Bay cleanup effort gets D on annual report card
Bay health still dismal, says annual Chesapeake Bay Foundation report
Date published: 12/4/2007
By RUSTY DENNEN
It's been a bad year for the Chesapeake Bay, especially blue crabs, water quality, and the amount of harmful nutrients flowing in from tributaries.
That's according to the Chesapeake Bay Foundation, which yesterday gave the bay a D grade for overall health in its annual State of the Bay Report.
The grade was the same as last year's.
"Time is running out, and the Chesapeake Bay, a national treasure, remains in critical condition," CBF President William C. Baker said in a press release. "Restoring the Bay is not rocket science. What does it say about a society when we can put a man on the moon but not be able to save the Chesapeake Bay?"
Baker noted that the report comes with just three years left on a court-ordered deadline to remove the bay from the nation's dirty waters list by 2010.
Since 1998 the foundation has averaged 13 indicators to come up with an overall index it says is a comprehensive measure of the estuary's health. A score of 70 or better is an A+; below 20 is an F.
Categories include habitat (wetlands, forested buffers, underwater grasses, resource lands); fisheries (crabs, rockfish, oysters, shad); and pollution (toxic substances, water clarity, phosphorus, nitrogen and dissolved oxygen).
This year's index score is 28, down one point from last year. A pristine bay would rate a 100.
Index scores for three of the indicators--phosphorus, water quality and blue crabs--declined. That was the result of increased phosphorus pollution, decreased water clarity and habitat and harvest pressures that continue to depress the bay's blue crab population.
The report says blue crab harvests this year are expected to be among the lowest since the 1940s.
The rest of the indicators were unchanged from 2006.
There are a couple of bright spots. For example, rockfish, a bay staple and sought-after game fish, rated an A+, the same as a year ago. That was largely because of ongoing conservation efforts implemented after rockfish populations plunged in the early 1980s.
Forested buffers got another B+, thanks to strong reforestation efforts along bay tributaries in Pennsylvania.
Yesterday, the bay foundation applauded Gov. Tim Kaine's announcement that Virginia's largest sewage treatment plants expect to meet their nutrient reduction goals by the end of 2010.
Kaine said the plants will reduce nitrogen and phosphorus in wastewater by taking part in Virginia's nutrient trading program and installing pollution control technology.
In a separate report last week the Chesapeake Bay Program said that while there were a few improvements, "the health of the Bay is still poor and much of the good news was due to the regional drought, leading to less runoff pollution."
The regional partnership includes bay states, the Chesapeake Bay Commission, Environmental Protection Agency and citizen advisory groups.
About 16 million people live in the
bay watershed, which includes parts of Virginia, Maryland, Delaware, New York, Pennsylvania, West Virginia and the District of Columbia.
Rusty Dennen: 540/374-5431
Email: rdennen@freelancestar.com
| CRABS
Habitat and harvest pressures continue to depress the bay blue crab population. |
| WETLANDS
Some gains are being offset by erosion and illegal filling of marshes. |
| TOXICS
Progress to reduce harmful materials in watershed continues to be slow. |
| WATER CLARITY
Water turns cloudy in the presence of excess sediment, algae. |
| FOREST BUFFERS
Forests stem erosion and help filter water entering the bay. |
| DISSOLVED OXYGEN
Certain pollutants create dead zones with little or no oxygen. |
| ROCKFISH
Rockfish are near historic high levels in the bay, but suffer from degraded habitat. |
| RESOURCE LANDS
Farms and forest land filters water running into streams and rivers. |
| OYSTERS
Oysters are at historic lows in portions of the bay because of disease. |
| NUTRIENTS
Reducing nitrogen and phosphorus pollution, which cause algae blooms, is a key to restoring the bay. |
| SHAD
Migrations into the bay tributaries had mixed success in 2007. |
| UNDERWATER GRASSES
Offer prime nursery ground for crabs and fish. |
|
Date published: 12/4/2007
Most recent reader comments:
menhaden fishing
(posted by
pfloyd
, Dec. 4, 2007 8:21 pm)
is also killing the bay- they are also filter feeders-they took up the slack for the oysters, but they are getting fished out too. There is a fish oil plant in the northern neck. They use helicopters to spot schools then a fleet of boats to net them all. I have fished the bay for years and have seen a decline in fish and water quality when the menhaden fleets started working.
The Bay
(posted by
AtackDuck
, Dec. 4, 2007 7:09 pm)
While the bay is a complex organism, the way to clean it is not. Oysters are the bay's filter system. Until we re-establish the population, such that it can filter the bay properly, the bay will never recover. Oysters filtered the bay 5 times/day in the 1700's, now, about once every 5 months. Put the money into fitering the bay, not another study.
Its not rocket science, its worse
(posted by
Fredtastic
, Dec. 4, 2007 8:54 am)
The issues affecting the bay are way more complex than the physics of rocket science because you are dealing with human behavior. The clean up effort hasn't worked because our behavior won't allow it. To make real changes in the bay would require MAJOR changes in the way that we live. From transportation, to land planning, to wastewater management to what type of detergent we use. Its extremely complex and unfortunately we are very far from restoring the bay. It can be done, but it won't be easy.
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