Healing the harbor - 'the time is now'
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?
Comments
Boston's Charles River basin was highly polluted through the 1990s with raw sewage and other industrial pollutants, requiring tetanus shots for anyone who fell into the water. Now after four decades of effort and a major push in the last 10-15 years, the river is swimmable!
Posted by: Balto Res | January 30, 2011 3:34 PM
your story really put things in perspective. i'm sure you've blogged 100 times before about ways to 'save the bay' but what can an ordinary citizen do on their own to help keep trash and other nasty stuff out of the water downstream?
TW: Glad you asked. Everyone's part of the solution, as well as part of the problem. Assuming you're a thoughtful person who's not prone to littering, then think about other ways in which you may be adding to the woes of your neighborhood stream, and ultimately the harbor and Chesapeake Bay.
At home, look at reducing runoff from your house, driveway or parking pad by disconnecting downspouts and getting rain barrels. Plant rain gardens to capture runoff from your sidewalk or driveway. If you have a lawn, test your soil before putting any fertilizer down, to make sure you're only applying what the grass and trees can use.
And do you have a dog? Do you pick up its poop when you're out for a walk?
On the community front, be on the lookout for litter, and pick it up or contact your local government if it starts to pile up. Trash attracts trash, it seems.
Finally, you might think about joining one of the groups working to "clean and green" our area - Blue Water Baltimore is the new name of the watershed groups that looked out for the Jones Falls, Gwynns Falls and Herring Run. There are groups working on the Back and Patapsco rivers, too.
These are just some things you might do. Even I haven't gotten around to disconnecting my downspouts yet, but i'm taking a hard look at it now. If you do any one of these, you're probably ahead of the vast majority of people. But if more do their small part, it begins to add up.
Posted by: wow | January 31, 2011 10:05 AM
Well, MDE could help by not permitting a coal ash landfill (or any other landfills!) to be built along the Patapsco, by not permitting more mercury-generating waste incinerators to be built along the Patapsco, and by requiring Sparrows Point and all other contaminated sites along the Patapsco to be cleaned up within the next 5 years. Plastic bottles may be unsightly, but heavy metals, selenium, benzene, and other invisible toxins pose a far greater risk to the health of humans and wildlife.
Posted by: patapsco | January 31, 2011 7:27 PM