Bay Program
The Pollution Diet and Environmental Arbitrage
(Posted by Bob Gallagher.)
After decades of dissembling and broken promises, the President’s Executive Order 13508 and the implementing “pollution diet” proposed by the EPA represent the best chance we have had in a generation to actually start cleaning up the bay. It shouldn’t come as a surprise then that corporate polluters have ramped up their opposition to the pollution diet to unprecedented levels to include massive spending on media advertising, lobbying, campaign contributions, litigation and scientific dirty tricks.
Read MoreHealthy Bay = Healthy Economy
(Posted by Fred Tutman.)
On May 20, 2011, Waterkeepers Chesapeake, along with other Maryland-based Waterkeepers staged an historic event in Annapolis at the City Dock. Firing up their patrol boats, the Riverkeepers, accompanied by a crowd of supporters, motored into Annapolis in a Flotilla of Boats in order to make a point. On the day the Governor was signing (or vetoing) new legislation in the Maryland statehouse, this group of water advocates wanted to make sure that both the public and the legislature understood that time is running out to save our waterways. It’s time for deeds–not just promise–in order to bring about necessary change.
Read MoreThe High Cost of a Dirty Bay
(Posted by W. Tayloe Murphy Jr.)
Twenty-five years ago, in a speech to the Virginia Seafood Council, I reminded the audience that when it comes to pollution, there truly is no free lunch. Last year, when states were submitting their cleanup plans to the federal Environmental Protection Agency, amidst a deluge of complaints about the fed’s heavy-handedness, I found myself repeating my warning in an op-ed in the Richmond Times-Dispatch.
But it seems like some folks have yet to get the message. So here I am again.
Read MoreNational Research Council Report Echoes Bay Action Plan Recommendations
(Posted by Gerald Winegrad.)
The National Research Council has just released its evaluation of the Chesapeake Bay Program’s pollution reduction program this week. The report, Achieving Nutrient and Sediment Reduction Goals in the Chesapeake Bay: An Evaluation of Program Strategies and Implementation, the culmination of a study begun in 2009 and sponsored by the U.S. EPA, fully supports the measures outlined in the Bay Action Plan.
Read MoreA New Day for the Anacostia River
(Posted by Brooke DeRenzis and Walter Smith.)
The Anacostia watershed is one of the most densely populated watersheds of the Chesapeake Bay drainage basin. Like many urban watersheds, it is severely polluted by stormwater which runs off of roofs, roads, driveways and parking lots—picking up trash, oil, and bacteria along the way—and into the river and its streams. Although urban and suburban development accounts for only 9 percent of the Chesapeake Bay watershed’s land use, the Bay watershed is becoming more developed. In fact, according to the Chesapeake Bay Program, stormwater runoff is the Bay’s only major source of pollution that is increasing.
Chesapeake Bay Report Card: “Don’t Bring Me No Bad News”
(Posted by Bill Dennison.)
This year’s Chesapeake Bay report card, produced by EcoCheck, a partnership between NOAA and the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science, was released last week. The overall report card score was a C-, based on data collected throughout 2010. Unfortunately, this report card score declined from the 2009 report card which was a C, and this was the first time the score declined since 2004. Of the fifteen reporting regions, only two had higher scores than last year, but nine had lower scores, leaving four with no change.
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