Water Quality

Maryland is fortunate to have many beautiful parks, rivers and streams, breathtaking views, delicious fish and shellfish and enjoyable recreational opportunities, from our nation's largest estuary to the snow-capped mountains in Western Maryland. Throughout our history, we have not done enough to protect these treasures and the water that links them, allowing them to deteriorate and their ecosystems to suffer. Under Gov.Martin O'Malley's leadership, though, things have started to turn around.

In their quest to cure Baltimore's ailing harbor, advocates and authorities have tried one gadget after another: floating wetlands, a solar-powered aerator, even a trash wheel. Add now the "algal turf scrubber," a long wooden sluiceway in which harbor water is pumped over a bed of slimy green algae. The ecological restoration firm Biohabitats and the Living Classrooms Foundation invited news media to see the contraption set up on a former chromium plant site in Fells Point. The gutter, 350 feet long by one foot wide, uses native algae to strip nutrients, suspended sediment and carbon from water and inject oxygen into it before returning it to the harbor.

In their quest to cure Baltimore's ailing harbor, advocates and authorities have tried one gadget after another: floating wetlands, a solar-powered aerator, even a trash wheel. Add now the "algal turf scrubber," a long wooden sluiceway through which harbor water is pumped over a bed of slimy green algae. The gutter, 350 feet long by a foot wide, uses native algae to strip nutrients, suspended sediment and carbon from water and inject oxygen into it before returning it to the harbor.

Baltimore's Inner Harbor is about to dramatically enlarge one of its newest attractions — one meant to draw crabs and fish as well as tourists. For weeks now, teams of young and adult volunteers have been assembling what promoters say will be Maryland's largest floating wetland, to be anchored along the bulkhead off the World Trade Center. It's a 10-fold enlargement of a tiny, checkerboard array of grassy floats tethered by the trade center tower since summer 2010. Those initial wetlands, plus one launched at the same time by the National Aquarium, marked the mostly symbolic beginning of an ambitious campaign to clean up Baltimore's degraded harbor and make it swimmable and fishable by the end of the decade.

Unfavorable weather conditions last year worsened water quality in the West and Rhode rivers south of Annapolis, according to the environmental group working to restore them. The two Chesapeake Bay tributaries earned a 'D' grade overall on the West & Rhode Riverkeeper 's annual report card on their health, a drop from 2010 that the group attributed to a wet spring and hot summer worsening water quality conditions. Although there were no major fish kills reported last year, the report card notes, weather conspired to make conditions worse for crabs and fish, increasing nutrient pollution and algae while lowering dissolved oxygen levels in the water.  Heavier spring rains wash more fertilizer and other nutrients off the land, while hot temperatures help drive down dissolved oxygen levels in the water, stressing fish.

Environmentalists came to Annapolis dressed in waders, life jackets and even a shark costume to rally for a package of bills moving through the House and Senate that would protect water quality. "There is nothing more important than clean water," said Del. Tom Hucker, a Montgomery County Democrat who pushed legislation in the House for a storm water fee. "We are on the finish line. " This year environmentalists had four legislative goals: Mandate that counties create storm water fees to fund retrofitting impermeable surfaces like paved parking lots, curb sprawl and reduce nitrogen in the Chesapeake Bay by limiting septic systems, increase to the flush tax to fund waste water plant upgrades, and tighten the rules for the types of septic systems allowed.

Parts of three waterways have been opened to shellfish harvesting after tests showed declines in bacteria there, the Maryland Department of the Environment announced Monday. An area of the Wicomico River on the Eastern Shore, at the border between Wicomico and Somerset counties, is now approved for commercial harvests. Waters below Bay Point had been closed because of high bacteria levels in the water. The headwaters of Broad Creek in Talbot County have been conditionally approved, meaning that oysters and clams can be harvested there except after a heavy rainfall.

PlanMaryland would allow state officials to dictate land-use decisions On Nov. 9, a new centralized planning strategy was presented to Gov. Martin O'Malley by the Maryland Department of Planning. Its title is PlanMaryland, and its impact on our local neighborhoods, municipalities and counties will be quite large. However, most Marylanders know very little about this plan, or its goals. PlanMaryland is based on the Land Use Act of 1974 which, as interpreted, allows for the Department of Planning to implement far-reaching controls on planning and development without having to go through the General Assembly for approval.

The latest study on the health of the Chesapeake Bay has some encouraging news - offering signs that years of pollution-fighting efforts are having a positive effect. Now, it remains to be seen whether Congress is paying attention and can refrain from pulling the proverbial rug out from under the bay's cleanup campaign. First the good news. A new study released by Johns Hopkins University and the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science has found that efforts by Maryland and other states to reduce the flow of fertilizer, animal waste and other pollutants into the Chesapeake Bay has had a positive effect on the oxygen-deprived "dead zones" of the bay. The largest such dead zone - near the Chesapeake's deep water channel - appears to have peaked in the 1980s and declined ever since, according to the study published this month.

Bicyclists have been riding at Loch Raven Reservoir for more than 20 years while the water quality at the reservoir has consistently improved. Although the existing trails used by hikers, fishermen, cyclists and equestrians do not conform to the outdated "approved" trail system, they have evolved without detriment to the water quality. The cycling community is asking for a comprehensive review of the trail system in order produce a state-of-the art, sustainable trail system that can accommodate all. My organization, MORE (Mid-Atlantic Off-Road Enthusiasts)