Report says Bay improving, but still ailing
With its crab population rebounding and water quality slightly better, the Chesapeake Bay is showing signs of improvement, the region's leading environmental group says, but the estuary remains seriously impaired and needs a strict pollution "diet" to ensure its restoration.
The Annapolis-based Chesapeake Bay Foundation upped the estuary's overall health score by three points in its latest "state of the bay" report, while warning that it remains in critical condtion, barely above a failing grade.
"That the bay is getting better is a huge development, but sadly not the whole story," William C. Baker, the foundation's president, said in a release accompanying the report. "Dead zones, fish kills and water contact advisories are constant reminders of how far we still must go."
The report comes as the Environmental Protection Agency prepares to release its final "pollution diet" for the bay, requiring Maryland and the rest of the six-state region to curtail the nitrogen, phosphorus and sediment getting into the water from sewage plants, farms and urban and suburban lands. The EPA's draft "total maximum daily load," as the diet is known, has stirred anxiety and anger among farmers, developers and some state and local officials, who fear the costs of cleanup may stifle growth.
The foundation's report says the EPA's action occurs at a watershed, as eight of 13 indicators of the bay's health have improved since 2008, with the dramatic recovery of the Chesapeake's blue crab population leading the way. Other significant gains came in planting of trees along water ways to buffer pollution, and in the continued flourishing of underwater grasses, vital habitat for fish and crabs.
Water clarity, dissolved oxygen and oysters also improved slightly, but remained marginal at best, the foundation's report notes.
"We are at a tipping point," the foundation's Baker said. "If EPA stands firm, and the states deliver on their commitments, the bay will become resilient and beautiful."
(Aerial view of Chesapeake tidal marsh, creek, forest and farmlands. Photo by Jane Hawkey, IAN Image Library ian.umces.edu/imagelibrary)
