picture it cracking through our old, dry neighborhood, splashing noisily between boulders and rhododendrons, ushering up sweet airs of minerals, roots and the creeks we camped beside in the national forest. Water attracted me more than dolls or games, perhaps because it was alive - enchanted and changing. Cool cow-pasture ponds in July. Jewels of winter hoarfrost popping out of brittle mud. Blizzards. Rain puddles. Sycamore-vapored rivers.

When citizens want to change how the government protects the environment, they generally work toward changing legislation, regulations or government leaders. Rarely do people think about judges. But they should. Maryland's judges are thoughtful people whose primary experience is with criminal and business law. But they are often unaware or insufficiently educated about the environment and the laws meant to protect it. Too often, these judges do not have a fundamental understanding of the complexity and importance of our natural resources, and some view environmental offenses as minor compared with other crimes and violations.

Maryland General Hospital has shut off its hot water after routine tests showed low levels of Legionella bacteria in the water system. The bacteria, which can cause Legionnaires' disease, were detected Tuesday night during quarterly testing of water quality, said Monica Smith, a hospital spokeswoman. None of the 230-bed hospital's operations has been shut down or curtailed as a result of the problem, she said. Patients are being admitted, and no patients or staff members have shown signs of the disease, she said.

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.

ST. MICHAELS -- Sidney Dickson is sprawled on his belly, hanging over the deck of his neighbor's 26-foot pontoon boat and dipping a computerized, hand-held meter into the flat-as-slate, greenish-gray water of Broad Creek.As he calls out readings measuring everything from pH and salinity levels to water temperature, the boat's owner, Robert Porter, scribbles the data in a logbook the two friends began compiling two months ago.It is a routine that the Chesapeake Bay Foundation hopes will be repeated some day by a small army of volunteers who will paint a detailed portrait of water quality throughout the bay watershed's labyrinth of creeks and rivers.

OPERATION SMILE IS the catchy title of a two-year international service program under way by the Greater Federation of Women's Clubs, and our local branch of the organization, Women's Club of Hampstead, has begun a contribution to the program.Operation Smile will offer support to needy people worldwide who require reconstructive facial surgery.The women were introduced to the personal and emotional factors linked to facial disfigurement by viewing a videotape provided by James McAveney on Nov. 4.Under the leadership of club member Dorothy Martin, the Hampstead women plan to provide 75 soft dolls to be given to international patients as they arrive for surgery at hospitals.

The outcome of a proposal for Manchester to annex the Black Farm may depend on the quality and quantity of water found on the 157-acre tract, town officials say.The need for drinkable water is always a concern for the town. Springs provide much of its drinking water, and the costly process of drilling wells often fails to find an adequate supply.The town charter requires that developers guarantee new water at the rate of 500 gallons a day for each housing unit, said Philip Arbaugh, the town manager.

The Obama administration unveiled a new strategy Monday for restoring the Chesapeake Bay that calls for stiffer controls on farm and urban runoff, but Republicans in Washington criticized legislation that would give the federal government more regulatory authority to clamp down on pollution in the nation's largest estuary. Acting in response to a presidential executive order declaring the bay "a national treasure," federal environmental agencies proposed a sweeping plan to re-energize the lagging restoration effort with more water quality regulations, financial and technical aid for farmers and plans to promote more voluntary cleanup efforts with creation of a "conservation corps."

Concerned residents have recently cleared the Back River and its tributaries of more than 10 tons of debris and are urging officials to address continuing problems with trash flowing into the eastern Baltimore County creeks. The same group, striving to clean up the waterway's image, has adopted a new slogan - "Scenic Back River -- Discover the Hidden Treasure." While that caption will soon appear on nearby bridges and roadways, group members say the waterway still needs much polishing before it achieves gem status.

Maryland was handed nearly $122 million Tuesday from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to fund drinking water projects and improve water quality as part of the federal government's latest round of stimulus spending. The stimulus effort, called the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, was advanced by President Barack Obama to jump-start the economy by improving the nation's infrastructure and creating and saving jobs. The money has begun steadily flowing to states through a variety of programs that are expected to improve roads and schools, as well as waterways and other programs.

Despite a coordinated, 25-year effort, the Chesapeake Bay is dying - plagued by massive dead zones, declining fisheries and water choked by bacteria and algae. Fortunately, there is still time to save it, if some basic tenets are followed: Good science must drive a "systems approach" to management that incorporates rigorous law enforcement and consequences for inaction. First, the science. Forty years of intense scientific investigation by leading estuarine scientists have documented precisely why the Chesapeake is degraded and how to fix it. From the molecular to the macro, we know how this marvel of nature works - or doesn't.

In rare good news for the Chesapeake Bay, scientists reported Wednesday that underwater grasses made significant gains last year in the beleaguered estuary, growing thickly enough in the upper bay to visibly clear the water while continuing to rebound in the lower bay. Aerial surveys found that the grasses had spread across nearly 12,000 additional acres of bottom last year, an increase of 18 percent from 2007, according to the Chesapeake Bay Program, the...

The Chesapeake Bay is in poor health and didn't get any better last year, according to the chief government program charged with restoring it. In an unusually frank status report, the Environmental Protection Agency's Chesapeake Bay Program concluded that the estuary "continues to have poor water quality, degraded habitats and low populations of many species of fish and shellfish." Despite some "small successes," the agency gave the bay's health a grade of 38 percent, with 100 percent representing a fully restored ecosystem.

The stimulus package President Barack Obama signed Tuesday contains tens of billions of dollars to repair and expand the nation's "infrastructure" - its networks of highways, bridges, rail and power lines. Renewing the transportation infrastructure alone will provide some $800 million in Maryland, $800 million in Virginia and $897 million in Pennsylvania. But what about the equally vital green infrastructure: the trees that shade city streets, the forests that sop up air and water pollution and trap climate-changing carbon dioxide?

Woman, 2 students fight with schools police officer A woman and two students - one of whom is the woman's son - had an altercation with a school police officer yesterday at Maritime Industries Academy in West Baltimore, according to city schools officials. The incident occurred shortly before 1 p.m. at the school, which is in a strip mall on North Avenue, according to schools spokeswoman Edie House. The officer suffered minor bruising to his hand, House said. Both students were taken to the Department of Juvenile Services, while the mother was taken to Central Booking and Intake Center, House said.

WASHINGTON - Calling the Chesapeake Bay a national treasure, lawmakers in Washington expressed dismay yesterday that 2010 cleanup goals for the country's largest estuary would not be met. "We have been paddling backwards," said Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton, a District of Columbia Democrat. "One can only express profound disappointment that whatever plans we have, have benefited the bay so little." Representatives of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, along with bay advocates, the University of Maryland and others, told a House subcommittee about the slow progress toward goals set by the federal government and bay watershed states, including Maryland.

Agency honors green workers The Maryland Automobile Insurance Fund today will host "One Year Green," a celebration of MAIF's environmental achievements. MAIF employees who have demonstrated a commitment to making eco-friendly solutions routine in their daily operations will be honored with a "Green Thumb" award, and MAIF's Earth Day pledge tree will be dedicated on the grounds of MAIF's headquarters in Annapolis. "MAIF is committed to working toward a more environmentally friendly business model," said M. Kent Krabbe, executive director for MAIF.