Chesapeake Bay
Clamping down on farm pollution is a necessity for a better Chesapeake Bay
This is the third time a cleanup deadline has been missed without sanctions as Clean Water Act violations by the states are ignored by the EPA and no new regulatory and financial initiatives are required.
At the root of this failure is agricultural pollution. We have allowed agribusiness to lather 25% of the bay watershed with millions of tons of fertilizers and animal excrement from 83,000 farms. Agriculture has become the largest and least-regulated source of bay pollutants: 50% of nitrogen; 45% of phosphorus; and 60% of bay choking sediment.
Read MoreAgriculture is destroying the Chesapeake Bay
Between 1950 and 1982, the amount of nitrogen from manure and fertilizer applied to bay crop land nearly doubled, reaching 960 million pounds annually, as farmland decreased by nearly half. Alarmingly, the average annual rate of nutrient reductions from bay region farmland has actually decreased since 2009.
Read MoreIt’s time for DNR to restrict the commercial crab harvest
The time has come for DNR to restrict commercial harvest by adopting strict daily bushel limits for males and greatly decreasing the bushel limits for females, reducing the number of crab pots used, shortening the crabbing season, closing crabbing two days each week, and adopting a quota system for each commercial crabber as with rockfish.
Read MoreBest practices for lawn care when living in the Chesapeake Bay watershed
rigorous scientific review found that the world’s insects are hurtling down the path to extinction, threatening a “catastrophic collapse of nature’s ecosystems.” More than 40% of insect species are declining radically including 53% of butterfly and 46% of bee species; some are critical pollinators responsible for 35% of the world’s food crops. More than 3,500 species of native bees sustain these crop yields. Three-fourths of the world’s flowering plants also depend on pollinators. Pesticides are clearly implicated in these radical declines of insects as well as other pollinators including moths, birds, and bats.
Read MoreOfficials, Chesapeake Bay Foundation must take action to prevent flesh-eating diseases
We need to greatly ratchet down the nutrients especially from agriculture and also from existing and new development. The environmental community must change its tactics and stand up to agribusiness and use the courts and legislature to crack down on this major source of bay pollution. We also must significantly reduce global warming emissions that lead to rising water temperatures and increased nutrients, both which fuel the proliferation and deadliness of flesh eating organisms.
Read MoreReport finds Maryland is lax in regulating poultry industry pollution
By Gerald Winegrad A new report, “Blind Eye to Big Chicken,” documents a near complete abdication by Maryland agencies of their responsibilities to enforce critical pollution control regulations to rein in massive poultry industry pollution. The report by the watchdog group Environmental Integrity Project (EIP) details how chicken growers continue to violate state laws with…
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