After decades - no, centuries - of abuse and neglect, Baltimore's ailing harbor may finally be getting the attention it needs.

Concerned citizens, scientists and community and business leaders have come together to take a hard look at how to heal the northwest and middle branches of the Patapsco River, the most degraded tributary in the Chesapeake Bay.

It won't be easy. As I report in today's Baltimore Sun, the harbor is continually assaulted by torrents of trash, sewage leaks, pet manure and other pollution washing off streets and parking lots whenever it rains. Its sediments also are contaminated in many places, largely a legacy of the city's industrial and shipping past.

There's still plenty of life in the water - crabs, rockfish, white perch, even a roving Florida manatee apparently camped out here last summer. It's just not that hospitable to people, littered with flotsam and jetsam and with "shockingly high" levels of potentially disease-causing bacteria, particularly after heavy rains but nearly all the time in some places.   To see where the harbor's funy (and relatively clean), check out this interactive map.  People also are warned to limit their consumption of crabs and certain fish caught there because they may harbor low levels of toxic contaminants. 

The stuff fouling the water didn't get there overnight, and it didn't just come from waterfront neighborhoods. It's washing into the harbor from the Gwynns Falls and Jones Falls, which drain most of the city and much of suburban Baltimore County as well. Those streams are degraded as well, and the city has even posted some signs along them warning folks not to touch the water.

Watershed activists have been working for years to repair the Gwynns and Jones falls, and Herring Run as well, which drains northeast Baltimore into Back River - another of the bay's sickest tributaries, for much of the same reasons. They've made some progress, and in the past year have merged to form a new, unified watershed group, Blue Water Baltimore, that aims to be an even stronger force for cleaning and greening the area.

They've been joined by business leaders, in the form of the Waterfront Partnership, who've drawn new attention to the harbor's ills and launched a campaign to make it swimmable and fishable by 2020.  The partnership is working on a plan for achieving that, and it's holding a one-day conference on the state of the harbor Saturday (full to capacity, as of late last week - another sign of public engagement)

Given the magnitude of what needs fixing, advocates acknowledge it's ambitious, and probably overly optimistic to think all the harbor could ever be safe to swim in, much less in a decade.  But even if it's a stretch, it's clear there's some momentum now for restoring Baltimore's watery heart that wasn't there before. Partnership chairman Michael Hankin says "the time is now to do this."

What do you think? What'll it take to make the harbor swimmable and fishable?  What are you doing to help? What would you be willing to do?

Posted by Tim Wheeler at 10:28 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)
        

Maryland may have acted years ago to curb harmful mercury emissions from power plants within its borders, but it's still a health threat here because neighboring states have yet to crack down on the toxic pollutant, an environmental group's report says.

Coal-burning power plants in Maryland had to install new pollution controls by last year that reduce mercury emissions by 80 percent.  I reported last year on the completion of work at Constellation Energy's Brandon Shores plant, one of the last to install pollution scrubbers to comply with the state's Healthy Air Act and the nearest to Baltimore.

But a new report by Environment Maryland notes that similar controls have not been required in other states, and Pennsylvania, Ohio and West Virginia have the second, third and fourth highest emissions, respectively, of mercury in the country.  All are within Maryland's "airshed," where pollutants put into the air in one state are carried by prevailing winds into neighboring states.

Robert M. Summers, acting secretary of the environment, noted in a news release that 73 percent of the mercuy air pollution measured in Maryland is coming from outside the state's borders.

He and others called on the Environmental Protection Agency to follow through with an air-quality standard it is set to propose in March that would curb mercury and other toxic air pollution from power plants.  The federal standard, if proposed as drafted, would reduce mercury emission by more than 90 percent, advocates say.

The report - and a press conference held today - are meant to put public pressure on EPA to go through with the regulation in the face of pushback from industry and its supporters in Congress, where legislation to block new EPA rules is said to be in the works.

(Brandon Shores power plant, with new scrubber. 2010 Baltimore Sun photo by Kenneth K. Lam)

Posted by Tim Wheeler at 1:00 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)
        

President Obama heartened environmentalists when he set a new national goal last night of Americans getting 80 percent of their electricity from "clean energy" by 2035, but he then dismayed some by including nuclear power and coal in his definition of what's clean. 

And interestingly, Obama didn't even mention climate change as a reason to wean the country from its addiction to fossil fuels. Instead, government incentives to develop clean energy will yield "green" jobs and help America regain its technological edge in the world economy, he argued.

"Some folks want wind and solar," he said during his State of the Union address to Congress. "Others want nuclear, clean coal and natural gas. To meet this goal, we will need them all -- and I urge Democrats and Republicans to work together to make it happen."

A bevy of environmental groups praised the president's speech afterward, reiterating his argument that government incentives to develop renewable energy could generate needed jobs.  They also applauded his vow to end federal tax breaks for the oil industry.

"A true clean energy standard will foster more renewable electricity and energy efficiency and encourage us to leave behind old, dirty technologies we've proppsed up for too long already," Frances Beinecke, president of the Natural Resources Defense Council, wrote in her blog.

But others voiced their displeasure at Obama's insistence that nuclear and coal are part of the nation's energy future.

"Coal, nuclear power, biofuels and natural gas are inherently dirty," said Erich Pica, president of the Friends of the Earth. "Telling Americans anything else is misleading."

Conservatives, meanwhile, disparaged the president's pledge to promote clean energy as more government waste that'll only drive up energy prices and create jobs abroad.

Obama didn't bring up climate change this year, a switch from last year's State of the Union address.  Obama similarly emphasized clean energy then, but linked it with the need for the nation to address climate change and called for a comprehensive energy and climate bill to get passed.  The Senate failed to act, however, amid deep divisions over the issue, and intense lobbying from industry that had coal-state Democrats vowing to oppose it.

The president did defend environmental regulation last night as he spoke about plans to  eliminate burdensome government rules and red tape.  

"It's why our food is safe to eat, our water is safe to drink, and our air is safe to breathe," Obama said. 

Unmentioned again, though, is the move by his Environmental Protection Agency to regulate greenhouse gases as a way of combatting climate change - a move Republicans and some Democrats in Congress vow to block.  

(President Obama delivering the State of the Union to a joint session of Congress, Nicholas Kamm/AFP/Getty Images)

Posted by Tim Wheeler at 12:15 PM | Permalink | Comments (5)
        

Hundreds of environmental activists rallied in Annapolis yesterday evening to show their support for green legislative action in the General Assembly.  There'll be plenty of bills to keep them busy, from boosting offshore wind to clamping down on lawn fertilizer, banning arsenic in chicken feed and taxing plastic shopping bags. But a key legislative leader suggested out of activists' hearing that the "big ticket" - and most contentious - measures likely will have to wait until next year.

Enhancing offshore wind energy prospects, requiring communities to address polluted runoff and protecting state environmental programs from budget cuts are the top priorities of the state's green groups.  Buoyed by yesterday's turnout - and the presence of green-leaning elected leaders in the governor's office and General Assembly - activists vowed to make their voices heard.

"We are the faces no longer of tomorrow. We are the faces of today," Chesapeake Bay Foundation President Will Baker said.  Politicians who ignore envirionmentalists "do so at their peril,"  he concluded, to applause.

Adding to the greens' sense of optimism was the appearance before them of Howard County Executive Ken Ulman, who's promoted recycling, renewable energy and other environmental programs in his affluent, suburban county.  Ulman is  president this year of the Maryland Association of Counties, a group that's often opposed environmentalists  in Annapolis, especially in their push for tougher "smart growth" legislation to curb suburban sprawl.  Ulman told the group he personally supports their goals, though he can't guarantee that most other county officials will go along with him.

"You have a friend," he told the activists. But he cautioned, "you don't have a miracle worker."  

Ulman avoided directly addressing one of the greens' top legislative priorities - requiring every community in the state to levy a fee to pay for controlling pollution washing off their streets and parking lots.  Such storm-water pollution is a signficant and growing problem, and the costs of retrofitting existing storm drains and ripping up pavement to reduce runoff are estimated in the billions of dollars statewide.  But only a handfull of counties and municipalities now have fees earmarked to pay for such work, as local politicians are loath to be seen as raising taxes - or fees, in this case. 

Legislation that would require all to collect fees from their constituents has failed in the last two years, but environmentalists contend now is the time to tackle it, as Maryland must begin following a federally mandated "pollution diet" meant to restore the Chesapeake Bay.  Controlling storm-water pollution is a major part of that diet.

"There is a growing reality among counties," Ulman said, "that we have got to come to the table and find solutions to fund storm-water improvements."

Despite that, the storm-water fee bill faces tough sledding again this year.  The O'Malley administration has signaled it wants to wait at least a year to deal with this, and it's unclear whether local officials are ready, either.  The county government group switched from opposition to taking no position on the bill last year, and Ulman said it's too early to say how it will come down this year. 

Del. Maggie McIntosh, the Baltimore Democrat who is chair of the House Environmental Matters Committee, told the group there are lots of contentious issues facing lawmakers in the next four years, including raising funds needed for cleaning up the bay and its rivers and putting "some real teeth" in the state's Smart Growth laws and policies.

She predicted lawmakers would ultimately approve more than doubling the $30 annual "flush fee" all homeowners pay now to close a looming gap in funds for upgrading the state's largest sewage treatment plants.  She also foresaw action on storm-water funding.

But after speaking to the activists, McIntosh told reporters that she expected action on sewage and storm-water fees would have to wait until next year.  Lawmakers are focused this year on closing the state's $1.4 billion budget gap, and debates are expected about raising taxes on gasoline and alcohol, so other revenue measures could get short shrift.

McIntosh did say she expected legislation boosting offshore wind energy to "do well."   Gov. Martin O'Malley has said he'll introduce legislation requiring the state's utilities to sign long-term contracts agreeing to buy  electricity from turbines that would be placed off Ocean City.  The measure is seen by advocates as a way to help offshore wind developers gain the billions of dollars in financing needed for their projects, though some worry it will force electricity prices up.

McIntosh also predicted some legislative action requiring tighter environmental oversight of drilling for natural gas in western Maryland using a controversial technique known as "fracking,'' or hydraulic fracturing.   It has been blamed for well contamination and stream pollution in other states.   Del. Heather Mizeur, a Montgomery County Democrat, has said she'll introduce a bill imposing a tempoarary moratorium on such drilling in Garrett and Allegany counties until stricter regulations are in place.   Western Maryland lawmakers oppose it, arguing oversight of drilling should be left to state environmental regulators.

McIntosh nevertheless said some legislation is likely to buttress whatever conditions regulators might put on fracking.  All agree that the state's Marcellus shale gas ought to be tapped but in a way that avoids environmental problems, she said.

Meanwhile, on greens' third priority - shielding state environmental programs from budget cuts - activists breathed a sigh of relief when they heard the broad outlines of O'Malley's proposed state budget recently.   It included $25 million for the Chesapeake Bay Trust Fund, the highest it's ever gotten, and stable funding for preserving parkland.  Once again, though, the administration proposes to transfer the revenues earmarked for each and "backfill" with borrowed bond-sale proceeds, which will require a small portion of the funds to be spent on paying off the debt interest rather than on the programs. 

Nor have environmental agencies escaped the knife, as the release Friday of the state budget details may reveal.  A broad buyout offered to state workers is expected to take a toll, and the budget is expected to propose still more position cuts.  The Department of the Environment, which by many accounts lacks the staff to handle all its regulatory responsibilities now, likely could see a workforce reduction on the order of five percent, according to one source.

(State House, Annapolis, 2008 Baltimore Sun photo by Glenn Fawcett; Howard County Executive Ken Ulman, 2010, by Nate Pesce of Patuxent Publishing; Del. Maggie McIntosh, 2009 Baltimore Sun photo by Monica Lopossay) 

Posted by Tim Wheeler at 10:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)
        

Ever thought you'd like to have solar panels on your house but been put off by sticker shock?  Well, that may be about to change.  A California company that specializes in leasing pricey solar energy systems to homeowners and businesses is expanding to Maryland.

SolarCity, which claims to be the largest solar service provider in the country, announced Monday it has acquired the solar installation unit of Clean Currents, the Rockville-based independent energy company that has been marketing wind and solar power across the mid-Atlantic region.  It has a Baltimore-area office in Catonsville.

SolarCity sells and installs photovoltaic systems on homes and businesses, just as about 100 other contractors do in Maryland. But the San Mateo-based company also peddles a zero-down 20-year lease, where the homeowner pays nothing up front, and instead pays rent for the use of the system.  SolarCity says the savings customers realize from the electricity generated by its panels more than offsets the lease payments.  Homeowners typically realize a 10 percent savings per kilowatt-hour consumed, company officials say.

"Given a choice, homeowners will buy clean power as long as it doesn't cost them an arm and a leg," says SolarCity's CEO, Lyndon Rive.

The company plans to start offering its zero-down, 20-year leases sometime in February.  It now operates in more than 1,500 communities in five states - Arizona, California, Colorado, Oregon and Texas.  Maryland and the District of Columbia would be its first East Coast venture.  The firm has about 1,000 employees and expects to add 30 in Maryland in the first year, according to Rive.

SolarCity also is investing in Clean Currents, which says it has more than 6,000 residential and 500 commercial customers in Maryland, DC, Pennsylvania and Delaware.

If the lease idea catches on, it could significantly boost the spread of solar energy among homes.  The high upfront cost of purchasing and installing photovoltaic panels - $30,000 or more for a typical home system - is a major hurdle to broader adoption of the technology.  

Homeowners can get grants from the state to help with the cost - $500 per kilowatt, up to $10,000 - and Maryland Energy Administration officials say the agency has given out more than 1,200 such grants in the past year and a half.  Homeowners leasing solar panels can still take advantage of the state grants, at least indirectly, according to MEA's Kevin Lucas.  The company installing them has to apply and would get the grant, but can factor that into the rental payment.

(Solar panels covering roof of Fells Point house, 2003 Baltimore Sun photo by Doug Kapustin)

Posted by Tim Wheeler at 9:10 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)
        

As farmers sue and local officials complain (so far) over what's being asked of them to help finally restore the Chesapeake Bay, we keep hearing the refrain that the "real" answer to cleaning up the bay is getting more oysters back in it to filter out the nutrients causing water-quality problems.

Instead of squeezing more pollution reductions out of farmers, developers and municipalities, it is asked, why not do more to promote oyster aquaculture? Could oyster farming be the answer to a cleaner bay?  Now comes a federally funded study that puts the idea in perspective.

It's well-established that oysters are good filter feeders. Scientists have estimated that in their heyday more than a century ago, the bay's bivalves were so abundent they could process all the water in the Chesapeake in a matter of days.  The bay has lost 99 percent of its native oyster population, however, to overharvesting, habitat loss and disease. 

Biologists at Virginia Commonwealth University took up the question.  They measured the nutrient removal capacity of the native Eastern oyster at two aquaculture facilities raising the bivalves in floating rafts. In their study, published in the current issue of Journal of Environmental Quality, researchers calculate that eight large-scale oyster farms, each harvesting one million oysters three inches in diameter, could remove one ton of nitrogen from the bay.  The project was funded by the Environmental Protection Agency, and administered by the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation.

"In terms of nutrients removed per unit area," the study abstract concludes, "oyster harvest is an effective means of nutrient removal compared with other nonpoint source reduction strategies." 

Perhaps, but there's a certain matter of scale.  The EPA estimates that to improve the bay's water quality, Maryland and all the other bay watershed states need to reduce the amounts of nitrogen getting into the bay from their sewage plants, farms, lawns and streets by some 63 million pounds annually.  That's 31,500 tons, if my math is correct.  Eight large-scale oyster farms per ton means we need more than 240,000 of them to do the trick.

Speaking for myself, I love to eat oysters, and would love to see more oyster farming.  But in my wildest dream I can't see that many oyster farms developing in the bay - or us eating our way to a cleaner bay.  Besides, there's the little matter of what happens to all those oysters we'd have to consume - don't at least some of their nutrients return to the bay via our plumbing?

Other scientists who have looked at this issue before concluded that oyster farming might help water quality in some coves and rivers if done on a large enough scale.  But humans on their own can't hope to match the scale of baywide oyster production that nature once provided, gratis.

(Oysters growing in floats at the Choptank Oyster Co. in Cambridge.  2007 Baltimore Sun photo by Glenn Fawcett)

Posted by Tim Wheeler at 9:30 AM | Permalink | Comments (12)
        

Is Baltimore a throwaway community?   There's a ranking out of the least wasteful cities in the US of A, and good ol' Baltimore comes in 16th. We're behind the usually crunchy places like San Francisco, Seattle and Portland, but also trailing New York and Pittsburgh, even Dallas and Orlando.

The ranking - which I saw on Mother Nature Network - is the second done by Nalgene, the reusable drink bottle maker, and Baltimore actually dropped four places since 2009, when we were judged 12th least wasteful.  Guess we're getting worse.

Or rather, should I say, when we judged ourselves - because the rankings are based on a survey in which about 150 residents from each of the 25 cities rated were asked to score themselves on 23 different behaviors and practices that are either wasteful or frugal.

Here's some of the things our city's participants in the survey say we don't do:

- hanging clothes out to dry when possible

- limiting showers to five minutes

- composting fruit and veggie scraps

- turning off the water when brushing teeth.

Of course, some of the top cities have a head start on establishing social norms around some of these behaviors.  San Francisco, for instance, has the nation's strictest recycling law, it seems, which has sparked a big jump in residents composting their food scraps.

Not that B'moreans are total wastrels. There are a few things where we prided ourselves on our responsible behavior.  

Here's what we said we do better than most:

- save leftover food to eat again (Yeah, but do we eat those leftovers, or let them turn into science experiments in the back of the fridge?) 

- use reclosable bags or tinfoil (goes with saving leftovers, I guess)

- borrow from the library or buy used books rather than purchasing all our reading material new.

So how honest were we - or rather, those folks who represented the entire metro area?  Are we lagging in reducing waste in our lives, or is this just another manifestation of Charm City's chronic inferiority complex?

(Photo:  Compost bin at San Francisco restaurant, 2010; by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)

Posted by Tim Wheeler at 1:28 PM | Permalink | Comments (5)
        

One of the wild horses at Assateague Island National Seashore was shot and killed over the weekend during an authorized deer hunt there, the National Park Service reported today.

The 28-year-old bay mare was found Saturday by a hunter and reported to a park ranger the following day. Superintendent Trish Kicklighter was quoted in the release saying that she hoped the shooting was accidental, but an investigation is under way.

While most national parks do not allow hunting, it was authorized by Congress when it created the national seashore in 1965. Several hunts are held there every fall and winter to help control populations of white-tail and sika deer on the barrier island.

Sika deer were introduced in 1920, and park service officials say without hunting to limit their numbers the non-native deer would harm the island ecosystem. While there's been concern about the wild horse population outgrowing the resources of the seashore as well, the park service has been controlling that by treating mares with contraceptives.

The National Park Service is offering a $1,000 reward for information leading to arrest of the individual (or individuals) involved in killing the horse. Even if the shooting was accidental, failure to report it violates federal regulations. Anyone with information is encouraged to call Chief Ranger Ted Morlock at 410) 629-6055 or email ted_morlock@nps.gov

For more on the seashore and its horses, go here.

(Wild horses at dusk at the old ferry landing, Assateague Island National Seashore, 2003 Baltimore Sun photo by Algerina Perna)

Posted by Tim Wheeler at 3:02 PM | Permalink | Comments (8)
        

Perdue plans to harness the sun to help run its Delmarva-based poultry and grain empire.

The company announced Wednesday that it would install more than 11,000 solar panels - covering the equivalent of 10 football fields - at its corporate headquarters in Salisbury and at its feed mill in Bridgeville, Del.

The company, one of the largest in the chicken business, says its solar play will be one of the biggest on the East Coast.

The panels, made by Standard Solar based in Rockville, will actually be owned and operated by Washington Gas Energy Services Inc.

Perdue signed a 15-year agreement to buy the electricity produced by the panels - 3,700 megawatt hours of electricity a year, on average, the company says, which it estimates is roughly what it takes to power 340 homes. Of course, since the sun doesn't shine all the time, the amount generated at any one time will vary.

Steve Schwalb, Perdue’s vice president of environmental sustainability, estimated the electricity from the solar panels will reduce Perdue’s carbon footprint by 3,000 tons per year. 

(Stock photo, Standard Solar) 

Posted by Tim Wheeler at 7:23 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)
        

The long wait is over.  Chevy Volts are starting to roll into Baltimore.  Randy Schilling of Catonsville recently became one of the first - if not numero uno - in the area to get the plug-in car that's "more car than electric," as the Detroit carmaker's ad pitch goes.   So far, he says he's loving it.

Schilling, 36, took delivery of his "cybermetallic" gray Volt last week from a dealer in Fredericksburg, Va.  He needed the gasoline engine to get it home - the driving range of the battery is about 50 miles under ideal conditions, less in cold weather like we have now.  

Since then, though, he reports he's been able to rely on battery power for the bulk of his driving around town and for getting to and from work at Fort Meade, where he's commander of a military police detachment.

"She has been definitely turning heads and getting me lots of smiles and thumbs up while I am driving," he emailed me this week.

Volts are trickling into the Washington area as they roll off the assembly line, and dealers told me in November they had waiting lists.  Schilling says he lucked out - a buyer ahead of him from Florida backed out, enabling him to join the ranks of pioneers in what he predicts will be a revolution in the electrification of transportation. 

"At some point in time we've got to start easing our dependence on foreign oil," said Schilling, who's been to Iraq.  And he says his commitment to going electric has only grown with the recent rise in gasoline prices to around $3 a gallon.

What's nice about the Volt, he says, is it's more than a gas-sipper - it's fun to drive.  He traded in a Lexus RX400 hybrid for it.  "It doesn't drive like a hybrid,"  he says. "Driving on pure electric, it just takes off."

He paid nearly $43,700 for his Volt, a sticker price larded with options, including heated leather seats.  A year from now, he can take a $7,500 credit on his federal income taxes.  He's also eligible for a state tax credit of up to $2,000.

Price aside, Schilling says he believes electric cars are here to stay.  "I'm sure this is going to kick off a major trend," he says.  "Once people can see .. it's not pokey, they 'll catch on."

That's not to say he wouldn't be willing to pay less to be a pioneer.  The all-electric Nissan Leaf sells for about $10,000 less fully loaded, but it's been slower to make its way to the East Coast.  "Maybe I'll buy a Leaf next year," Schilling said.

For now, he's having to jury-rig recharging his Volt, with an extension cord run from a 110-volt outlet in his house to his car, parked in the street. It takes 10 hours now to get a full recharge.  But he's having a 240-volt charging station put in on the side of the house, and plans to put in a driveway so he can park off the street - and reduce the risks of anyone tripping over the cord running across the sidewalk.

There still aren't too many places EV owners like Schilling can plug in to recharge, but the number is growing.  Two new charging stations just went in at College Square, a shopping center in Westminster.  The stations are just outside a Safeway supermarket there, and free to the public - at least for now.

The sleek-looking charging stations - made by SemaConnect of Annapolis - are part of a new corporate sustainability plan adopted by the real estate firm that owns College Square and six other shopping centers. 

"It's just one small step," explained Dixon Harvey, partner in Black Oak Associates, of the firm's commitment to reducing its energy use at least 20 percent over the next five years.   More efficient lighting has been installed in the parking lots, and now the firm is looking to cut down on energy leaks from its buildings.

Meanwhile, Harvey says, the charging stations will remain free to all comers, at least until the volume of recharging grows to the point it's costing the mall significant money.  At that point, owners of EVs and plug-in hybrids like the Prius seen here - a demo SemaConnect got to show off its charging stations - can keep recharging with a swipe card they can get from the company.

(Photos: Randy Schilling with Chevy Volt, by Tim Wheeler; EV charging station, courtesy SemaConnect)

Posted by Tim Wheeler at 6:27 PM | Permalink | Comments (7)
        

The Chesapeake Bay Foundation is crying foul over a new state regulation supposedly requiring all Maryland high school students to learn about the environment.

The Annapolis-based environmental group says the state Department of Education has left a "giant loophole" in the rule it proposed earlier this month that would allow school districts to avoid doing anything more or different to educate their students about the environment.

"In September, the Maryland State Board of Education voted unanimously to make environmental literacy part of the curriculum," my colleague Liz Bowie reported today in The Baltimore Sun. "However, it is not clear whether the vote made it a graduation requirement."

The board's vote, which came at the urging of a task force appointed by Gov. Martin O'Malley, left it up to local public school systems to decide how to make sure their students learn about environmental science and policy, but required each district to report on what it's doing every five years.  

The new regulation, published Jan. 3, says students can fulfill the environmental literacy requirement by taking social studies or science courses or an AP Environmental Science course.  Or, it says, they could take a locally developed environmental science course. It does not specifically state that environmental topics must be included in the social studies or science courses.

That steams the bay foundation, which hosts field trips and provides training and instruction for more than 11,300 Maryland students and teachers a year.   Don Baugh, CBF's vice president for education, called the state's proposed rule "a paperwork exercise, with no meaningful change in instruction."

"Only a few months ago, it appeared Maryland was ready to be a model for teaching environmental education across the country," Baugh went on.  "This proposed regulation would scuttle that progress."

Some may see self-interest in the bay foundation's complaint, since school field trips provide it income.  But CBF spokesman John Surrick noted that his group isn't the only conduit for environmental education.

High schoolers are already subject to other state-imposed graduation requirements, such as financial literacy and economics.  Perhaps the state board got some pushback from local school officials and is having second thoughts about a green mandate, even if it wouldn't require shoehorning a new course into an already crowded curriculum. 

Members of the state board of education didn't respond to Liz's requests for interviews.  A spokesman for the state department of education said only that the board welcomes input.  The deadline for commenting is Feb. 3, after which the board is expected to make a final decision on the regulation.

(Baltimore Sun photos: Baltimore's Digital Harbor High students test water clarity in Inner Harbor, 2008, by Ann Tornkvist; Anne Arundel's North County High students sample pond life, 2008, by Amy Davis

Posted by Tim Wheeler at 2:20 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)
        

Maryland's congressional delegation intends to take another run at getting new federal legislation to strengthen the Chesapeake Bay restoration effort, Rep. Chris Van Hollen, D-MD, said this week, but he cautions that advocates may have to settle for smaller "short-term" gains in Congress instead of the controversial measure that died there last year.

Speaking to the Choose Clean Water conference in Washington on Tuesday night, Van Hollen, co-chairman of the congressional Chesapeake Bay Watershed Task Force , said, "We know it's going to be a big fight" and acknowledged that with Republicans seizing the majority in the House in the November elections, "the fight got a little harder."

The bay bill introduced by Maryland Sen. Benjamin L. Cardin cleared the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee last summer.  But despite compromises Cardin agreed to to win over Republican critics of expanding federal authority over water quality - changes that some environmentalists contended weakened the measure - farming lobbies continued to oppose it, and it never came to the Senate floor for a debate and vote.  A similar House bill spearheaded by Baltimore Rep. Elijah E. Cummings never got out of committee. 

Cardin has already said he intends to reintroduce the legislation and still hopes for its ultimate passage.  But Van Hollen told activists at the clean-water conference that if resistance by Republicans and even some Democrats to last year's bay bill remains unabated, a "short-term" approach may be to push for some elements of the original measure, such as the portion meant to encourage farmers to participate in programs states are setting up to trade nutrient pollution credits.

(NICHOLAS KAMM/AFP/Getty Images)

Posted by Tim Wheeler at 6:35 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)
        

Environmentalists often get uncomfortable when asked if people - and their growing numbers - aren't the underlying problem in the Chesapeake Bay's decline.

Now comes a report that'll make everyone even more skittish, because it calculates that immigrants and their children accounted for two-thirds of the population growth in the bay's six-state watershed in the past decade.  And in Maryland, they represented 98 percent - nearly all - of the state's increase in residents.

"The leading environmental groups dedicated (to) cleaning up the Bay recognize the harmful effects of population growth on the Bay but do not acknowledge that immigration is driving population growth in the watershed," says the report by the Federation for American Immigration Reform.

The Washington-based group says it's drawing a bead on the Chesapeake because the Bay's woes are "symptomatic of the impact that immigration-driven population growth is having across the United States. The difference is that the population in the Bay's watershed has already grown beyond the carrying capacity of that ecosystem. 

"The question is not whether the Bay is going to suffer the consequences of excessive growth," it goes on.  "The question is whether the Bay can recover from the immense damage already inflicted upon it."

There's no question that people - and their demands for food, energy, housing and transportation - are at the heart of the Bay's woes.  The chemical fertilizer and manure fouling the waters are produced by or for people.  The bay cleanup effort to date has managed to make only patchy gains in the face of an ever-increasing population - 17 million now, with 150,000 more every year. Longtime author and journalist Tom Horton has written an Abell Foundation report looking at the impact growth has had on the Bay.

FAIR is using the Bay to push its national advocacy for a stricter crackdown on illegal immigration, and for reduced levels of legal immigration as well. It's an emotional issue, because many American families can trace their lineage to foreign shores, and the United States has a long tradition of drawing people here from other countries in search of greater freedom or economic opportunity.

Environmental activists, while acknowledging population's impact, often say there are other things, more in the control of the region's residents, for reducing the impacts the current and future residents that could be done before tackling the thorny issue of immigration reform.  Such as Smart growth, for example, getting everyone to reduce their individual environmental footprint.

What do you think?  Is immigration a problem for the Bay, much less THE problem?  Would limiting entry to this country, legally or illegally, help repair the Chesapeake?  Even if you think it might, would wading into the political minefield of national immigration policy tear apart the already fragile coalition of people and groups working on the current cleanup effort?

(Chesapeake Bay Bridge walk, 2007 Baltimore Sun photo by Jerry Jackson)

Posted by Tim Wheeler at 3:03 PM | Permalink | Comments (12)
        

Hoping to do something about arguably the most degraded water body in the Chesapeake Bay, a coalition of waterfront businesses, environmental activists and others is holding a conference Feb. 5 on the state of Baltimore's harbor and what's needed to make it swimmable and fishable.

Alexandra Cousteau, granddaughter of the famed ocean explorer Jacques Cousteau, will be the keynote speaker for the day-long session. Other luminaries expected include Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake and Rep. Elijah E. Cummings, D-MD.

But the published agenda indicates the session will go beyond glitz to plumb the reasons for the dismal condition of the lower Patapsco River and hear about efforts to restore other urban waters, in places like Boston, Philadelphia and Washington. There'll also be discussions of what it'll take to reduce trash and pollution here, and how to pay for it.

The conference is hosted by the Waterfront Partnership, which along with the National Aquarium put tiny floating wetlands in the Inner Harbor last summer to see if they can help restore fish habitat and water quality. The man-made marsh was the first tangible, if token, step in a campaign the partnership announced in the spring to make Baltimore's harbor fishable and swimmable by 2020.

It's no understatement to say it will be a huge challenge. The Patapsco and Back rivers earned a failing grade in the latest report card on the health of the Chesapeake Bay and its tributaries.  The harbor itself is trash strewn and often unsanitary, with long-standing warnings against eating bottom-feeding fish caught there because of toxic contaminants in the muck on the harbor floor.  But undaunted advocates hope to change all that.

The conference runs from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. at the Legg Mason building in Harbor East. It's open to the public, though advance registration is required. Go here to do that or for more info.

(Ducks swim amid floating trash near Canton, 2005 Baltimore Sun photo by Jed Kirschbaum)

Posted by Tim Wheeler at 1:08 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)
        

Today's the opening day of Maryland's General Assembly, and supporters of developing offshore wind power plan to "swarm" the State House to press legislators to make it a priority, even as they are preoccupied with closing a massive budget gap.   Lawmakers gather at noon to launch the 90-day session.

Environmental activists and union leaders have joined forces this year to seek legislation that would require power companies to sign long-term contracts with developers of offshore wind projects. They contend that's needed to overcome the financing hurdles the fledgling industry faces.

Winds off the Atlantic coast are much stronger and more reliable than they are over land, where all industrial wind turbines have been placed so far.   Not everyone agrees, though, that offshore wind deserves another push from government.

Professor Benjamin F. Hobbs, director of the Environment, Energy, Sustainability & Health Institute at Johns Hopkins University, contends that mandating development of offshore wind in that way would do little for the environment while boosting energy costs consumers must pay.   Better, he says, to let the market decide which forms of renewable energy are the most economical.

"Offshore wind power plants are slightly more productive than onshore wind plants but not enough to make up for the much greater construction and transmission costs (as much as double onshore costs)," Hobbs wrote in a letter published last week in The Baltimore Sun. He said he'd concluded that after conducting a study comparing the costs of offshore wind development versus onshore in Great Britain.

(Wind turbines off Germany, AFP/Getty 2010)

Posted by Tim Wheeler at 10:20 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
        

It didn't take long for the Chesapeake Bay "pollution diet" to get challenged in court.

The American Farm Bureau Federation filed suit Monday, contending that the plan unveiled less than two weeks ago by the Environmental Protection Agency is "dangerous and unlawful," in the words of the national farm group's president.

The suit, joined by the Pennsylvania Farm Bureau, was filed in federal court in that state, but could affect whether the cleanup plan is enforced in Maryland and the rest of the region.

The farm groups contend that the EPA overstepped its legal authority under the Clean Water Act by specifying pollution reductions for farms, municipalities and other sources within the 64,000-square mile watershed - something the suit argues is the purview of the states, not the federal government. 

The suit also asserts that the "total maximum daily load," as the diet is officially known, is based on erroneous information about pollution sources, that the EPA relied on computer models "unsuitable" for simulating the impacts on bay water quality and that the agency did not allow adequate time for public comment and review before imposing its diet. 

"We all want a clean and healthy Chesapeake Bay," farm bureau president Bob Stallman said in a statement. "This lawsuit is about how we get there. Farm Bureau believes EPA's 'diet' for the Chesapeake is dangerous and unlawful."  A farm bureau federation official told The Virginian-Pilot that the intent of the lawsuit is to force EPA to "start over" in assigning state-by-state pollution reductions to restore the bay.

The Chesapeake Bay Foundation criticized the farm bureau federation, saying its action was "anti-clean water" and that the lawsuit will only delay a bay cleanup effort that has been in the works for years now. CBF President William C. Baker accused the farm groups of "an attempt to evade their responsibility and shift additional obligations to reduce pollution to sewage treatment plant ratepayers and urban and suburban jurisdictions."

This isn't the only legal challenge to EPA's authority to require restoration of waters fouled by nutrient pollution, as the Chesapeake is.  The Florida League of Cities and Florida Stormwater Association announced Monday they had joined with the state of Florida and other groups in suiing over new nutrient limits set by EPA for Florida’s waters.  The federal complaint contends the limits are costly and unworkable and based on faulty science. 

(Farmland along Chester River and its tributaries, photo by Jane Thomas, IAN-UMCES image library)

Posted by Tim Wheeler at 10:30 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
        

Use your feet. If you live close to work, forget the car. Not only does this reduce your carbon footprint, it’s also great exercise.

Build a garden. Now is the time to begin planning so that when Spring arrives, you will be ready to plant your edibles.

Eat local. There are a gazillion places here in Baltimore to eat local produce and purchase locally made goods. Frequent them.

Reuse. Part ways with paper towels, paper plates, disposable cutlery, and plastic bags. Instead, replace these items with cloth napkins and dishtowels, melamine plates, canvas shopping bags, re-fillable glass milk bottles (to name just a few alternatives).

Recycle. According to Cleaner Greener Baltimore, our City has one of the most comprehensive recycling programs in the country. Free curbside pick-up and single stream recycling make it easier than ever.

Happy 2011!

Posted by Christy Zuccarini at 12:28 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)
        

At the risk of alarming folks even more, I offer here a listing of wildlife mortality reports across the nation, compiled by the U.S. Geological Survey.

Notice it stretches back to last spring. If you burrow down on this website, you'll see that the USGS totes up wildlife mortalities on a quarterly basis, going back years.  There's also a map here of recent wildlife mortality events reported across the world. 

For those who think recent reports of birds and fish dying are signs of the end of the world, folks at the USGS wildlife health center in Wisconsin told the Associated Press that dozens, hundreds and even thousands of birds, bats and other animals are found dead fairly often, and it's been happening for some time. Many are from disease, some from pollution, but some are unexplained.

Meanwhile, the American Bird Conservancy has seized on the recent uproar to remind the public that there are plenty of bird deaths where there's not much mystery what's behind them.

"There are many human-related causes of bird mortality including buildings, outdoor cats, pesticides, communications towers, automobiles, wind farms and lead poisoning from spent ammunition and lost fishing tackle. 

But most of the deaths from those sources often occur in ones or twos, they often go unnoticed or unreported," said ABC Vice President Mike Parr.  

The conservancy has pressed for stricter environmental reviews of cell phone and other communication towers, and is pressing now for mandatory rules on siting and operation of wind turbines under federal jurisdiction.

(Dead fish at Sandy Point State Park, MD Dept of Environment photo; Wind farm at Altamont Pass, California, American Bird Conservancy photo)

Posted by Tim Wheeler at 7:30 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)
        

Matt Rath, who has one of the neatest jobs around, asked some Baltimoreans what submerged aquatic vegetation is, and how they think the Chesapeake Bay is doing.   Ecology isn't everyone's strong suit, but most seem to get the general idea.   Think "bay grasses" and you'll have it.

Judging from the snow piled in the background, this was filmed last winter, but the comments are timeless. Rath, by the way, produces videos for the Chesapeake Bay Program.  That's the next quiz question Matt can pose - what's the Program, and how exactly is it helping the bay?

Chesapeake Unscripted: What is Submerged Aquatic Vegetation from Chesapeake Bay Program on Vimeo.

Posted by Tim Wheeler at 6:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
        

Dead fish washing up in the Chesapeake Bay, birds falling from the sky in Arkansas, Louisiana and Kentucky, plus assorted other wildlife dropping in places like Brazil, Sweden and the United Kingdom.

What in the world is going on?

Maybe nothing more than some unusually nasty weather. But that hasn't stopped some anxious and even alarmed folk from speculating about a wildlife holocaust triggered by, you name it: pesticides ("what are they spraying?" one emailer asked), lingering poisons from the Gulf oil spill or "the end," as in of time.

The dead blackbirds and grackles really are puzzling to me, though wildlife biologists have suggested fierce night-time storms, lightning and possibly even some New Year's Eve fireworks or gunfire - or a combination of those and other factors - might've led to their demise.

That probably wouldn't explain the dead fish reported in Arkansas, but authorities there are investigating the possibility of disease - again, not an unknown phenomenon.

As for the bay fish kill, turns out it's mainly juvenile spot and some croaker, and biologists suspect the unusually sudden and severe drop in water temperatures in late December did them in. It's not unheard of - there've been other, even bigger winter fish kills in the bay in similar circumstances. And there's been no immediate indication of any pollution or other water-quality problem that might've put the fish in harm's way.

Authorities are investigating, though they caution that the bay fish may be too decomposed to really determine what killed them.

Is there anything connecting these disparate events? I kind of like my colleague Frank Roylance's suggestion, made on his weather blog, that the Internet's to blame.  Not for the wildlife deaths, but for enabling folks to rapidly connect so many disparate dots and see an alarming pattern.

As journalists, we're in the business of connecting dots, so I understand the tendency. We live for unmasking previously unnoticed, slowly developing trends and hidden, nefarious plots. But sometimes, a series of similar events is just a coincidence, not conspiracy.

We may - or may not - ultimately find out what killed these critters. I'll be waiting for the final reports. Meanwhile, I'm not ready to stock up just yet, on food, ammo or even toilet paper.

(Dead fish in Northwest Creek, MD Dept of Environment; dead birds in Pointe Coupee Parish, La.)

Posted by Tim Wheeler at 9:10 AM | Permalink | Comments (27)
        

The Maryland Department of the Environment has formally threatened to sue the operator of three coal-fired power plants in the state for allegedly polluting ground and surface water with coal ash it's dumping in two unlined landfills.

MDE issued notices of intent to sue Mirant Mid-Atlantic, LLC and Mirant Maryland Ash Management, LLC in federal court over ash disposal at Westland or Dickerson in Montgomery County and Faulkner in Charles County.

The action comes after a federal lawsuit filed by the state last year against Mirant over ash disposal at a third landfill in Brandywine in Prince George's County. The agency also has a pending lawsuit in state court over the Faulkner ash landfill, but said in a news release it now plans to consolidate all the cases in federal court.

The state contends that the company continues to dump its coal combustion byproducts in unlined landfills, despite 2008 state regulations requiring liners for ash disposal facilities.   State officcials said toxic substances in the ash are leaching into ground water and nearby surface waters, though they add that levels of contamination so far seem to pose no health risk to nearby residents.

Atlanta-based Mirant merged last year with GenOn Energy, a Houston power company. Spokeswoman Misty Allen emailed that the company disagrees with MDE's interpretation of the federal Clean Water Act and would litigate the matter if the state does file suit.  GenOn has proposed a new ash recycling plant in Charles County to replace its landfills, though regulators have yet to approve it.

In a related devleopment, Maryland's Court of Special Appeals ruled last week that a pair of environmental groups and several individual residents lack legal standing to join in MDE's lawsuit in Charles County Circuit Court alleging ash pollution from the Faulkner landfill.  The Potomac Riverkeeper and the Washington-based Environmental Integrity Project had petitioned to join the lawsuit, which the state now proposes to transfer to federal court.

"Standing" has been a chronic bone of contention in Maryland, with activists complaining of a double standard. Businesses are able to challenge state laws and regulations in court, but citizens and groups are frequently rebuffed when they go to court complaining the state is lax in its oversight of polluters.  While the federal Clean Water Act does allow for citizens to go file suits on their own to enforce it, state law tends to reserve that policing role for state government. To read the opinion, go here.

(Truck dumps coal ash in Faulkner, Charles County.  2007 Baltimore Sun photo by Jed Kirschbaum)

Posted by Tim Wheeler at 1:06 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)
        

As we start a new year, it's worth looking back at the big news of the past year - if only because many of those developments will resonate through 2011 and for years to come.

So here's my list of the top 10 green stories of 2010:

1)  Gulf oil spill: The catastrophic explosion, fire and blowout of the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig off Louisiana's coast took 11 lives and earned a spot in history as the nation's worst oil spill, gushing from April 20 until mid-July. Short-term, the impacts were not as bad as many had feared, as much of the oil dispersed, but the long-term ecological effects won't be known for some time. The disaster also prompted the Obama administration to reverse course and drop plans to expand offshore oil drilling in the Gulf and elsewhere - something that's likely to be challenged with the Republican takeover of the House in Congress.

2) Congress shuns climate action, EPA steps in:  While inaction rarely gets the same headlines, the decision last summer by the Senate's leaders to pull the plug on climate and energy legislation ranks, if not outranks, the Gulf oil spill in significance.  Where politicians feared to tread, however, the Environmental Protection Agency plunged ahead.  EPA at year's end announced initial requirements for limiting emissions from power plants.  Efforts are brewing in Congress, though, from Republicans and some Democrats to strip EPA of its authority - or funding - to follow through.

3) Bay gets pollution diet, crabs rebound:  The Environmental Protection Agency finished the year by putting the Chesapeake Bay on a "pollution diet," requiring 20 to 25 percent reductions in the amounts of phosphorus, nitrogen and sediment getting into the estuary from its 64,000-square-mile watershed.  It remains to be seen, though, how much state and local governments will do in the coming year, as they struggle with budget gaps and sluggish economies.  Meanwhile, the bay's iconic crustaceans staged a second straight year of strong recovery from near collapse, with the annual winter survey showing a 60 percent increase in the crab population over the previous year, to a level not seen since the late 1990s. 

4) Wind gets a push offshore, and lawsuits on land:  The prospects for giant turbines eventually catching the sea breezes off the US East Coast grew last year, with pushes from the Obama administration and from states like Maryland.  The Interior Department set up a "fast track" approval for offshore wind leases, and in November invited bids for placing turbines a dozen or more miles off Ocean City.  The state's first two industrial wind projects got built on Backbone Mountain in Garrett County, but conservationists filed suit alleging the turbines would harm endangered bats.

5) Baltimore greens up, slowly:  The city took steps last year - however haltingly - to make itself a greener, more sustainable place.  After years of debate over plastic shopping bags, City Council acted to curb their littering by imposing a "partial ban" - allowing supermarkets and other stores to keep using the flimsy throwaway sacks as long as they encouraged their customers to recycle or shop with re-usable bags.  The city got its first food "czar," Holly Freishtat, to encourage more healthful eating among city dwellers.   And municipal officials also quietly issued green building standards last summer, after sitting on them for a year to mull over developers' concerns that they'd stifle urban revitalization.  Stuart Kaplow, president of the local chapter of the US Green Building Council, calls the city's 2007 green building law, nor fully in effect, a "game changer." 

6) Scrubbers help clear Maryland’s air:  The state's air got easier to breathe last year after six huge coal-burning power plants were required to install "scrubbers" to clean up the toxic, acidic smoke they once belched from tall stacks.   Constellation spent $875 million installing two at its Brandon Shores plant just south of Baltimore.  Under the 2006 state Healthy Air Act, the power plants were supposed to reduce emissions of smog-forming nitrogen oxides, sulfur dioxide and mercury  by 70 percent to 80 percent last year, and by 75 percent to 90 percent by 2013.

7) Shore farmer, Perdue sued over pollution - lawmakers lash back:  Environmental groups filed a federal lawsuit in March accusing an Eastern Shore farm and giant poultry producer Perdue Farms of polluting waters that flow into the Chesapeake Bay.  The case is the first attempt to hold Maryland's chicken industry legally accountable for the environmental effects of their animals' manure washing into nearby streams and rivers.  Perdue and the farmer deny any wrongdoing, and CEO Jim Perdue warns of dire consequences from the litigation.  Maryland lawmakers responded by voting to withhold funding from the University of Maryland law clinic that helped bring the suit.  The funding block was later withdrawn, and the suit is pending.

8) Sparrows Point steelmaker sued over harbor pollution, begins cleanup:  Fed up with waiting for cleanup of harmful steel-making wastes at Sparrows Point, a pair of environmental groups and several Dundalk-area residents filed suit last summer against the present and former owners of the mill that has operated there for over a century.  The lawsuit, filed more than a year after the groups' formally warned of legal action, alleges that the Patapsco River and nearby residents' health continue to be harmed despite a 13-year-old federal court consent decree requiring remediation.  The groups go to court even as Severstal NA begins work on containing and treating a plume of contaminated ground water seeping off the peninsula into the river and nearby creeks. 

9) Fishy fish - engineered salmon and intersex bass:  A Massachusetts company's proposal to market a new type of fast-growing, captive-reared salmon renewed debate last year about the safety of consuming genetically engineered foods.  At year's end, the Food and Drug Administration was still weighing whether to approve the modified salmon, and whether to require it be labeled as such, so consumers could decide for themselves if they wanted it. 

Meanwhile, scientists last year discovered more instances of modified fish, these apparently accidental.  University of Maryland researchers collected largemouth bass with intersex traits from ponds on the Eastern Shore, while federal scientists reported finding intersex smallmouth bass in the Susquehanna River, after initially finding them a few years before in the Potomac River and its tributaries.  Researchers can't say why male fish have eggs in them, or whether it's harming their reproduction, but they're looking for possible links to hormone-like substances getting in the water from human or farm animal waste. 

10) Going green runs into red tape: Marylanders found it wasn't easy going green, tripping over red tape and regulations when they tried to erect wind turbines in the Baltimore suburbs, use wood chips to "pave" their driveway or put solar panels on a boat pier.   Baltimore County backed away from long-debated guidelines for residentail windmills in the face of opposition from others who feared they would harm property values, while the enterprising individuals gave up their bids for a wood-chip driveway and a solar-powered pier in the face of determined bureaucratic opposition.   On a more encouraging note, the city did move forward last year with a new zoning code that officials said would encourage community gardens, beekeeping and any number of other more environmentally friendly activities.  

(Photos:  Gulf rig fire, AP; western MD wind turbines, Baltimore Sun's Kim Hairston; Brandon Shores scrubber and frustrated waterfront property owner with solar piers, Baltimore Sun's Kenneth K. Lam) 

Posted by Tim Wheeler at 4:19 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)