Talk about racing for the green! It seems 83 Ellicott City residents jumped at the chance to win a free rain garden this fall, and 20 lucky winners saw them installed rapid-fire - not in 80 seconds, as the time-lapse video above depicts, but in just 10 days.

As Erica Goldman explains in Chesapeake Quarterly's BayBlog, the "win a rain garden" contest was staged by Howard County as part of a larger effort to demonstrate that doing a lot of stormwater retrofits, bioretention cells (aka rain gardens), and stream restoration projects in one small watershed could have a noticeable effect on water quality. All the entrants lived around Red Hill Branch, which drains into the Patuxent River.

Funding for the contest came from the county and the state's Chesapeake and Atlantic Coastal Bays 2010 Trust Fund. The rain garden installations were overseen by Amanda Rockler of the Maryland Sea Grant extension program, with help from county engineers and experts from the nonprofit Center for Watershed Protection in Ellicott City.

Twenty rain gardens are a start, but thousands upon thousands are needed to help the Chesapeake Bay.  It'll be interesting to see if this contest spurs a new suburban lawn ethic, with homeowners vying to outdo each other in putting in the biggest, greenest rain garden on the cul de sac.

Video by Joe King, by permission Maryland Sea Grant.

Posted by Tim Wheeler at 9:36 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
        

So the dog didn't exactly eat Maryland's Chesapeake Bay homework, but he's holding onto it and won't let go just yet. 

As I reported today, state officials have notified the Environmental Protection Agency that they won't be turning in their final bay cleanup plan today, as the federal agency ordered.  They say they need "a few extra days" to mull hundreds of public comments on what the state should do to accelerate its efforts to reduce nutrient and sediment pollution fouling the estuary.

Maryland evidently isn't alone in telling EPA it's blowing the deadline, but EPA's not pointing any fingers. Delaware, New York, Pennsylvania, Virginia and West Virginia and the District of Columbia also were to submit final plans to EPA today outlining how they expected to increase their bay cleanup efforts. Some of them, though, were struggling amid an outpouring of complaints and criticism from their farmers, developers and others about the costs and fairness of what was being asked of them.

"We’ve heard from some jurisdictions that they may be submitting their plans late,” said David Sternberg, spokesman for EPA’s mid-Atlantic regional office. He wouldn't identify any, though. J. Charles Fox, senior EPA advisor on the bay, said some of the ambiguity stems from the fact that federal officials worked through the weekend with their state counterparts, so some may still make the deadline.

There's evidently no penalty if states do miss the deadline, but it puts added pressure on EPA, which only has a month to finalize its "pollution diet" specifying how much each state must reduce nitrogen, phosphorus and sediment in its waters.

The agency hopes to rely on the states' plans as the recipe for its own, but had found shortcoming in all the drafts submitted on Sept. 1 and "serious" flaws in all but Maryland's and the District's. Maryland's plan had laid out various pollution control measures for upgrading sewage plants and household septic systems, retrofitting urban storm drains and curbing fertilizer use on farms and lawns. But it did not endorse any, saying state officials would await public comment before choosing among them.

Dawn Stoltzfus, spokeswoman for the Maryland Department of the Environment, said the state received 113 sets of comments from 750 people on the draft plan it submitted Sept. 1, plus two petitions with 1,000 signatures and 100 emails signed by multiple people. She said the final plan would be ready “definitely by the end of this week.”

Let's hope the state gets it homework back soon from that stubborn dog (neither of them the cheerful looking hounds above.  They're my family's, and they'll gladly bring you the ball to throw, rather than play keepaway or tug-of-war, so don't blame them).

Posted by Tim Wheeler at 12:21 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)
        

Environmental groups have organized a daylong "Maryland Citizen's Conference" this Saturday (12/4) in Annapolis to press for more rapid development of wind energy projects off the state's Atlantic coast.

Anxious to break what they see as a logjam in developing wind energy in Maryland, activists want the next General Assembly to pass legislation requiring the state's electricity providers to sign long-term contracts agreeing to buy power from offshore projects.  They believe that the lack of such commitments are preventing developers from getting the financing they need to move ahead with putting turbines a dozen or so miles off Ocean City.

The conference comes as two land-based industrial wind projects in western Maryland are about to begin generating electricity.  But most proponents see the Outer Continental Shelf as a much more promising locale for generating significant amounts of electricity from steady offshore winds - not to mention possibly avoiding some of the nagging controversies over the impacts of mountaintop turbines on migratory bats and birds.

The conference is meant to build political pressure on the legislature a month before it convenes.  Scheduled speakers include leading green lawmakers, a wind developer, a union leader and a CEO from the Google-linked partnership that proposes to build transmission lines to bring mid-Atlantic offshore power to land.  Activists plan to march on the State House at the end. 

The session runs from 10 a.m. to 3:30 pm at the Westin Hotel, 100 Westgate Circle, Annapolis.  Admission is $15, $10 for students. For more, go here.

(Wind turbines off northern German island of Borkum, April 2010.  David Hecker/AFP/Getty Images)

Posted by Tim Wheeler at 10:24 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
        

Accelerating the cleanup of the Chesapeake Bay could generate thousands of jobs and yield hundreds of millions of dollars in income, revenue, property values and other benefits, says a new report by the Chesapeake Bay Foundation.

"The Chesapeake Bay can be a fertile source of jobs as well as crabs and rockfish," contends Kim Coble, Maryland executive director for the Annapolis-based environmental group.  On the other hand, she adds, the estuary's long decline already has cost the region economically, and could cost still more if left unaddressed.

The report comes on the day that Maryland, the District of Columbia and other bay watershed states are supposed to submit their final plans to the Environmental Protection Agency for boosting their bay cleanup efforts.  The EPA hopes to use those plans in finalizing its "pollution diet" for restoring the Chesapeake's water quality by year's end.

But it also comes amid a chorus of complaints from farmers, developers and local and state officials across the six-state region that increasing bay cleanup efforts will cost untold billions they can ill afford to pay in this recession.  Critics warn the EPA's pollution diet will bust strained budgets, require tax increases and generally cause economic devastation.  Lawsuits challenging federal authority to order states to boost bay cleanup efforts appear likely.

Even in its degraded condition, the bay still is a significant job and income generator, the report says.  Though the seafood industry is a shadow of its historic self, it still employed about 11,000 people in Maryland who earned $150 million in 2008.  About 7,200 people worked in recreational fishing, while recreational boating supported 35,025 jobs in an industry estimated to be worth more than $2 billion annually.

Installing pollution controls and restoring lost wildlife habitat can generate and sustain jobs, the report contends.  A University of Virginia study projected that 12,000 temporary one-year jobs could be created if that state's farmers took sufficient steps to reduce polluted runoff from their lands by planting trees alongside streams and sowing cover crops in their fields in winter.

Similarly, the foundation says, upgrading sewage treatment plants supports hundreds of construction jobs, while upgrading residential septic systems also provides work for installers, electricians and other trades people.  An example of that cited in the report is Mayer Brothers, Inc., in Elkridge, which reportedly avoided having to lay off employees when it won a contract from the Maryland Department of the Environment to help furnish new septic technology.  And an Arbutus company employs 115 fulltime plus 100 subcontractors in doing work to mitigate for the storm-water pollution produced by development, it notes.

Better water quality also should boost property values, the report argues, pointing to a study suggesting a six percent increase along Maryland's western shore if waterfrtont bacteria levels could be reduced to safely swimmable levels.

There's no hiding the fact that cleaning up the bay costs money, and increasing the effort is likely to cost more.  But the foundation report argues there's an upside to that expense that cleanup critics are overlooking.

(Construction under way to upgrade Baltimore's Patapsco wastewater treatment plant, October 2010. Baltimore Sun photo by Jed Kirschbaum)

Posted by Tim Wheeler at 9:16 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)
        

Maryland's environment secretary, Shari T. Wilson, has announced she is leaving after just shy of four years leading the agency. She said in a brief interview that the decision to depart was her own and that she'd been mulling stepping down for the past year.

It's been a bruising year, filled with controversies over the Maryland Department of the Environment's enforcement diligence, particularly with regard to farm pollution, and over the agency's moves to strengthen controls on polluted runoff from new development.

About this time last year, the Waterkeeper Alliance, a network of water-quality watchdogs, petitioned the Environmental Protection Agency to strip her agency of its authority to regulate water pollution, contending that MDE was lax. Barely a month later, the alliance also publicly accused an Eastern Shore poultry farm of polluting a tributary of the Pocomoke River and got into a testy back-and-forth with MDE over its handling of the case.

As if that wasn't enough, builders and local officials revolted against new regulations MDE had issued earlier in the year that required them to do more to curb polluted runoff from new development and redevelopment projects. With lawmakers threatening to delay or roll back the rules, MDE forged a compromise with opponents that pleased some environmentalists but outraged others.

Wilson's agency also was a target of scorn in the past year from former Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr., who vowed to make MDE more helpful to business in his unsuccessful Republican bid to recapture the State House from Democrat Martin O'Malley. 

Still, Wilson said yesterday she thought her tenure at MDE had been productive as well as eventful.  She pointed to the Chesapeake Bay cleanup plan that she and other O'Malley administration officials crafted this fall that EPA officials deemed the most thorough and realistic of any of the bay state's efforts.

Earlier, her agency also clamped down on disposal of coal ash from power plants after the waste was found to have contaminated drinking-water wells and streams - taking action in that case ahead of the nationwide furor over coal ash. 

And she was instrumental in getting Maryland to take action to fight global climate change by limiting carbon dioxide emissions in the state.  Maryland joined with other Northeast states in a regional auction of carbon emission permits for power plants, and state lawmakers in 2009 also enacted legislation requiring reductions in other carbon-dioxide emissions over time.

Though criticized by some environmentalists as not tough enough, the storm-water regulations are widely seen as more stringent in many aspects than what had been on the books before. 

And though hamstrung by lack of staff and funds that limited its ability to check up on potential polluters, MDE did step up overall enforcement of environmental laws from what it had been in the more business-favorable Ehrlich administration.  The news release announcing Wilson's departure pointed to a $1 million penalty for water pollution resulting from Constellation Energy's fly ash disposal in Gambrills and a $4 million penalty against Exxon for the 2006 spill in Jacksonville, Maryland.

Wilson's own take on the controversies: 

“The best compliment would be to have been judged to be a fair regulator,” she said, but added that “when you’re successful at it, no one’s happy.”

Several leading environmental activists praised Wilson and lamented her departure.

Mike Tidwell, head of the Chesapeake Climate Action Network, credited Wilson and Gov. Martin O'Malley for getting Maryland lawmakers to adopt one of the most ambitious state laws in the nation mandating curbs on climate-warming carbon-dioxide. It was initially defeated by opposition from manufacturers and labor unions, but she spearheaded talks that lead to a compromise and passage the following year.

"Together they successfully challenged Maryland businesses and environmentalists to work together -- and the historic result was the comprehensive clean energy and global warming bill of 2009," Tidwell said.

Kim Coble, Maryland director of the Chesapeake Bay Foundation, said she believed Wilson had done a good job balancing competing interests over environmental regulations.

“That’s a very, very big job,” Coble said. Despite the criticism and controversy, Coble said she believed Wilson had done a good job of balancing the pressures from environmental and business interests.

“There wasn’t any group or person she would not sit down and talk with,” the bay foundation officer said. “I think this is a loss for the state, although I respect her decision,” Coble concluded. “She did a very good job of representing the state of Maryland, its environmental needs, and its environmental future.”

Even some of those who've complained about MDE had kind words about her. Thomas M. Farasy, a leader of the Maryland State Builders Association, credited Wilson with working last year to resolve industry complaints about the new storm-water pollution rules.

“We didn’t get everything we wanted,” he said, but he added, “she listened.”

And Fred Tutman, the Patuxent Riverkeeper, who was among the most vocal critics of the storm-water compromise, said he believed Wilson was a "warm and wonderful person who cares deeply about the environment."

Still, in keeping with the keepers' unflinching advocacy, Tutman couldn't resist questioning whether Wilson's willingness to listen hadn't been a handicap in being the state's top environmental cop.

"But I hope her permanent replacement," Tutman added, "is someone incredibly zealous and fearless who will strike fear into the hearts of polluters all over MD."

The challenges of the last four years are only likely to be greater in the next four.  Maryland faces a budget crisis that means staff and resources will be stretched even more thinly for at least the next couple years, even as the state must find ways to accelerate cleanup of the Chesapeake Bay.  Money will have to be raised or found, and rules tightened still more.  MDE also will have to begin cranking down on state greenhouse gas emissions under the 2009 law.  Both are likely to stir controversy.

Wilson, 49, said after the grueling pace of the last four years she wasn't sure she could keep giving the job "120 percent" for another four, and the agency needed a leader who could.  She plans to take a little time with family and then figure out what to do next.  Her last day is Dec. 3.  Deputy Secretary Robert Summers, a longtime MDE manager, will be interim secretary. 

Before taking the helm at MDE, Wilson had worked for Baltimore city in the law and planning departments.  She'd also previously worked at MDE for about a decade in various positions, including policy director and overseer of Superfund and brownfields cleanup programs. 

“I was very fortunate to be able to work on a number of policy and organizational changes,’’ she said.  “If I’ve done a good job, it will stick.”

(Top: Wilson at first Cabinet meeting after O'Malley's reelection.  Bottom: Wilson viewing Baltimore harbor with MDE spokeswoman Dawn Stoltzfus at kickoff of waterfront business group's campaign to make it swimmable by 2020.  2010 Baltimore Sun photos by Kim Hairston and Amy Davis)

Posted by Tim Wheeler at 9:20 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)
        

Federal environmental officials say they're not backing away from the Chesapeake Bay pollution "diet" they've proposed for Maryland, the District of Columbia and the five other states in the bay watershed, despite being peppered with complaints about it from local and state officials, farmers and developers.

Environmental Protection Agency officials say they've received 7,980 written comments about the plan they floated Sept. 24 for imposing a "total maximum daily load," or TMDL, (aka the pollution diet) on the amount of nutrients and sediment that would be allowed to flow from the six-state region's cities, towns, suburbs and rural areas into the bay.  The vast majority of them were in support, but were form-letter type comments evidently generated by environmental groups supporting a federal bay pollution crackdown.

The agency also received about 700 more detailed complaints from "stakeholder groups," as officials call them, who are likely to be required to pay to upgrade sewage treatment plants, retrofit storm drains and curb runoff from their farms.  Some states, particularly New York and Virginia, and farm and development groups throughout the region have questioned the science and legal authority behind EPA's bay diet, as well as its timing and potential economic impact.

"There are some folks opposed to the TMDL," said Jon Capacasa, chief of the water protection division of EPA's Mid-Atlantic regional office.  "They don't think it's necessary ... they don't want us to complete it."  But Capacasa said the pollution diet is "not optional," that EPA has the responsibility and the legal authority under the Clean Water Act and federal court settlements to do what's needed to restore the Chesapeake's water quality so it might sustain more fish and shellfish.

Officials stressed that whatever cleanup measures EPA winds up requiring will depend on how much the states and DC say they'll do in final pollution-reduction plans to be submitted to the agency on Monday.

James Edward, acting director of EPA's Chesapeake Bay office, said federal officials have been working with the states and District to beef up draft cleanup plans they turned in back on Sept. 1 - and which EPA found largely wanting. 

After a series of meetings and exchanges over the past 2 1/2 months, Edward said, the states' plans have "made more progress" in actually spelling out enough new or expanded pollution controls to reduce nitrogen, phosphorus and sediment to the levels EPA says are needed to restore the bay's waters.  At the urging of states, the agency also has tinkered with the targets it gave states for reducing nitrogen and phosphorus, officials said, allowing for some shifts in cleanup requirements around the watershed.

But Edward added that officials still have "significant concerns" about what assurances state officials have made so far that they'll actually take the steps needed to achieve those pollution reductions in time to meet the cleanup timetable over the next 15 years.  EPA officials wouldn't say which states are still falling short, but back in September it found significant shortcomings in five of the six states' draft cleanup plans, and room for improvement in all of them. 

Many of the complaints about EPA's proposed pollution diet focused on plans to require costly upgrades of many wastewater treatment plants and to expand federal regulation of farms raising poultry and livestock.  EPA officials said that they had to propose those measure to "balance the books" for the shortcomings in the states' cleanup plans, and if state officials pledge to make the needed pollution reductions in other ways, they'll gladly scale back the federal "backstop" measures. 

But if the states don't propose to do all that's needed, and don't spell out how they'll raise the needed money or what new laws or regulations they'll adopt, the federal government will go through with cracking down on sewage plants and livestock farms, among others.

Many critics have complained that wastewater treatment plant upgrades and storm drain retrofits, in particular, are very costly and could force tax or fee increases to pay for them.  Some have suggested delaying adoption of the pollution diet until the economy improves. 

Capacasa acknowledged accelerating the bay cleanup efforts might bring added costs, but he countered that a cleaner Chesapeake has value, too.  He pointed to estimates made not long ago that the bay provides $1 trillion in overall economic benefits and $33 to $60 billion annually, in income and wealth generated by commercial and recreational fishing, tourism, property value upgrades and other business activity.

And he noted that the multistate effort to restore the bay has been dragging on since the early 1980s, and federal and state officials last year set a deadline of 2025 to finish the job.  New pollution controls can be "staged" so they needn't all hit at once, he suggested.

"We've been at this for 25 to 30 years," Capacasa said.  "If you look at 30 years of history and 15 years to go, we don't think it's moving too fast.

(Blackwater Wildlife Refuge, Photo by Jane Thomas, UMCES IAN image library)

Posted by Tim Wheeler at 9:31 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
        

Interior Secretary Ken Salazar and a couple of his aides are coming to Baltimore this afternoon to announce a "major new initiative to accelerate the responsible siting and development of wind energy projects along the Atlantic coast."

What that is exactly may have to wait for the 2 p.m. press conference at Fort McHenry.  Gov. Martin O'Malley, who will also be on hand, wrote to Salazar along with Delaware's governor earlier this year appealing to the Obama administration to boost offshore wind development by pledging the federal government to buy a gigawatt of power from turbines placed off the mid-Atlantic coast. 

But some are speculating that the Obama administration intends to announce plans to streamline the federal regulatory review process for approving putting wind turbines offshore.   Jim Lanard, the director of the recently formed industry group, Offshore Wind Development Coalition, said not long ago that shortening the time needed to get permits was a priority.  

Lanard, former executive of Deepwater Wind, an offshore developer, was quoted in the industry news site offshorewind.biz  that the seven to nine years it's now projected to take to win federal approval is "far too long of a timeline to attract investors."  Lanard is among those to be on hand for the announcement.

Frank Maisano, a lobbyist for wind developers, noted that Salazar had said in a speech to the American Wind Energy Association's offshore wind conference last month in Atlantic City NJ that his department plans to identify "high priority areas" for wind projects along the Atlantic coast by year's end. 

The details matter, though, and one person's streamlining may mean railroading to someone who's not as blithe about the massive turbines.  Maryland's move to avoid lengthy environmental reviews for land-based wind projects of 70 megawatts or less hasn't prevented some environmentalists from threatening to file suit over potential harm to endangered bats by the turbines that are about to start generating power on Backbone Mountain in Garrett County.  No lawsuits have been filed to date.  

Concerns also have been voiced about the potential for turbines off Maryland's coast to disrupt shipping, aviation radar and mlitary flights there - concerns state officials say they're confident can be dealt with without preventing offshore wind projects from going forward.  But such discussions do take time.

(Wind turbines off English coast, September 2010, AFP/Getty)

Posted by Tim Wheeler at 6:23 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)
        

Workers for the Parks & People Foundation and volunteers pitched in Thursday to remove invasive vines and brush along Gwynns Falls Trail in Westport.

The shore along the northern edge of the south Baltimore neighborhood has been badly overgrown for years, making it hard to know there's even a stream there, much less get to it. 

This cleanup project is one of a number lately in Westport, where a massive mixed-use development is planned near where the Gwynns Falls empties into the Middle Branch of the Patapsco River.  Others involved in the project were Enterprise Holdings (the rental car company) and Westport Community Partnerships, an initiative backed in part by Turner Development Group.

(Spoon Smith, 34, left, from Baltimore, and Kevin Alexander, 55, from Brooklyn, members of Parks & People's Green Up, Clean Up team clear out invasive vines along the Gwynns Falls Trail in Westport. Baltimore Sun photo by Gabe Dinsmoor.)

Posted by Tim Wheeler at 12:49 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
        

For over 90 years, Cole Roofing Company has been, well, building roofs. They’re experts in restorations, re-roofs and repairs and nowadays they offer a multitude of green roofing options because they believe in sustainability. In their words, “We believe the push to go green isn’t just a trend. It’s here to stay.”

That’s why they’re giving away a free vegetated or solar integrated roof to one local nonprofit organization, and a $5,000 donation to another. Contestants have posted videos and written proposals on the Green Roof Giveaway website in an effort to convince the world (and Cole) why they deserve a new roof. From November 16 – December 17, the public (that means you) will vote for a winner.

“Beyond honoring area non-profits, a mission of our Green Roof Giveaway is to educate the public on today’s different green roofing solutions. Many people are unaware of the environmentally friendly roofing options available today. Average consumers may be confused or have misconceptions about vegetated, solar roofs and more. We’d like to dispel myths and misinformation and give you the facts on green roofs. After all, an educated consumer is a powerful consume,” according to Cole.

Local contenders include Federal Hill Main Street, Inc., St. John’s United Methodist Church, People’s Homesteading Group, City Neighbors Hamilton, Baltimore Free Farm, Village Learning Place, and many more.

To vote for your favorite, visit http://greenroofgiveaway.com/nominees/.

Posted by Christy Zuccarini at 10:53 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Categories: Going Green
        

The activist group Environment Maryland released a report today urging Maryland and the federal government to make big poultry companies more accountable for controlling polluted runoff from farms where their birds are being raised.

"Corporate Agribusiness and America's Waterways" says that the 538 million chickens raised on the Delmarva Peninsula – many of them owned by Perdue Farms, based in Salisbury – generate approximately 1.1 billion pounds of chicken litter every year.   Perdue is the nation's third largest poultry company.  Yet the manure generated by the birds raised under contract to poultry companies remains the responsibility of the farmer.  Runoff of manure and chemical fertilizer from farmland is one of the leading sources of pollution fouling the Chesapeake Bay.

Perdue does offer to remove poultry litter for free, and processes it into dry fertilizer pellets that it sells around the country.  But many farmers prefer to use the litter to fertilize their crops, since it's cheaper than chemical fertilizer.

Siding with the activist group, though, is farmer William Morrow of Emmitsburg.

“I’m a small farmer raising sheep, goats, hogs, and chickens," said Morrow. "To make sure that none of my animals’ waste winds up in nearby waters, I compost the manure, and I plant winter cover crops and buffer strips. 

"If I can clean up after my animals, then a big company like Perdue certainly can do it too," he added.  "That’s why these companies need to embrace straightforward policies to reduce the pollution their operations generate.”

Environment Maryland wants the state and federal governments to impose tighter controls on animal manure use as fertilizer as they prepare a Chesapeake Bay "pollution diet" intended to restore the estuary's water quality.  Farmers, though, are pushing back, arguing they already do plenty to protect the environment and shouldn't be subject to more regulation.  States are scheduled to finalize their bay cleanup plans by the end of this month, and the Environmental Protection Agency is to issue its diet, called a "total maximum daily load,"  by year's end. 

Posted by Tim Wheeler at 11:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)
        

Can developers and environmentalists find common ground over how this region can grow without adding to the Chesapeake Bay's woes?

It remains to be seen. Feelings are still raw after last winter's donnybrook in Annapolis over tightening state curbs on runoff from new development and redevelopment. And home builders and environmentalists are at odds over legislation hung up in Congress that would strengthen the federal government's hand in the bay restoration effort.

But the Home Builders Association of Maryland and the Chesapeake Bay Foundation have agreed, at least, to meet in a neutral corner and talk about it. The two are sponsoring a forum Wednesday (Nov. 17) entitled: "Where Do We Grow From Here? Bay Friendly Development in the 21st Century."

The subtitle of the forum promises a "civil but frank discourse on development, environment and the Bay."   One session will look at whether "nutrient neutral" development is possible.  Another talks about how to pay for the pollution controls and public infrastructure needed to encourage "smart" growth.

From the agenda, it looks like this is a session designed to find that common ground and forge agreement on how and where to grow.  I imagine the tone of this will be far different from a population "summit" held recently by Johns Hopkins' Center for a Livable Future.

"The big question is can we truly restore the Chesapeake Bay given the population projections for future growth?" asked Environment Maryland's Brad Heavner.  He said we have the scientific knowledge to do it, but it would take a lot of money and political will to reduce impacts of new development enough to offset the growing number of people.

Tom Horton, longtime bay writer and former Sun colleague, was even less hopeful.  He called it a "tall order" to think people would do what it takes to reduce the environmental impact of 17 million people in the six-state watershed by enough to restore the Chesapeake's water quality to what it was in the 1950s or '60s and to maintain it while the region grows.

Tough questions those, that lack easy answers.  At least folks are talking about them, while the real estate slump eases development pressure some. 

Wednesday's growth forum is from 8:15 a.m .to 3 p.m. at Martin's West, 6817 Dogwood Road.   Registration is $95, though discounts are available.  For more, go here or call 410-265-7400.

(Development along South Branch of the Patapsco River, 200 Baltimore Sun photo by David Hobby)

Posted by Tim Wheeler at 4:54 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)
        

It's apparently snowing in downtown Baltmore, only these "flakes" don't melt.

On Friday morning, Robert Neelbauer reports a flurry of white stuff fell on the street and sidewalk outside his home in the 300 block of N. Charles St.  It looked like snow, he emailed, but picking it up you could tell it was bits of foam.

"There was enough of it that the neighborhood/downtown association folks were sweeping it up," Neelbauer emailed.  He's concerned that it's falling into the Inner Harbor as well, which already has more than its share of trash and debris.  Such foam-falls have happened at least two other times he can recall in the past three months.

"It goes without saying that this stuff is bad for the environment," Neelbauer says, "but if someone is pumping this stuff into the air then that is a major pollution issue and someone should be held accountable for it."

The bits are probably too large to get lodged in your lungs, but for sure you wouldn't want to ingest a lot of it. 

Anyone else seeing snow falling that doesn't melt?  Any ideas where it's coming from?

(Photos by Robert Neelbauer)

Posted by Tim Wheeler at 9:37 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)
        

Green roofs are sprouting all over these days, mainly to prevent storm-water pollution and reduce energy costs. But a rooftop garden installed recently atop the historic American Ice Company building in northwest Baltimore had an additional purpose - to give honey bees a home.

Volunteers covered the roof of the 105-year-old former icehouse with a dense array of perennials and shrubs that bees like, including sedum, crocus bulbs, caryopteris, aster, goldenrod and boltonia.  The mix of vegetation should ensure something will be flowering for the bees to pollinate from February through November.

"Urban sprawl is one of the greatest threats to our natural ecosystems," according to architect Diane Odell, who helped design the bee haven.  "By planting these kinds of habitats on city roofs or in backyards we can all help."

The rooftop bee habitat was installed on the warehouse of Rooftop Conservation Technology, which sells materials for energy, water and environmental conservation projects, including green roofs.  It was put together by Green Roof Service LLC and Architecture & Design Inc. (ADI) The beehive was donated by Maryland's state beekeeper, Oliver Snyder III. 

(Photo courtesy Green Roof Service LLC)

Posted by Tim Wheeler at 8:50 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)
        

First a manatee, now a seal?  What's going on in the Patapsco River?  An Anne Arundel County resident who lives on Stony Creek reports she saw an animal rolling around on her pier last night that looked for all the world like the critter pictured above.

Mary Sharp, who lives in Orchard Beach, said she saw a "black thing" bobbing back and forth in the light shining on the deck of her pier around 7 p.m. She said she watched the animal through binoculars for about 5 to 10 minutes, and even went outside to the crest of the hill leading down to her dock to get a better look before it apparently went back in the water.  

Unfortunately, she didn't get a picture of the animal, but she said she was sure it wasn't the manatee that was last sighted a few weeks ago in the river near Harbor Hospital.  This was darker, weighed maybe 80 pounds and was out of the water.  Sharp said she initially thought it was a seal or a sea lion; a call to the National Aquarium this morning informed her it was most likely a harbor seal - not unheard of, but not commonly seen this far up the Chesapeake Bay.  

Whatever it was, the animal apparently was able to climb out of the water onto her pier.  She said the steps leading up from the water were wet, and she found a partially eaten fish on the deck where it had been.

"I left that fish that was flopping around on the pier, just in case he came back," Sharp said. 

So far, no luck. But if you spy something in the water that looks like a seal - or the elusive manatee - give a call to the Aquarium's 24-hour pager to report your sighting, 410-373-0083.   Let us know, too, and we'll share it here.

UPDATE (11/16):  Jennifer Dittmar, the aquarium's marine mammal stranding coordinator, emails that based on Mary's description, it sounds like a "healthy seal that happened to stop for a meal."  Most likely it was a harbor or harp seal, she adds, since they're the two species that have been seen around here before.

"It's not unheard of for a seal to travel this far up the bay, but it's also not a common occurrence," Dittmar explains. "In the last 12 years or so, we have at least three documented seal sightings north of the Bay Bridge."

(Harbor seal swimming near Boston Harbor, October 2010, New England Aquarium photo via AP)

Posted by Tim Wheeler at 11:20 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)
        

Residents in Harford, Washington and several Eastern Shore counties will be able to properly dispose of old and unwanted medications Saturday during the American Medicine Chest Challenge.

We've written before about the damage flushing drugs down the toilet causes to waterways. The folks behind the Medicine Chest Challenge are also concerned about prescription drug misuse and overdoses. Unsupervised medicine ingestions result in almost 60,000 children under age 5 going to the emergency room a year, according to otcsafety.org. Reducing the amount of drugs you keep in the house can help safeguard against such incidents.

Challenge hours are 10 a.m.-2 p.m. Go to americanmedicinechest.com to search for drop-off locations.

Photo by PAUL J. RICHARDS/AFP/Getty Images

Posted by Kim Walker at 12:27 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Categories: Events, Recycling
        

As sailors will tell you, you can't be in a hurry if you're relying on the wind to get you places.  The same is true with developing offshore wind energy.  Don't expect to see tiny turbines spinning far out to sea when you're at Ocean City next summer, or for several more years at least.

There was a predictable hurrah (which this newspaper helped fan, because it was news, after all) when the federal government announced Monday that it is opening up the Atlantic Ocean off Maryland's coast for bids from potential developers of offshore wind power projects. 

Gov. Martin O'Malley, who's made offshore wind a centerpiece of his administration's energy policy, issued a statement calling the federal announcement "another step forward for Maryland's new economy."  He'll no doubt tout offshore wind again when he speaks later today at Towson University about his vision for creating a "new economy" in Maryland that relies heavily on "green" jobs like building, running and maintaining wind turbines.

To be sure, there are likely to be jobs created in Maryland when - or if - wind takes off in a big way.  The O'Malley administration cites a recent projection that 4,000 manufacturing and construction jobs would be created during the development of a one-gigawatt "wind farm" off Ocean City, with another 800 permanent jobs dedicated to running and maintaining the more than 300 massive turbines that would need to be erected.

But though we could certainly use them in the current slump, those jobs are not just around the corner.  Unless the regulatory process picks up speed, it will be a few years yet before any offshore wind project gains all the necessary approvals to move forward in Maryland, much less breaks ground, or water, or whatever.  NRG Bluewater Wind, the company proposing to put wind turbines off Delaware's coast, said in August that the shakeup in the federal Minerals Management Service since the BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico has delayed the permits it needs to move ahead, and postponed that project by two years.   It's now not expecting to start generating any electricity from offshore breezes until 2016.  And Maryland's offshore development is trailing Delaware's. 

Despite the reorganization of the federal offshore leasing bureaucracy, it's possible the red tape holding wind projects back might get streamlined, since the Obama and O'Malley administrations both are strongly behind renewable energy.  But economic and political obstacles loom as well.  As The New York Times reported this week, the Great Recession and cheap natural gas prices have made regulators in some states leery of letting utilities buy power from "green" energy sources like wind projects because they typically cost more than electricity produced by burning fossil fuels, particularly natural gas.  Even deals that would raise residential customers rates by less than 1 percent are being rejected.

The pace of new wind projects has slowed, whether because of such resistance or the economy. Like other businesses, wind developers shy away from uncertainty.  There's not much they can do about the economy, and when electricity demand will pick back up again.  But developers say much of the uncertainty they're contending with has to do with government policy.

Congress has balked so far at passing national renewable energy standards, whether as part of a policy to fight climate change or to reduce US dependence on foreign oil. 

Some states, Maryland included, have stepped up on their own with laws requiring a significant percentage of the power sold in the state come from renewable sources like wind and solar.   In Maryland, the target is 20 percent by 2022, and the state is counting on offshore wind to produce most of that.  But those "renewable portfolio standards" are coming in for criticism from some business and consumer advocates who complain they'll force ratepayers to subsidize more costly green power.

More immediately, wind developers point out that the tax credits and loan guarantees that have helped stimulate their industry's growth are set to expire at the end of this year, unless Congress renews them.  The tax credits were first adopted in 1992 under the presidency of George H.W. Bush, but have been repeatedly renewed.  The loan guarantees, under which the federal government assumes a share of the risk that such projects will go belly up, have been offered since the beginning of the Obama administration.  With Congress about to undergo its own reorganization, it's anybody's guess when or if those incentives will be extended.

"We're sensitive to the political climate," says Peter D. Mandelstam, president of NRG Bluewater Wind.  He points out that wind power technology was first developed in the United States, but the industry shifted its focus to Europe when those nations adopted and maintained strong incentives for developing wind projects.  Now China has jumped on the wind bandwagon, and Mandelstam says it's building new turbines so quickly that it'll soon have more wind generating capacity than the United States.

"The United States has been hampered ... by its lack of an energy policy," Mandelstam says.  "China is set to pass us in five years (building) what it took us 40 years to do."  

Posted by Tim Wheeler at 11:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
        

Today is the deadline for the public to comment on plans drafted by Maryand, the District of Columbia and the other Chesapeake Bay watershed states for accelerating their efforts to clean up the degraded estuary.  Monday, Nov. 8 is also the last chance to comment on the Environmental Protection Agency's first cut at a baywide "pollution diet," which in many cases goes beyond what the states have pledged so far to do.

EPA's draft Total Maximum Daily Load, as the "diet" is known bureaucratically, has come in for heavy criticism from farm and business groups, especially in New York and Virginia, where state and local officials have complained that the pollution reductions demanded by the federal government are unachievable and could cost jobs, raise taxes and halt growth if carried out.

Environmentalists, on the other hand, have noted that the states have the option of revising their cleanup plans to propose a more palatable mix of pollution controls - as long as they reduce nitrogen, phosphorus and sediment to the levels called for by EPA.   The problem is that except for Maryland and DC, none of the other states proposed to do enough.

The Center for Progressive Reform, a pro-environment Washington think tank, found all the states' bay cleanup plans lacking in comments it submitted late last week.  The plans spent most of their ink describing what the states were already doing, the center said, and skimped on specifics about how they'd improve those efforts or what new cleanup steps they'd take.   All but Maryland's plan fail to reduce one or more pollutants to the levels EPA has said are necessary to restore the Chesapeake, it said.

Even Maryland's plan comes in for criticism, despite the fact it lays out enough different options for reducing nutrient and sediment pollution to get them 30 percent below the federal targets.  The problem is, the center said, that the state failed to commit to any of them, and didn't spell out how much each would cost.

Maryland officials have said they wanted to give residents, farmers, local officials and business interests a chance to comment on all the options in writing and at public meetings before choosing among them for a final cleanup plan due to EPA by Nov. 29.

"Public comment and input is undoubtedly valuable, but ultimately Maryland must make the tough decisions that protect the environment and lead to a restored Bay for present and future generations," the center wrote. "By leaving the particulars open to debate, Maryland is likely to receive less focused and helpful comments."

Of course, another effect of waiting to lay out a specific roadmap for reducing pollution in Maryland until Nov. 29 means the O'Malley administration was able to avoid speling out potentially costly and controversial pollution reduction measures until after the election.  It remains to be seen how they'll choose now that the voting is done.

To see and comment on the states' plans, go here, for EPA's, go here.

(Bay Bridge, from Sandy Point State Park, 2009 Baltimore Sun photo by Jed Kirschbaum)

Posted by Tim Wheeler at 8:16 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
        

Who says government is inefficient? Baltimore has reduced overall municipal energy use by 6.5 percent since 2006, and aims to double that in another two years, city officials say.

The amount of electricity consumed by all city buildings and facilities has dropped from 412 million kilowatt hours per year four years ago to 385 million kilowatt hours this year, according to a press release. 

The city has been on a tear the past couple years to conserve energy and use it more efficiently, but the drop in electricity demand didn't come from just turning off lights - or letting streetlights burn out.  The biggest reductions came from putting power-sipping LED lamps in city traffic lights, and from energy generated by the methane produced at the city's Back River sewage treatment plant, according to Cathy Powell, spokeswoman for the city's Department of General Services.

The city's sustainability plan and the state's Empower Maryland initiative both call for reducing energy consumption 15 percent by 2015.   General Services Director Theodore Atwood says Baltimore should reach and exceed those goals. 

More power-saving moves are in store, including negotiating new energy-performance contracts, putting more efficent water heaters in city buildings and libraries, and installing LED lamps in streetlights and parking garages.  With those and other efforts, Atwood predicts the city should be able to reduce its energy use 12.9 percent by 2012 and 30 percent by 2020.

(Streetlight, 2008 Baltimore Sun photo by Kenneth K. Lam)

Posted by Tim Wheeler at 7:06 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
        

Eastern Shore farmers have organized a fund-raiser Saturday (Nov. 6) for the Worcester County farm couple facing a pollution lawsuit, and the agriculture secretaries of Maryland and Delaware are expected to be on hand to show their support.

Proceeds from the $20-per-person chicken-and-barbecue dinner at the Showell volunteer fire hall are to go to Alan and Kristin Hudson of Berlin to help them pay their legal fees defending against the lawsuit, said Lee Richardson, a poultry farmers from Willards.  Richardson said the top ag officials were expected to attend this, the second fund-raiser held for the Hudsons.

The Hudsons were sued last spring by the Waterkeeper Alliance and a pair of local Shore environmental groups, alleging that waste from the Hudsons' farm had fouled a tributary of the Pocomoke River.  The suit also names Perdue Farms, alleging that the giant poultry company based in Salisbury shares responsiblity because the Hudsons raised Cornish game hens under contract.  Both have denied polluting. 

Richardson said Shore farmers and their supporters consider the lawsuit "ridiculous" because they don't believe chicken manure had anything to do with the high bacteria levels measured in the drainage ditch running through the Hudsons' farm.

"If there had been a pile of chicken manure there, I wouldn't have been involved in this event," Richardson said.

Before filing suit, the Assateague Coastkeeper and the Waterkeeper Alliance published an aerial photograph of what they said was chicken manure on the farm draining into a ditch, and said water sampled downstream showed high levels of bacteria, nutrients and ammonia.

Inspectors with the Maryland Department of the Environment subsequently identified the pile as sewage sludge from Ocean City, and required it to be moved back from the ditch and covered. 

The state fined the Hudsons $4,000 for improper storage of sewage sludge, but closed its investigation of the ditch pollution without determining the source.  Inspectors confirmed the high bacteria levels in the farm ditch, but not from the pile. 

Activists, who contend the state is cozy with farmers, have faulted inspectors for not examining the pile more thoroughly or for looking for other possible sources.  But state officials contend the high bacteria readings could just as well have come from wildlife droppings in or near the ditch.

A spokeswoman confirmed that Maryland ag secretary Earl "Buddy" Hance would be there. 

The lawsuit has stirred controversy since its filing last March. Perdue chairman Jim Perdue called it a threat to the state's poultry industry, and Maryland lawmakers responded by threatening to cut off funding for the University of Maryland's law clinics, which had helped the environmental groups bring the case.  Legislators ultimately dropped their threat, settling instead for requiring the school to report on how its clinics operate and are funded.

Kathy Phillips, the Assateague Coastkeeper and director of the Assateague Coastal Trust, declined to discuss the case while it was pending in court, but pointed out that her groups also have received public support and donations to help them pursue it.  A federal judge has dismissed Phillips and the two  groups she represents from the suit on a technicality, but has also refused bids by the defendants to throw the case out without even going to trial.

A trial date has not been set.

(Aerial photo of pile draining to ditch on Hudson farm; 2009 photo by Assateague Coastkeeper)

Posted by Tim Wheeler at 5:08 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
        

You read that right. Usually, fisherfolk hold fishing tournaments and such when they want to raise dough for a good cause. Running for them is like, well, fish out of water.

But in a bid to broaden its reach, the Maryland chapter of Trout Unlimited is having a "Restoration Run" on Sunday, Nov. 14 to raise funds for repairing the Jones Falls and other degraded watersheds in the state.

Jay Boynton, the TU chapter's treasurer and a runner himself, said members thought a run would be a great way to bring some different people out and "expose them to something other than just fishing." In other words, anglers aren't the only ones who care about the health of our waters -- and here's a chance to show it.

The 5K race starts out at 8 a.m. at Meadowood Regional Park on Falls Road near its intersection with Greenspring Valley Road.  The course goes down Falls a bit before cutting over to Hillside Road and back north on Greenspring Avenue.   The Jones Falls, the initial object of the fund-raiser, will be just steps away.

Boynton said funds raised by the run are to go to stream restoration projects.  First on the chapter's list is a stretch of the Jones Falls with a channelized stream bank.  The group hopes to reestablish trout habitat there, partly because they like to catch (and release) trout, but also because trout, especially sensitive to pollution and habitat degradation, are a bellwether of stream health.

The run is open to the public.  Registration is $30 until Saturday (Nov. 6), then $35 next week and $40 on the day of the run.  To sign up, or to donate, go here.

Posted by Tim Wheeler at 11:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
        

The end is near for getting federal rebates from $25 to $500 if you buy an energy-efficient appliance.

The federal "Cash for Appliances" program wraps up here Nov. 12, Maryland officials have announced.

Nearly 90 percent of the $5.4 million in stimulus funds allocated to the state has been doled out, The Baltimore Sun's Liz Kay reports. Marylanders have put in for rebates on more than 14,000 clothes washers, 3,500 refrigerators and nearly 3,000 central air conditioners and air-source heat pumps, according to the Maryland Energy Administration.

There's still a week to get in on the rebates. Select Energy Star room air condioners yield $25 each, refrigerators $50, clothes washers $100, hot-water heaters $300 and heat pumps or central air, $500. For details and to apply, go to the MEA's website.   Customers of Allegheny Power, BGE, Delmarva, Pepco or SMECO also can get rebate forms from their utility's website.

Posted by Tim Wheeler at 9:54 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)
        

Scientists just back from a research cruise in the Gulf of Mexico report finding dead and dying corals in the vicinity of the now-plugged oil well blowout.

Researchers who spent three weeks exploring the Gulf aboard the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration vessel Ronald H. Brown say they observed deep-water corals on the sea bottom with sloughing tissue and discoloration about seven miles southwest of the Macondo wellhead.  Large patches appeared to be covered with what scientists described as a "brown substance."

Scientists say they won't know if the brown substance is oil, or if the coral damage is related to the spill, until they've been able to analyze samples retrieved and brought back to the laboratory.   You may recall I blogged earlier this week that University of Maryland aquatic toxicologist Carys Mitchelmore found in lab tests that corals suffer even if the oil is dispersed chemically, as happened with much of the light crude that leaked from the Deepwater Horizon drill rig blowout.  For more on the expedition's findings, go here.

(A single colony of coral with dying and dead sections (on left), apparently living tissue (top right) and bare skeleton with very sickly looking brittle star on the base. Photo courtesy of Lophelia II 2010 Expedition, NOAA)

Posted by Tim Wheeler at 8:30 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
        

If you restore a stretch of degraded suburban stream, will the fish come back?

That's what students at Park School of Baltimore may find out in coming years. Right now, they're getting a hands-on lesson in what long and laborious work it is - not to mention costly - to remedy the harm done to their neighborhood stream by development along its banks, including the school's own impervious footprint.

The stream in question is Moore's Branch, which flows along the back of the Brooklandville private school's campus on its way to Lake Roland.  The lake drains into the Jones Falls, which ultimately finds its way to Baltimore Harbor, the Patapsco River and the Chesapeake Bay.

The banks of Moore's Branch are badly eroded, explains Daniel Jacoby, who teaches environmental science and advises the Climate Change Committee at Park (known archly by its initials, CCCP, with lots of Soviet Union jokes).  Students who visit the stream repeatedly over the years say they've seen signs it's not in very good shape, with few of the aquatic bugs on which trout and other fish like to feed.

"The kids used to remember seeing substantial fish, crayfish and a lot more life that's not there now," Jacoby says.

The decline of Moore's Branch no doubt started well upstream of Park School, but Jacoby says the campus bears some responsibility, too.   Years ago, to provide parking for faculty and staff, a lot was paved within 20 feet or so of the stream bank.  When it rains, the water runs off the lot into the stream, adding to storm-fed surges that eat away at the creek banks.  Pavement that close to water wouldn't - or certainly shouldn't - be allowed today, at least not without some runoff protections built in.

That's what Park School and its students are providing now, after the fact.  Inspired to act by a staffer with the Center for Watershed Protection in Ellicott City, the students and Jacoby applied for and got a $20,000 grant from the Chesapeake Bay Trust to landscape the thin strip of ground between the parking lot and the stream.  The school has chipped in even more funds of its own to cover the restoration project, and handled the logistics of hiring contractors to do the heavy earth-moving work involved. 

It took practically two years to get all the permits and approvals needed to go forward, Jacoby says, but the restoration effort is finally happening. A swale or trench-like depression has been carved in the ground to capture the first flush of rain running off the parking lot, and students this week have been planting shrubs, and various perennials and grasses along the swale to help soak up the runoff.

On Saturday, the project will wrap up with a final planting involving students, their parents and volunteers with the Baltimore Water Alliance, the recently formed coalition of watershed groups that watches over the Jones Falls and other waterways feeding into the harbor.  David Flores, a restoration coordinator for the alliance and a Park alumnus, has been advising them.

Jacoby said the three-year saga has been an education for him and the students, and promises to be a continuing lesson for classes to come. 

"It's kind of a great teaching tool, both for the environmental science and other classes," he said.  Also for lower school classes.  All walk in the stream, he said, adding that "the kids really care about it."

Here's hoping that caring is contagious, and the example the school sets can spread throughout the Jones Falls and the rest of the Baltimore Harbor watershed.

(Student members of Park's climate change committee and its faculty advisor plant native perennials along swale. From left, Jackson Hance, Daniel Jacoby, Emily King and Eric Bass.  Photo by Hillary Jacobs, Park School) 

Posted by Tim Wheeler at 6:28 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)
        

Environmental activists are celebrating election returns indicating they still have clout in Annapolis (and California), but the outlook in Washington isn't so green.

The Maryland League of Conservation Voters says that 88 percent of the candidates it endorsed, 119 out of 138, won their races on Tuesday, with two races still too close to call as of mid-day Wednesday.  The most prominent of those, of course, was the reelection of Democratic Gov. Martin O'Malley, whom the league had endorsed way back in January, even before it was clear Republican former Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. would challenge him. 

League executive director Cindy Schwartz said the results show Marylanders are passionate about the Chesapeake Bay and are "growing increasingly concerned about over-development and traffic, and recognize the need to create new clean energy jobs." 

She also claimed the returns confirm that "environmental issues always are top of mind when voters go to the polls."

Hard to dispute the first assertion, as I've not seen any recent poll results on growth and green jobs.  But the second contention about environmental issues being a priority with Maryland voters seems a tad optimistic.  A long series of independent public opinion polls through multiple elections, including this year's, have always found the environment, even the bay, taking a back seat in voters' minds to the economy, education and crime.   Voters care about the environment here, to be sure, but still not as much as other issues.

Perhaps another key to the league's high electoral batting average this year was its teaming up with labor (teachers and service workers) and with another environmental groups, Sierra Club and Environment Maryland, to pool efforts in making phone calls, sending out emails and producing campaign videos.

Overall, Republicans picked up a half-dozen seats in Maryland's House of Delegates, reports The Sun's Julie Bykowicz, while possibly losing two seats in the Senate, depending on the final outcome of close counts.

Locally, Baltimore city voters overwhelmingly approved a charter amendment (Question B) setting up one or more funds to promote sustainability, maintain city parks and improve the urban environment.  That could come in handy for ensuring that revenues can be raised through fees or other means to clean up litter in the harbor or retrofit storm drains.  Anne Arundel voters also put a dedicated environmentalist, West-Rhode Riverkeeper Chris Trumbauer, on the County Council.

California remains firmly green as well, it seems. There, voters defeated a ballot proposition to stall that state's climate-change law.  Proposition 23 had been heavily underwritten by industries opposed to the impending regulations. 

In Washington, though, it appears voters in Maryland and across the nation have made it much tougher for Congress to pass the Chesapeake Bay cleanup or climate-change legislation that have languished on Capitol Hill the past year.

Prospects for the bay bill sponsored by Sen. Benjamin L. Cardin, D-Md, appear to have worsened with the Republican House takeover and inroads in the Senate.  "It's going to be an uphill battle, but we're giving it all we've got," Doug Siglin, federal affairs director for the Chesapeake Bay Foundation, acknowledged in an email.   The bill faces fierce opposition from national farm and builders' lobbies, who see it as a template for how the Obama administration would regulate water pollution in other states. 

As for climate legislation, the Competitive Enterprise Institute, a conservative think tank opposed to environmental regulations, pointed out that 30 House Democrats who'd voted in 2009 to pass the Waxman-Markey bill to cap and trade greenhouse gas emissions, either lost their seats or retired this year. 

One of those was Maryland's freshman Rep. Frank Kratovil, who lost big to Republican former state senator Andrew Harris in their rematch for the 1st District congressional seat representing the Eastern Shore and the northeastern portion of the Baltimore suburbs.  Kratovil had narrowly beat Harris two years ago in the contest to see who would replace moderate GOP Rep. Wayne Gilchrest, who'd lost in the primary to Harris.

While climate action supporters like Kratovil fell, environmentalists point out that nearly half the 43 Democrats who'd voted against the climate bill also lost their races or retired. 

Whatever the reasons for those seats changing hands, environmentalists acknowledge they're not optimistic about any climate legislation moving on Capitol Hill for the next couple year - unless it's an attempt to strip the Environmental Protection Agency of its legal authority to regulate carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases.

"Obviously the votes are not going to be there in the House .. to move forward," Martin Hayden, a vice president of the environmental group Earthjustice, said Wednesday in assessing the election's impact.The Senate remained in the Democrats' control, though Republicans did pick up seats there, too, and Grist points out that the ranks of senators opposed to climate action has grown.

Greens still hope that there's enough support in both parties for "energy independence" to pass legislation promoting energy efficiency and alternative energy development -- two pillars of the effort to reduce greenhouse gases as well. 

And the bay foundation's Siglin said that even if a comprehensive bay cleanup bill  like Cardin's can't pass, local environmentalists hope to get elements of it through in other forms, particularly the provisions authorizing increased federal funding to help farmers and communities deal with their polluted runoff.

(Maryland State House dome, Baltimore Sun photo by Kim Hairston; newly elected 1st District Rep. Andrew Harris, AP photo)

Posted by Tim Wheeler at 11:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Air Pollution, Chesapeake Bay, Climate change, News
        

The massive use of dispersant chemicals to break up the Deepwater Horizon oil leak may have prevented more serious harm to Louisiana's wildlife and wetlands, but the remedy may actually have caused more subtle long-term harm to less visible but important components of the Gulf of Mexico ecosystem, suggests a University of Maryland researcher.

Carys Mitchelmore, an aquatic toxicologist at UM's Chesapeake Biological Laboratory, told members of the American College of Veterinary Pathologists that corals and anemones on the sea bottom are particularly sensitive to water contaminated with both tiny oil droplets and the dispersant chemicals.  The college is meeting in Baltimore through today (Wednesday, Nov. 3).

Roughly 1.8 million gallons of Corexit chemical dispersants were used to break up the oil gushing from the Macondo well drilled by BP off the coast of Louisiana, with nearly 800,000 gallons pumped nearly a mile down to the source of the leak in a novel attempt to disperse sub-surface plumes.   Experts evaluating the dispersants during the three-month leak determined they were no more toxic than the oil, and that their uses was warranted to prevent slicks from smearing beaches and wetlands and fatally coating birds and other wildlife. 

But tests in Mitchelmore's lab - conducted with the aid of students at St. Mary's College - found water containing chemically dispersed oil affected the growth of one common species of coral, which took up to three weeks to recover from just an eight-hour exposure.  Anemones also absorbed more of the toxic polyaromatic hydrocarbon compounds found in oil when it was broken up into tiny droplets, she said.

"Use of dispersants near coral reefs needs close consideration," she said.

In an interview before her presentation, Mitchelmore said dispersing the massive spill may have made it easier for oil-consuming bacteria to get at it, but it also may have exposed zooplankton and phytoplankton to the toxic effects of petroleum.

"A lot of people may think, 'So what?''' she said.  "But if you kill those organisms, you're killing the food web."  That could have delayed effects on the abundance of marine life, she said, noting that the Gulf is a breeding ground for such valued commercial fish as bluefin tuna.

"We're going to be looking at this for years to come," she said. 

Mitchelmore. a co-author of a 2005 report by the National Research Council on oil spill dispersants, has testified repeatedly before Congress this year on the trade-offs and potential risks involved.  She noted that despite repeated heavy uses of chemical dispersants to treat large spills - including the largest application in 1979 in another drilling rig blowout in Mexican waters - there are still significant gaps in knowledge about the toxicity of the chemicals used. 

(Deepwater Horizon drilling rig fire, April 2010.  Coast Guard photo via AP)

Posted by Tim Wheeler at 10:40 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
        

A manatee may still be lurking around Baltimore's harbor, according to the National Aquarium, but the wandering sea cow from Florida is in increasing jeopardy as water temperatures drop.

A kayaker reported seeing a manatee late Thursday morning in the upper Patapsco River near Harbor Hospital, the aquarium said.  It's just the latest of several elusive sightings in the past few weeks.  But with only one photograph (seen above) taken at Swann Park in the  Middle Branch in August, biologists have been unable to confirm its continued presence or identify it.

"We have received scattered reports of manatee sightings over the past three weeks, but they are scattered, and no photographic evidence exists," Jennifer Dittmar, stranding coordinator for the aquarium's marine animal rescue program, said in a statement.  She said aquarium staff are working with U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service biologists from Florida to monitor the animal, but with no pictures or consistent sightings, "we are having trouble tracing its movements and assessing its health."

With water temperatures in the river dipping to 60 degrees Fahrenheit, it's becoming too cold for manatees and their preferrred food source, submerged aquatic grasses.  Aquarium staff think the animal may be swimming in and out of the Middle Branch to find food, movement that they said could be complicating their search for it.  That, and the fact that the slow-moving mammals can be hard to spot from a distance.

Aquarium staff are asking anyone on or around the harbor, especially the Middle Branch, to keep an eye out, looking for the manatee's smooth back or nostrils possibly poking out of the water, or for the telltale smooth "footprint" one creates on the surface as it slowly swims along.  The animals can be nine or 10 feet long and weigh 1,000 pounds.

Anyone who sees what appears to be a manatee is asked to call in the time and location to a hotline, 410-373-0083, or to email recent photos to marp@aqua.org with details of where and when it was seen.  Aquarium staff urge boaters to slow down, especially in shallow waters or inlets, to avoid stsriking the animal.  Also, anyone who spots a manatee is cautioned to stay back, as it's a violation of federal law to harm or harrass marine mammals.

Concerns for the manatee's health in Maryland's frigid winters are all too real.  A dead one was found on the shore of the Patuxent River in April, according to the aquarium, six months after one had been seen swimming in the river.

(Photos courtesy National Aquarium)

Posted by Tim Wheeler at 4:32 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)
        

Congressional action to beef up the Chesapeake Bay cleanup, stalled for months amid fierce opposition from farmers and developrs, faces increasingly narrow prospects in the weeks after tomorrow's election. 

Environmentalists had hoped a bay restoration reauthorization bill might squeak through the Senate, at least, when Congress returns to Washington after tomorrow's voting.  But national and Maryland farm groups continue to oppose it, and recently sent a letter to all senators contending that the measure sponsored by Sen. Benjamin L. Cardin, D-Md, would be a "breathaking expansion of federal regulatory control"  that could lead to "draconian controls on economic activity and growth in the Chesapeake Bay watershed without assuring that water quality will improve."

The bay bill has been languishing in the Senate since clearing the Environment and Public Works Committee last summer.  Despite concessions made by Cardin meant to ease farmers and developers' concerns, industry continues to oppose it.  (Interestingly, the changes alienated some environmental groups, who contend the bill's been severely weakened - a charge other green supporters deny).

Proponents had hoped to "bundle" the Chesapeake bill with others meant to aid other water bodies, such as the Great Lakes, Gulf of Mexico, San Francisco Bay, Puget Sound and Long Island Sound.  But the farm groups call on senators to oppose any bill if it includes the Bay measure.  Groups opposing it include including Delaware Maryland Agribusiness Association, Delmarva Poultry Industry Inc., Maryland Pork Producers, Maryland and Virginia Milk Producers Cooperative Association and Maryland Grain Producers Association.

The farm groups contend that the Cardin bay bill would essentially rewrite the 1972 Clean Water Act and give to the Environmental Protection Agency authority granted to state and local governments.  The EPA would gain control under the pollution "diet" it is drawing up for the six bay states to regulate water flow and land use, the farm groups contend.  And it would also allow for more lawsuits to be brought by environmental activists, meaning judges could be the final arbiters of such issues. 

Though the bay bill ostensibly applies only to the six-state Chesapeake watershed, the opponents say its impact could be nationwide.  Environmentalists have held up the bay bill as a model for how water pollution should be dealt with, they say.

The Chesapeake Bay Foundation countered with a letter of its own to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid urging he bring the bay bill to a vote, saying the farm groups' broadside "contains many inaccuracies and misleading statements."

"Pollution from farm runoff remains the biggest problem facing the Chesapeake Bay and its tributaries," the Annapolis-based environmental group said.  It also quoted from a new U.S. Department of Agriculture draft report that finds 81 percent of the croplands in the bay watershed need more controls on runoff to curb nutrient pollution of the bay and its tributaries from animal manure and chemicals used to fertilize crops.

"It is alarming that after 25 years of voluntary, cost-assisted federal conservation programs (as well as other state programs) only 19 percent of the more than 4.3 million acres of harvested crop land in the watershed is now adequately managed to control agricultural runoff laden with nitrogen and phosphorus pollution," the foundation said.

For more on the bill, S. 1816, go here; for the opposition, go here; and for info from backers, go here.

(Baltimore Sun photos: Barley on farm near Hillsboro, 2008, by Glenn Fawcett; Chicks on farm near Pocomoke City, 2007, by Doug Kapustin)

Posted by Tim Wheeler at 12:45 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)