AP News, December 3rd, 2007
The Chesapeake Bay's health is going from bad to worse, according to an environmental group that graded the bay's health a "D" for the ninth consecutive year.
The Chesapeake Bay Foundation gave the bay a failing grade for one of its most persistent pollutants — nitrogen — along with Fs for water clarity and dissolved oxygen.
"The health of the Chesapeake Bay is dangerously out of balance," the report from the foundation concludes Monday.
The troubles are many.
Underwater grasses, which are important because they provide habitat and filter pollutants from the water, continue to struggle to reach historical levels. The watershed is losing wetlands to erosion. Chemicals from myriad household products — anti-bacterial soap to face creams to birth control pills — end up in the water, making some fish unsafe to eat.
Even blue crabs, the hallmark catch of the Chesapeake, are suffering from overharvesting and loss of habitat.
"We must all voice our outrage so that those with the power to effect change — the governors and legislators at the state and federal levels — do more to implement the known solutions of reducing pollution," Foundation President Will Baker said in a statement.
The overall score was 28, down from last year's score of 29.
The only A score came for rockfish, or striped bass, which are near historic high levels, a rebound long considered the greatest success of Chesapeake restoration efforts. The foundation also praised Pennsylvania for planting more than 600 miles of forest buffers along waterways in 2006. The buffers help absorb pollutants that would otherwise run into the bay.
However, the news was mostly bad.
Bill Dennison, a scientist at the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science, did not help compile the foundation's report card but said it is in line with what he sees: nagging problems in the bay, with slower success than scientists would hope.
Especially discouraging was the fact that last summer's drought did not result in clearer water, Dennison said. Typically, drought leads to clearer water because there is less rainwater to wash pollutants down rivers and into the bay. Dennison said a drought earlier this decade led to clearer conditions than scientists had seen in years. But this year, the clarity wasn't there.
"This summer, in spite of the fact we had a drought, we still had poor conditions," Dennison said.
Dennison agreed with foundation scientists that the Chesapeake is unlikely to meet 2010 restoration goals agreed to by neighboring states and Washington, D.C.
"We've still got a long, long road ahead of us in terms of restoration," he said.
The Foundation called on Chesapeake-area leaders to take bolder steps to speed pollution curbs. Thursday, the governors of Virginia, Maryland and Pennsylvania, along with the Washington mayor and federal environmental authorities, are slated to meet for talks about the Chesapeake's health.
"We cannot let this honest though bleak snapshot of the Bay's current health discourage us from making a better, healthier future for the Bay," Maryland Gov. Martin O'Malley said in a statement Monday after seeing the report card.
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On the Net:
Chesapeake Bay Foundation: http://www.cbf.org
University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science: http://www.umces.edu
