Bay Program
Flesh-eating diseases are Chesapeake Bay’s dirty secret
By Gerald Winegrad On Aug. 5, Patty Peacock was checking crab pots on her pier on Harness Creek just as she has every summer day for decades. I have done the same at my pier just north of hers on Oyster Creek. Shaking the pot, she nicked the underside of her right arm. Bleeding, she…
Read MoreChesapeake Bay cleanup efforts have failed. Radical change is needed
Disturbing elements of CBF’s report card include an F for oyster recovery. This critical Bay keystone species has declined to 1% of historic levels inhibiting its ability to filter-cleanse Bay waters. Underwater grasses scored a D-. Along with oysters, their ecological functions make them the Bay’s Most Valuable Players, helping keep water clear and healthy by absorbing nutrients, trapping sediments, reducing erosion and acidity, adding oxygen, and providing essential habitat for crabs.
Read MoreThe Chesapeake Bay Restoration is in Deep Trouble
The wheels are coming off the commitments by federal and state governments to get the job done and assure a flourishing ecological treasure.
When I joined 700 other hopeful bay caretakers at the signing of the first Bay Restoration Agreement in Virginia in 1983, I was optimistic we would succeed in restoring the bay. If the bright-eyed, full of hope leaders back in 1983 had envisioned a nightmare scenario for the Bay’s future, we are in it now!
Read MoreGerald Winegrad: Bay cleanup is mired in a Chesapeake deadzone
The EPA Bay Program was prodded by Congress in 2006 to begin issuing detailed annual progress reports and assessments with excellent data and no-holds-bar reporting of both failures and successes. This has ended. The EPA assessment is part of the Green Washing engaged in by governors, legislators, and even some in the conservation community to declare success when there is none.
Read MoreCode red: for the Chesapeake Bay
In December 1983, 35 years ago, the bay states and EPA solemnly pledged to restore the bay in signing the first Bay Agreement. President Ronald Reagan budgeted $40 million for the new Bay Program over four years and said in his 1984 State of the Union that: “We will begin the long, necessary effort to clean up a productive recreational area and a special national resource — the Chesapeake Bay.”
These lofty expectations may be crushed…
The Only State River Commission in Maryland Just Blinked!
Now we have been given a legal opinion* from the Secretary of the State Planning agency that by statute is charged with staffing and assisting the Commission that says we cannot comment on a really ridiculously bad townhouse development project being planned next to the river…
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