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EPA working on "pollution diet" for Virginia, other bay states Date published: 10/30/2009
By RUSTY DENNEN Like an obese patient at risk of a heart attack or stroke, the Chesapeake Bay needs to go on a "pollution diet" to survive, scientists say. To that end, the Environmental Protection Agency is working with Virginia, five other bay states and the District of Columbia to prescribe a remedy that environmentalists hope will turn the tide in a decades-long battle to bring the bay back from the brink. The EPA this week announced a series of public meetings around the state--including Fredericksburg--to help it prepare that pollution diet, formally known as a total maximum daily load or TMDL. The meeting here will be from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. Dec. 17 at Wingate Inn. According to the Chesapeake Bay Program, a state and federal regional partnership created in 1983, poor water quality, degraded habitats and low populations of many species of fish and shellfish are ongoing problems. It adds, "The [bay] and its rivers are overweight with nitrogen, phosphorus and sediment from agricultural operations, urban and suburban runoff, wastewater, airborne contaminants" and other pollutants. John Tippett, executive director of the Friends of the Rappahannock, said the health of the bay depends on reductions in pollutants from runoff and sources such as sewage treatment plants. Nitrogen and phosphorus from fertilizer and treated sewage trigger algae growth in the bay, which leads to vast oxygen-starved "dead zones" that cannot support aquatic life. In addition, sediment, a serious problem in the Rappahannock, makes water murky and unable to support plant growth. FOR has been involved in state TMDLs for local Rappahannock tributaries. But the process for the bay is a much larger undertaking. "We're going to notify our members, and we'll be following it closely," Tippett said. FOR is part of the Choose Clean Water Coalition, more than 60 organizations pushing for federal leadership to help communities restore and protect local waterways. "We've been pursuing a voluntary approach for decades, and it hasn't worked," Tippett said. "The [bay] TMDL is the first time we have an approach to cleanup that has substantial teeth across the board." The effort, a combination of nearly 100 TMDLs for bay tidal rivers, will include limits on nutrients and sediment to meet state clean-water standards for dissolved oxygen, water clarity and algae.
Date published: 10/30/2009
but too many entrenched interests to do anything constructive. The problem has been studied to death. Just pass a law prohibiting any kind of discharge and runoff into Bay tributaries All sewage treatment plants near tributaries discharge "treated" effluent into the rivers. Do not believe that the discharge is clean and does not harm the environment.
until you have a much better idea of what the status of the
river is.
We'll not convince enough people to do anything nor local
officials to pass any ordinances until we can present
compelling data that we all understand and that guides us
towards what actions we need to take.
You cannot do any of the above until you have watershed
wide comprehensive water quality monitoring that tells you
what is the water, in what concentrations and at what
geographic locations.
we don't know that we don't know...
a new State law that prohibits use of feritilizer that is not eco-neutral.
How many farmers are going to pay big bucks to contain runoff from their farms?
Who among us is willing not to use the garbage disposal in our sink? We talk a good game as long as it doesn't affect us directly.
Yes, I am guilty too although I am trying incrementally to be a green weenie...
FOR have not explained them to citizens so that those
citizens could actually make substantiative comments to
the EPA.
Further - right now - citizens do not know the status of the
Rappahannock River.
They do not know how it compares overall to other Rivers in
Va and they do not know for specific segments of the
Rappahannock where the HOT spots are and the other
spots which are not as critical.
Without knowing this.. nor what the the actual sources are -
citizens don't even know what to lobby for locally.
green lawns so the fertilizer will continue until something is done about that. I see folks putting that crap down AT LEAST 2 times a year.
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