Chesapeake Bay
July 1, 1983
(Posted by Jeanne McCann.)
That’s the date by which the Clean Water Act promised that America’s waterways would be fishable and swimmable.
It’s 28 years since that deadline came and went. To bring attention to this anniverary, a group of hardy souls plunged into the murky waters of the Anacostia River to protest the continued failure to make good on that promise.
Read MoreScientists, Lawmakers To Take the Plunge for Clean Water
(Posted by Jeanne McCann.)
A small group of the scientists, lawmakers, and other concerned citizens behind this blog are planning to jump into the Anacostia River this coming Thursday, June 30, 10 a.m., to mark the passing of yet another year that we as a nation have failed to meet the deadline set by the Clean Water Act to have all rivers fishable and swimmable by July 1, 1983.
The Anacostia River Plunge
(Posted by Howard Ernst.)
For the last decade I have written, talked, and sometimes even done things to promote clean water in the Chesapeake Bay region and beyond. But one thing I have always refused to do was to participate in that unique Chesapeake Bay tradition known as “the wade-in.”
The practice was made popular by my good friend and trusted ally, former Maryland State Sen. Bernie Fowler, who has conducted his wade-in for more than two decades. As regular as the fish that return to the Bay each spring, on the second Sunday in June, Sen. Fowler and his followers return to the banks of the Patuxent to see how far they can walk in the water before their shoes become obscured by the thick flow of agricultural pollution, mud, and sewage that plague that troubled river. Politicians make speeches, friends are acknowledged for their hard work, and Bernie loses sight of his feet at about 30 inches (never much different than the year before).
Read MorePollution and the Chesapeake Bay
Howard Ernst, political science professor, scholar and author of Chesapeake Bay Blues: Science, Politics, and the Struggle to Save the Bay, recently sat down with local photographer David Joyner to discuss chicken farms as major polluters, why Pennsylvania is such a political nightmare and what is really killing the Chesapeake Bay.
Read MoreA Riverkeeper Reflects
(Posted by Jeanne McCann.)
Local photographer David Joyner interviews Riverkeeper Fred Tutman about his rural roots, growing up on a farm, how he came to be the Patuxent Riverkeeper and the specific pollution issues facing the Patuxent River and the Chesapeake Bay, and his life as an environmental activist.
Fred Tutman, Riverkeeper from david joyner on Vimeo.
Read More“Death by a Thousand Cuts”: Chesapeake Bay’s Disappearing Shoreline
(This is the first in a series of reviews of notable films that we feel should be part of any card-carrying environmental activist’s toolkit. We’ve chosen films that we think have made an important contribution to understanding the challenges facing restoration of the Chesapeake Bay. We kick off with a look back at Michael English’s 2008 gem, “Weary Shoreline.” -Eds.)
(Posted by John D. Wickham.)
Coastal Maryland, encompassing the state’s capital, Annapolis, the counties of Anne Arundel, Talbot, and Dorchester, and still other areas, is one of the most beautiful natural landscapes in the United States, whose rivers and tributaries feed into the nation’s largest estuary, the Chesapeake Bay. Though picturesque, this border area where land and sea meet has been under relentless pressure from human population growth and real estate development in the last three decades. Estimates put Southern Maryland’s loss of forest cover at more than 160,000 acres in the last fifteen years.