Chesapeake Bay's Health Not Improving

By J.R. Pegg

WASHINGTON, DC, October 17, 2002 (ENS) - Promises by state governments and federal agencies to clean up the Chesapeake Bay have made virtually no impact in the past five years, according to an annual report from the Chesapeake Bay Foundation. The nation's largest estuary rates a 27 out of 100 on the environmental group's health index for 2002, unchanged from last year and a long way from the organization's goal of reaching 40 by 2010.

The benchmark of 100 reflects the Chesapeake as described in the early 1600s, when clean water revealed meadows of underwater grasses, vast oyster reefs and abundant fish.

The Chesapeake Bay has lost most of its sea grass beds (Photo courtesy U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service)

The biggest threat to the Bay is nitrogen pollution, and the report finds that "regulators and Bay states have not yet taken meaningful long term steps to fix the problem." More than 300 million pounds of nitrogen - from fertilizers, animals wastes and other sources - flow into the Bay every year, causing algae overgrowth that kills fish and harms the bay grasses that provide crucial habitat for crabs and small fish.

A reduction in nitrogen would improve each of the other 12 indicators used to measure the health of the Bay, Coble said.

One of the most difficult things about cleaning up the Bay is locating the source of pollution. The Chesapeake Bay watershed covers more than 64,000 square miles and encompasses parts of six states: Delaware, Maryland, New York, Pennsylvania, Virginia and West Virginia, as well as the District of Columbia. More than 15 million people live in the watershed, a population expected to grow to 18 million by 2010.

Pollutants from urban and suburban areas, farms and roads all wash into the Chesapeake Bay (Photo courtesy Anacostia Watershed Society)

In 2000, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the governors of Maryland, Pennsylvania and Virginia along with the mayor of Washington DC signed onto a detailed plan to clean up the Bay, largely in line with the targets set by CBF's 40 by 2010 goal. The agreement is aimed at getting the Bay off the EPA's list of impaired waters.

But the agreement provided no funds for the massive cleanup needed, and funding for protection efforts has been spotty. Estimates for the cost of the work needed to get the Bay to 40 on the CBF's index range as high as $20 billion.

It will be expensive, Coble said, but the longer serious cleanup efforts are delayed, the more difficult and costly it will be to restore the Bay.

"It is an enormous task and is not easily solvable, but we need this to occur more rapidly," Coble said. "The science is good and strong and there are steps we can take now while the rest of the questions are being answered."

The Bay hosts hundreds of species of resident and migratory birds, like these Canada geese (Photo courtesy Maryland Sea Grant)

The recommended upgrades could cost an estimated $4.4 billion by 2010. So far, CBF reports that just 70 of the watershed's 288 plants have been upgraded. Many of these have only been upgraded to reduce the nitrogen content of treated wastewater to eight milligrams per liter, far short of the three milligrams per liter that CBF's plan requires.

Still, wastewater treatment upgrades are a good place to start, Colbe said.

"The technology exists and we know it works," he explained. "This is also a good first step because although they are expensive, the costs are distributed across millions of people."

Nitrogen is not the only nutrient polluting the Bay. Phosphorus levels also need to be reduced, from the current 20 million pounds that enter the Bay each year to four million, according to CBF.

The report also found that more toxic chemicals were released into the Bay in 2002 than in previous years - evidence of an increase in actual releases of chemicals to waterways in Virginia and Maryland. 2002 also had an increased number of health advisories limiting fish consumption throughout the watershed due to toxic contaminants.

Studies show that the Chesapeake Bay's blue crab population is declining (Photo courtesy Maryland Sea Grant)

"Scientific consensus is that the risk to the population is high and increasing," the report found. But the CBF said there is some optimism that a coordinated strategy between Maryland and Virginia could begin to show benefits later this year.

The one positive in the State of the Bay 2002 report is the finding that the Bay's shad population improved this year, as efforts to encourage spawning runs in several Bay tributaries began to pay dividends. Still, the shad population remains severely depleted - rating just seven on CBF's 100 point scale.

To read the report, visit the Chesapeake Bay Foundation at: http://www.cbf.org