AP News, June 11th, 2007
It's the same old, same old for the Chesapeake Bay this summer _ poor water quality and no prospects of likely recovery in key indicators of the bay's health.
The Chesapeake Bay Program released Monday a summer forecast that predicted a recurrence of low-oxygen zones in the middle portion of the Chesapeake, with some areas so low in oxygen most fish can't survive there.
The forecast also left little hope that bay grasses in the southern portion of the bay would recover from die-offs in recent years.
The report by the federal-state agency charged with monitoring bay restoration also predicted a "moderate-to-high" chance of a harmful algae bloom early this summer in the Potomac River, with the bloom stretching 10 miles to 20 miles. Algae blooms can cause beach closures or fish kills, such as the one seen last week in Baltimore's Inner Harbor.
"It's not looking like a particularly good summer for the Chesapeake Bay," said Bill Dennison, the scientist who led the CBP's forecast.
Most alarming in the forecast was little hope of preventing a summer low-oxygen zone, sometimes called a "dead zone." Low-oxygen zones are caused by pollutants such as nitrogen and phosphorus, and they cause fish to seek new waters, crowding areas of the Chesapeake with adequate oxygen. Critters that can't swim _ such as oysters _ simply die when oxygen levels fall too low.
Most of the low-oxygen zones were predicted to fall between Baltimore and the mouth of the Potomac River. Because low-oxygen zones have been present in the bay every year since 2002, the CBP forecast a "moderate" summer for the indicator.
The forecast brought a stern response from the nonprofit Chesapeake Bay Foundation, a non-governmental group that argues more needs to be done to clean up the bay.
"It is a real tragedy when a huge segment of the Chesapeake Bay is expected to be devoid of oxygen, and the government calls it moderate," said Roy Hoagland, the group's vice president for environmental protection and restoration.
"When the likelihood of harmful algal blooms that are potentially dangerous to humans is high, that's not moderate. And with bay grasses expected to remain in the worst shape that they have been in since 1989, it's not moderate, it's unacceptable."
Dennison agreed that bay restoration does not appear to be making acceptable progress.
"We aren't doing enough," Dennison said, "and it is a wake-up call."
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On the Net:
Read the forecast: http://www.eco-check.org/pdfs/2007forecastltr.pdf
Chesapeake Bay Program: http://www.chesapeakebay.net
Chesapeake Bay Foundation: http://www.cbf.org
