The New York Times reports that radioactive contaminants in shale gas drilling wastewater are getting into the Susquehanna River and other Pennsylvania waterways because sewage treatment plants there are incapable of removing the contaminants.

The Times report is the latest to highlight risks to public health and the environment from the boom in drilling going on in Pennsylvania and West Virginia for large reserves of natural gas locked deep underground in Marcellus shale formations. High levels of radioactivity have been detected in the wastewater from rigs tapping gas using a technique known as hydraulic fracturing, or hydrofracking - or just plain fracking.

The Susquehanna is just one of three rivers mentioned in the Times report where radioactive wastewater may be going.  But it's the main tributary of the Chesapeake Bay, and a backup source of drinking water for the Baltimore region.

The Times report says drillers trucked at least half their wastewater to public sewage treatment plants in Pennsylvania in 2008 and 2009, while some also was shipped out of state to New York and West Virginia. The sewage plants are incapable of removing enough of the radioactive contaminants to meet drinking water standards, the Times reports.

That's a potential problem because some sewage plant discharges are upriver from other communities' drinking-water intakes. Yet neither the state nor the Environmental Protection Agency is requiring testing for radioactivity at most of the the plants taking the drilling wastewater, the paper reports. 

Maryland has yet to issue any permits for fracking for gas in the Marcellus shale deposits in Garrett and Allegany counties. Legislation is pending that would tighten state regulations for such drilling, or would delay any permits for up to two years so more study could be done of the risks and how to prevent harm to ground water or surface waters.

(Drilling rig in Pennsylvnia, 2005 Baltimore Sun photo by Doug Kapustin)

Posted by Tim Wheeler at 12:25 PM | Permalink | Comments (5)
        

The push to tap natural gas reserves locked in Marcellus shale formations beneath western Maryland and the rest of Appalachia is generating lots of debate over the risks to drinking water and streams posed by the extraction method, known as hydraulic fracturing, or "fracking."

Now comes a new criticism: Some researchers say all the shale gas wells being drilled may do more harm to the earth's warming climate than a comparable amount of coal mined via mountaintop removal.

That's a big switch if so, as natural gas generally emits half the climate-warming carbon dioxide coal does when burned.  Many have touted gas as a clean alternative to coal, and a suitable "transition" fossil fuel until more renewable energy sources can be developed.  Even those Maryland lawmakers most worried about the environmental and health impacts of "fracking" seem to accept that tapping shale gas is preferable to mining more coal or drilling for more oil offshore.

But researchers at Cornell University have projected that greenhouse gas emissions from shale gas production over the next 20 years could actually be higher than from surface-mined coal, possibly even twice as high. The researchers say they've submitted their findings for publication in a scientific journal, but have posted a summary here. 

The reason shale gas is worse for the climate, they say, is that methane in the gas is getting into the atmosphere from vents and leaks during hydraulic fracturing - and afterward, as the gas is being pumped out. Methane is a much more potent greenhouse gas, with 25 times more warming impact, pound for pound, than carbon dioxide. 

The Cornell scientists estimate that 3.6 to 7.9 percent of the methane in shale gas is leaking into the air, up to twice what escapes from conventional gas production.  Buttressing their findings is a November 2010 report from the Environmental Protection Agency, which reviewed the greenhouse gas emissions of various fuels and determined that natural gas, particularly shale gas, is higher than previously believed.

"Compared to coal, the footprint of shale gas is 1.2- to 2.1-fold greater on the 20-year time frame and is comparable when compared over 100 years," concludes Robert W. Howarth, professor of ecology and environmental biology.

Jeffrey McManus with the Chesapeake Climate Action Network warned lawmakers about this new evidence that shale gas is a "serious threat" to the climate during a hearing Wednesday in Annapolis on bills that would require tighter regulation or a two-year study of "fracking."   No one asked him any questions, or even seemed to pay much heed.

(Well being drilled near Pittsburgh.  2005 Baltimore Sun photo by Doug Kapustin)

Posted by Tim Wheeler at 3:20 PM | Permalink | Comments (5)
        

Overshadowed by the debate over Gov. Martin O'Malley's bid to curtail rural and suburban development on septic systems, jockeying has been taking place in Annapolis around a less sweeping but nonetheless significant proposal to require all new homes built on septic in Maryland to use advanced pollution removal technology.  Not everything is as it seems, though, with the proffer of support from the state's builders. 

HB 177 and its companion bill, SB160, would extend virtually statewide the law enacted two years ago that bars installation of conventional septic systems on land near the Chesapeake Bay and the Atlantic coastal bays.  Similar statewide legislation was introduced in 2009, but its scope was whittled down to apply just to the 1,000 strip of waterfront known as the "Critical Area" around the bays and their tidal tributaries.

Environmentalists are backing this new statewide legislation, possibly as a fallback should the measure backed by O'Malley, HB1107 and SB846, not pass.  That bill would bar any development of five homes or more on septic systems and require less polluting advanced septics whenever individual homes or smaller projects are built beyond the reach of sewer lines.

Advocates point out that conventional septic systems leak nitrogen into ground water and streams, which contributes to the fouling of water quality in the bays.  Officials estimate there are 420,000 homes on septic systems in Maryland already, contributing 8 percent of the nitrogen responsible for algae blooms and the formation of a sprawling "dead zone" every summer in the Chesapeake.  A household on a conventional septic system releases up to 10 times as much nitrogen into the water as one where waste is piped to a state-of-the-art sewage treatment plant, state officials say.

Advanced septic systems can cut the nitrogen leakage in half, but they cost around $10,000 to $13,000 to install, thousands more than a conventional system.  For that reason, Realtors have come out against expanding the requirement for them, arguing that the added cost would deter some rural and suburban home sales in a still-weakened real estate market.

The Maryland State Builders Association, though, raised some eyebrows last week by offering to support the advanced septic requirement if it was amended to their liking.  The builders group opposes outright the more sweeping measure backed by Gov. O'Malley, so its backing of another major septic mandate would be noteworthy.  On closer inspection, however, one of the amendments the group proposes to the advanced septic requirement would carve out a massive loophole, severely limiting the reach of the new pollution control measure.

The builders group suggested that advanced septic systems only be required for new construction within 100 feet of a water body that's officially designated by the state as "impaired" by nitrogen.

While nearly all of the Chesapeake and the coastal bays are impaired by nitrogen, only 1.6 percent of the nontidal river and stream watersheds in Maryland -- 171 miles out of a total of 10,820 stream miles - are similarly classified, according to a spokeswoman for the state Department of the Environment. 

That's because they're fresh water, where another plant nutrient, phosphorus, tends to play a bigger role in sparking algae blooms.  But even though nitrogen is not causing local water quality problems in the fresh-water portions of rivers and streams, it's still leaking from septics and other sources there and is carried downstream to the saltier waters of the bay, where it does make trouble.  That's why Maryland and other bay states have been working with the federal government to effect a 25 percent reduction in nitrogen getting into streams across the entire 64,000-square-mile bay watershed.

Builders' representatives don't acknowledge that what they're proposing would all but negate the intent of the bill, doing very little to reduce the nitrogen coming from new development on septics across the bay's vast upstream watershed.  Tom Farasy, the group's ex-president responded that if amended, the bill would still be focused on nitrogen-impaired "hotspots."

"We all have limited resources, and this would clearly devote these resources to areas that would be benefited the most," Farasy said in an email.

But Del. Stephen W. Lafferty, a Baltimore County Democrat who's the chief House sponsor of the statewide advanced septic bill, said if lawmakers accepted the builders' amendments, the measure would have "de minimus" reach.

"On first blush, it doesn't seem to be anything that's very workable," he said.  Still, Lafferty said he was continuing to talk with parties on all sides of the debate.

(Septic system installed with a new home being built in northern Baltimore County.  Baltimore Sun photo by Kim Hairston)

Posted by Tim Wheeler at 6:45 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)
        

Ten young whooping cranes raised in Maryland are taking to the air today, as federal wildlife biologists and technicians who've tended them since they were chicks release them in Louisiana to join the annual winged migration of their fragile species.

The gangly birds were reared at the U.S. Geological Survey's Patuxent Wildlife Research Center in Laurel, as seen in the photo above.  Their "parents" were human caretakers wearing white crane-like costumes, who exercised them, took them for walks and swims and fed them as chicks using a bird puppet.

They're the latest graduating class in a painstaking effort to restore a bird population that was on the verge of extinction.  

From a razor-thin population of just 16 birds - of whom only three or four were laying eggs - federal and Louisiana state workers have managed through captive breeding and rearing to build a population of about 250 whoopers in the wild. 

About 150 birds are living in captivity, with the largest breeding group of about 60 at the Laurel wildlife research compound.  Federal scientists release about half of the government-raised birds every year to Louisiana, which until this began had not seen any wild whoopers since the 1950s.

To see a video about the feds' whooping crane restoration efforts, go here.  And for "bios" of the birds taking wing today, go here.

(Photos USGS Patuxent Wildlife Research Center)

Posted by Tim Wheeler at 10:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
        

The Maryland State Builders Association is taking a stand against the bill being pushed by the O'Malley administration that would limit future development in the state on septic systems.  Not exactly man bites dog, but they're joining rural lawmakers and Realtors against any significant change in where or how growth occurs. 

 They're calling the administration-backed bill, titled "The Sustainable Growth and Agricultural Preservation Act of 2011,"  the "Anti-Growth and State Control Over Local Land Use Act”.   They argue that the bill, which has enthusiastic backing from environmental groups, would lead to "significantly heightened unemployment and massive damage to local tax bases."

"This bill is being justified as a measure to address Water Quality issues related to septic systems, when in fact, the focus of the bill is restriction of land use in rural areas of Maryland as an indirect means to force Smart Growth development,'' writes D. Stephen Seawright, the president of the builders group.  "By restricting the types and number of septic systems that can be used in rural areas, this measure provides the Maryland Department of Environment and Maryland Department of Planning with veto power over local land use decisions."

They question the state's projections that 145,000 more homes could be built on septic systems over the next 20 years, and contend that the impact of septic systems on bay water quality is overblown. 

"Over each of the past two years roughly 9,000 permits per year have been issued statewide for construction of single family homes," Seawright says, "with the State estimating that 20% of those permits are issued for homes in 'unplanned sewer service areas.' This means the 20 year projection is approximately 36,000 homes, not 145,000."

Of course, home construction has declined precipitously since the recession began.  The state's projection is based on the rate of home building before the market crashed.  But the builders' president argues that even if the pace of building recovers to double what it is now, that would produce only half the number of homes on septics that the state projects. 

The builders group also argues that not all of the nitrogen in household waste gets out of septic drain fields and into the bay.  State officials estimate that anywhere from 30 to 80 percent does make it to surface waters, depending on soil type, the depth of the water table and the distance to water.   State officials also say that a household using a conventional septic system releases up to 10 times as much nitrogen as one hooked up to state-of-the-art wastewater treatment plant.

The builders' group contends further that it's unnecessary to limit septic systems statewide, since municipal and county governments have to comply with the bay "pollution diet" that the Environmental Protection Agency imposed recently.  Local officials will have to figure out how to reduce nitrogen from sewage, storm-water runoff and septics in their communities to clean up the bay while also allowing for future population growth and development. 

Those local cleanup plans, known bureaucratically as "Phase II Watershed Implementation Plans (who comes up with these names?)," are due in September.   But that timetable and indeed the future of the EPA's "pollution diet" are a little up in the air at the moment, because the House voted over the weekend to block EPA from spending any money for the rest of this budget year (until Oct. 1) on its bay pollution reduction blueprint.  The "diet" (with another incredibly bureaucratic name: "total maximum daily load") has been under fire from agriculture and development groups, who oppose a stronger federal regulatory role to end the dilatory bay cleanup strategies of the states (and federal government) over the past three decades. 

(New home being built in northern Baltimore County on septic system.  2011 Baltimore Sun photo by Kim Hairston) 

Posted by Tim Wheeler at 9:33 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)
        

If it's bad for the Chesapeake Bay to spread poultry manure and other feritilizer on farm fields in winter, why is it okay to do the same with sewage sludge?

That's the question being posed by Del. Anthony J. O'Donnell, the House minority leader, with a bill he's introduced in Annapolis.  His bill, HB24, would require the Maryland Department of Agriculture to limit the application of sewage sludge in winter in the same way the spreading of animal manure is curtailed in cold-weather months.

The bill, which O'Donnell has put in before, has the backing of agricultural interests, who contend it's unfair to make farmers store their animals' manure in winter while allowing sewage sludge to be spread without the same restrictions.

But it's run into the usual buzzsaw of opposition from the county and municipal agencies that operate wastewater treatment plants.  They argue that they have no place to store the accumulating sludge during winter, and that building storage faciilities or else putting the stuff in landfills for 3 1/2 months would jack up utility customers' water and sewer bills.

"The opposition seems to be concerned with costs of the landfill alternative, and therefore would rather apply it to potentially frozen ground," O'Donnell wrote in an email. "This is akin to potentially dumping this stuff directly into the bay."

O'Donnell, who represents Calvert and St. Mary's County, is not known as a green legislator.  He has just an 18 percent lifetime score (out of 100) with the Maryland League of Conservation Voters, though his votes last year earned him a 38 percent rating.

On this issue, though, he's managed to get at least one environmental group - the Chesapeake Bay Foundation - on his side.  

"This practice does not protect water quality," the Annapolis-based group said in its printed testimony submitted during the hearing on O'Donnell's bill earlier this month.  While cities, towns and counties might have to invest in building sludge storage facilities, CBF says it's necessary to keep excess nutrients from treated sewage out of ground water, streams and the bay.

There's ample reason to restrict putting animal manure in farm fields in winter. Runoff of fertilizer is a major source of nitrogen and phosphorus fouling the bay.   Maryland's poultry industry produces roughly 325,000 tons of "poultry litter" (chicken manure mixed with wood shavings) every year from the 292 million birds it raises, mainly on the Eastern Shore.

The state's wastewater treatment plants, though, produce more than 700,000 tons of sewage sludge annually, according to the Maryland Department of the Environment. About 30 percent of the sludge - also rich in nutrients - gets spread on farm fields, with the rest hauled out of state, placed in landfills or other uses.

Under the state's nutrient management regulations, animal manure may not be applied on farm fields from mid-November through February except in certain cases. Different rules apply to sewage sludge, allowing it to be injected into the soil beneath the snow or spread on top of frozen ground under certain circumstances.

The state Department of the Environment does restrict the winter application of what it calls "Class B biosolids," or sewage sludge, according to a bill analysis by the Department of Legislative Services.  Sludge spreading is prohibited if the ground is saturated, and if the ground is frozen the sludge is supposed to be injected into the soil.  A minimum 400-foot setback is required from any well, stream or other property line. 

Synagro, the company that handles much of the sewage sludge generated by the state's wastewater plants, argues that the current limitations are enough to protect water quality, and tightening them would undermine what it says is essentially recycling of organic material.

But state environmental officials acknowledge there is a higher risk that nitrogen and phosphorus will wash off farm fields into nearby streams if manure or sludge are placed on the ground in winter, as there's no crop growing then to soak up the nutrients.   MDE says it has been talking with the state Department of Agriculture about amending the sludge regulations to tighten the limits on land application. For that reason, perhaps, MDE takes no position on O'Donnell's bill this year, after opposing it last year. 

O'Donnell hasn't won over every environmentalist, though.  Michael R. Helfrich, the Lower Susquehanna Riverkeeper, says he's all for tightening the rules regarding land application of sewage sludge.  He says he's less than impressed with the diligence of the state Department of the Environment in overseeing this and other environmental laws and regulations. 

But Helfrich says he trusts the Maryland Department of Agriculture even less.  He fears putting responsibility for sewage sludge with the farm agency would invite looser treatment, not stricter, and he wonders if that's O'Donnell's real aim.

"I'm absolutely in favor of further restrictions that are protective of the environment," the riverkeeper said.  "Let him do it under MDE."

(Top: Truck from Synagro hauls sewage sludge into field at Susquehanna State Park, 2007 Baltimore Sun photo by Barbara Haddock Taylor.  Above: Del. Anthony J. O'Donnnell, 2010 Baltimore Sun photo by Lloyd Fox)

Posted by Tim Wheeler at 6:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)
        

Is Gov. Martin O'Malley waging "war on rural Maryland" by calling for curbs on building new homes on  septic systems?  That's what a pair of Eastern Shore legislators contend.  Sen. E.J. Pipkin, R-Upper Shore, and Del. Michael Smigiel, R-Cecil, have accused him of trying a "power grab" to wrest control over land use from local offiicals.  They've even set up a website to that effect.

Rural folks being picked on by city dwellers and suburbanites: That's a familiar rallying cry in the seemingly endless struggle in this state over cleaning up the Chesapeake Bay, and over how - or even whether - to curb sprawl.

But in this case, where are the most septic tanks in Maryland?  The Baltimore metropolitan area, it seems. According to data supplied by the Maryland Department of Planning, the four counties with the highest number of homes on septic are: Anne Arundel, with 43,733; followed by Baltimore County, with 37,772; Carroll, with 31,061 and Harford, with 28,070.

In a way, that's not terribly surprising, since the metro areas are where the most people are, and there are portions of every county in the state not served by public water or sewer.

Of course, if you look at which counties have the highest percentage of homes on septic, it is mostly - but not exclusively - rural. Calvert County is tops, with a whopping 84 percent, according to state planning data, followed by St. Mary's County, with 70 percent, and then the Eastern Shore counties of Caroline and Wicomico (both 68 percent), Cecil (61 percent) and Carroll (59 percent).   But in some rural counties, like Allegany, Washington, Kent, Talbot and Worcester, homes with septic are in the minority.  Not such a clear divide.

To see all the data and map for yourself, go here.  Click on the + or - buttons at the bottom of the frame to zoom in so you can read the numbers and county names.

(One oddball footnote:  The state's map shows no septic tanks in Baltimore city, but in a followup email, planners report that there are about 5,000 there serving homes and nonresidential properties.  City public works officials say that only heavily industrial Hawkins Point isn't served by public sewer, and they couldn't confirm the state's figure or where those septic tanks might be.)

Of course, the bills in Annapolis are about limiting or changing the use of septics in future growth.  So where are the most homes on septic likely to be built in years to come?   Based on current zoning and planned sewer service, Carroll and Frederick are expected to add the most - 10,000 or more homes on septics each - by 2035, state planners project.   Next, they foresee 5,000 to 10,000 septic-served homes each going up in Washington, Harford, Cecil, Montgomery, Anne Arundel, Prince George's, Charles and St. Mary's.

Somewhere between 1,500 and 5,000 new homes on septic are forecast for each of these counties - Garrett, Howard, Baltimore, Calvert, Queen Anne's, Caroline, Wicomico and Worcester.  Lastly, Allegany, Kent, Talbot, Dorchester and Somerset counties - and almost entirely sewered Baltimore city - are expected to add the fewest septic systems, somewhere between none and 1,500 each over the next 25 years.

So when it comes to talking about changing or limiting development on septic systems, it's not so clear that rural counties would be most affected.  Maybe the Shore legislators want to amend the title of their website to: The War on Suburban and some of Rural Maryland?

(Map: Maryland Department of Planning.Baltimore Sun photo: Septic tank going in at Baltimore County home site, by Kim Hairston.)

Posted by Tim Wheeler at 6:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (9)
Categories: Chesapeake Bay, News
        

The House has voted to block federal funding for the Environmental Protection Agency's Chesapeake Bay "pollution diet," casting a cloud over the Obama administration's two-year-old effort to accelerate the long-delayed cleanup of the nation's largest estuary.

Rep. Bob Goodlatte, R-Va., who sought the spending ban, hailed the vote late Friday night as "an important step in stopping the EPA’s regulatory power grab." He had introduced an amendment earlier this week barring EPA spending on the bay "total maximum daily load" as the Republican-led House prepared to order more than $60 billion in spending cuts across a wide array of health, environmental and social programs over the next seven months.

"These overzealous regulations will affect everyone who lives, works, and farms in the Chesapeake Bay Watershed," Goodlatte said in a statement reported by the Roanoke Times, "and the cost of complying with these requirements will be devastating during our current economic downturn, result in many billions of dollars in economic losses to states, cities and towns, farms and other businesses large and small.....I believe that each individual state, and the localities in each state, know better how to manage a state’s water quality goals than the bureaucrats at the EPA."

The 230-195 vote on Goodlatte's amendment split largely along party lines, with only eight Democrats joining Republicans in seeking to block the EPA's bay diet. Fifteen GOP members voted against the spending.

Maryland's two Republican congressmen, Andy Harris and Roscoe Bartlett, voted with the majority to block funding for the federal polution-reduction plan, which was finalized six weeks ago after more than two years of back-and-forth negotiations with Maryland and the other five states that drain into the bay.  The state's Democratic members opposed the blockage.

Harris represents the Eastern Shore along with part of the Baltimore area, and the EPA's bay diet has angered farmers there, who complain they're already doing plenty to protect the bay.   The first-term congressman issued a statement stressing that the vote only delays the bay diet, but doesn't repeal it, according to a Gannett Washington bureau report in delmarvanow.com.

“The seven-month delay allows more time for all stakeholders to fully review and understand the proposed rules, have the opportunity to resolve differences, assure a more open and transparent process and assess the effect on local economies and our business community’s ability to create jobs,” Harris said.

Chesapeake Bay Foundation President William C. Baker issued a statement decrying the vote, saying it undoes the efforts of the EPA and the six bay states to develop pollution reduction plans .

"This vote effectively removes the federal partner from the equation, placing the burden squarely on the shoulders of states, municipalities, and individuals," Baker said. "It is in direct contradiction to the best science in the world, which defines the Bay as a single system that must be managed as one.”

The bay diet was just one of a series of federal environmental initiatives targeted for spending cuts or outright ban by House members in the continuing resolution they approved early Saturday. EPA was barred from spending funds to regulate climate-warming greenhouse gases, for instance, and to restrict mountaintop coal mining in the name of protecting Appalachian streams from degradation.  Among other cuts, the House also voted to block EPA from limiting emissions of mercury and other toxic air pollutants from cement kilns.

The spending cuts and bans are likely to be hotly debated in the Senate, where Democrats still hold a slim majority.

(House Speaker John Boehner returns to his office after votes Friday. Alex Wong, Getty Images)

Posted by Tim Wheeler at 4:54 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
        

Friends of Blackwater, the volunteer group supporting Blackwater National Wildlife Refuge on the Eastern Shore, are atwitter over the imminent hatching of as many as three baby bald eagles there. 

You can join their vigil, via the group's Eagle Cam, which gives onlookers a bird's eye view of the nest.  The group has been watching the nest for a bit, and earlier recorded three eggs in it. They're expecting the first hatch any time now, though no obvious cracking has been spotted yet.  It'll take the chicks up to 24 hours to work their way out of the shell, so you can check in and out.  The cam gives new snapshots every 15 seconds.

The Friends have cameras tracking eagles and ospreys at the sprawling refuge, and they've got a neat blog explaining what's been happening and what to expect.  There's also video, which you can catch on YouTube.   Watch the male eagle bringing food to the female as she sits on the eggs, and other action around the refuge.

For those who can't get enough of our national bird, the refuge is having an Eagle Festival March 12.  Check it out here.

(Photos courtesy Friends of Blackwater)

Posted by Tim Wheeler at 11:09 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)
        

Some skeptics think climate change is nothing but fiction.  But a Baltimore author has penned a novel about rising temperatures, coastal flooding and social upheaval in hopes of making the harsh consequences of global warming more real to people.

Dana M. Stein says he wrote Fire in the Wind to “dramatize the way climate change will affect daily life,” though he confesses, “It was a big leap for me to do it.”

That’s because it’s a first novel for Stein. He’s executive director of Civic Works, a Baltimore nonprofit that runs what it calls an “urban service corps,” enlisting young adults and teens in community service, greening and education projects. He also happens to be a lawyer and a member of the House of Delegates representing northwest Baltimore County.

“This is the first time I’ve written anything except an op-ed for a local paper,” he says. But he was moved to write, he says, because as he spoke with young people about climate change, he found many of them had a hard time caring about the issue, in part because they just couldn’t imagine how it might affect them personally.

"When I"ve discussed climate change at schools," he told me in an email, "some student say that its impact is too far off for them to visualize what might happen."

The result is a slim, 154-page nightmarish tale set 25 years from now, with drought, wildfires, rising sea level and civil unrest plaguing the nation. The story focuses on three main characters: an uprooted Midwestern farmer, a New York scientist with ties to radical environmental groups, and a White House aide whose father was a Maryland waterman, put out of work by a catastrophic hurricane.

Stein says he did “a fair amount of research” on which to base his depiction of how climate change is expected to alter weather patterns, agriculture and the like. He says he relied on everything from Scientific American to news stories for insights into what scientists expect or project.

He initially set the story in 2052, he says, because early studies had projected climate change wouldn’t be felt in a big way until the latter half of the century. But with more recent research finding that shifts in climate are accelerating, he says he decided to move the date up to 2036, just about a generation from now.

For some details, Stein admits, he extrapolated, or went out on a limb. Oil prices hit $500 per barrel in the story, for instance, which might seem high enough to destroy the economy and society as we know it. But Stein says petroleum had climbed past $100 a barrel when he started writing the book, so he didn’t think it implausible it could keep going up.

On one point, though, Stein acknowledges he just plain made it up. He has one of his characters fondly recalling how the hapless Chicago Cubs finally won another World Series -- in 2015.

“If I’m writing fiction set in the future, I can project – even if it’s a stretch,” Stein says.

There’s a scene set in Baltimore, but I won’t give it away. Nor will I tip the somewhat jarring ending, which Stein says has “taken aback” a number of his friends who read the novel.

“I didn’t want to have a happy ending,’’ he says, ‘’where we changed course and everything turns out fine.” With skeptics questioning the scientific evidence of human-driven climate change, he says, and politicians in this country unwilling to act, “I see climate change as becoming even more of a problem."

Stein is modest about his first effort at story telling. He's not planning to quit his day job, and he says he doubts his story has a future in Hollywood. But he’s reserving the option to write a sequel.

“The way it ends leaves open the possibility of a follow-on,” he says.

For more on the book, go here.

(Book cover image, portrait, courtesy Dana Stein)

Posted by Tim Wheeler at 6:42 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)
        

Remember when thousands of blackbirds mysteriously dropped from the sky in Arkansas on New Year's Eve? Here's a chance to help scientists understand what's happening with those and all the other birds across North America: join the annual Great Backyard Bird Count this week.

For four days starting Friday, Feb. 18, thousands of volunteers across the United States and Canada tally and report the birds they see and hear in the wild, in neighborhood parks or in their own backyards. The collective observations give ornithologists a "snapshot" of what's happening with bird populations.

Now in its 14th year, the count has detected ups and downs in some species.  For instance, American crows, once regularly among the top four or five most frequently reported species, have become less common since 2003, when West Nile virus spread across the US.  Scientists noted 50-75 percent drops in crow populations in states after the mosquito-borne disease hit.

Last year, nearly 100,000 reports were submitted toting up more than 11 million birds of 603 species.  American robins topped the list, at 1.8 million sighted.  The Canada goose was second, at around 750,000, with Snow goose, American crow and European starling rounding out the most commonly seen birds.  Joining the list for the first time last year was the Red-billed tropicbird, spied by some adventurous birders off the Pacific coast near San Diego.

Here in Maryland, citizen scientists spotted 220,539 birds of 138 different species.  Canada goose and Snow goose beat the robin hands down, with the Common grackle and Dark-eyed junco coming in third and fourth. In my backyard, I often spy a Northern cardinal or two, like the one pictured here.

It's easy to participate in the count, requiring as little as 15 minutes in a day.  And as the name suggests, you don't even have to leave the warmth of your house, just look out in your backyard.  The count is coordinated by the  Cornell University Lab of Ornithology, Audubon, and Bird Studies Canada.

To join in, or to learn more about previous bird counts, go here.

(Top, Canada geese take flight near Rappahannock River, 2009.  Baltimore Sun photo by Jerry Jackson. Middle, students watching for birds in Patterson Park, 2006, Baltimore Sun photo by Kenneth K. Lam.  Bottom, Northern cardinal, taken by Heather Taylor of Maryland, courtesy Great Backyard Bird Count)

Posted by Tim Wheeler at 9:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)
        

An update on the earlier post about the looming tussle in Congress over federal funding for Chesapeake Bay cleanup:

Rep. Bob Goodlatte, R-Va., has signaled he wants to block the Environmental Protection Agency from spending any money on carrying out the Chesapeake Bay "pollution diet" that's requiring Maryland, Virginia and the other states in the bay region to increase their efforts to restore the troubled estuary. 

In a comment published in the Congressional Record, Goodlatte (seen at right re-enacting his swearing in for the new Congress with Speaker John Boehner) has indicated he'll seek to amend the broad federal spending cuts proposed now by the House GOP leadership.  Goodlatte said he wants to eliminate all EPA funding to "develop, promulgate, evaluate, implement, provide oversight to, or backstop” the bay "total maximum daily load," the bureaucratic name for the sweeping pollution reduction plan the Obama administration finalized six weeks ago.

EPA's move to require the six bay watershed states to curtail nitrogen and phosphorus pollution from cities, suburbs and farms has stirred fear and anger among developers, local officials and farmers, and the American Farm Bureau Federation filed suit to block it, concerned it may lead to similar water-quality crackdowns around the country.

William C. Baker, president of the Chesapeake Bay Foundation, which called attention to Goodlatte's remarks in the Congressional Record, called the Virginia congressman's move "unfortunate" and urged its rejection.  The Annapolis-based environmental group's president contended that the EPA's pollution diet is the "best and last chance" to restore the bay, after decades of failure by states and the federal government to do what's needed to clean it up.

(Rep. Bob Goodlatte, R-Va, re-enacts his swearing in last month with House Speaker John Boehner.  AP photo/Susan Walsh)

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Solar panels work best when pointed at the sun, but that orb shifts its location in the sky as the world turns. With the state's help, a Columbia-based firm has come up with a sun "tracking" device that it contends will boost the power solar panels can produce by as much as 30 percent.

Advanced Technology & Research Corp. is making what it calls a Solar Pole Tracker.  It uses a GPS-based controller to follow the sun across the sky, so that solar panels can maximize the energy they absorb.  The company hopes to market the devices for mounting on utility or light poles "in parking lots at shopping malls, business parks, train stations and park-and-rides."

The technology company -- perhaps not coincidentally located on Eli Whitney Drive in Howard County -- received a $1.1 million grant last year from the Maryland Energy Administration to produce 1,200 of its trackers. by March 2012. The state's "clean energy" economic development initiative is underwritten with federal economic stimulus funds.

ATR says it's now seeking government agencies or private businesses to try out its devices.  The gadgets cost $700 to $1760 each, it seems, but the company contends they should pay for themselves in five years' time, with income from renewable energy credits and selling power back to the electric grid.  They also could garner a little extra revenue as mini-billboards, the company points out, with advertising mounted on them, as the above image depicts.

Time will tell if they catch on. Meanwhile, the company says it's working on other solar-tracking devices, a DIY version for homeowners, and one that would be used to mount solar panels on giant industrial wind turbines.  (CORRECTION 2/17 - the solar panel tracker would go on smaller wind turbines, as seen in photo above of one placed on Tilghman Island on the Eastern Shore.) The firm says it's already made one sale, for a solar-powered electric vehicle charging station to be installed in Bethesda this spring.

(Image courtesy ATR)

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The Obama administration and the House Republican leadership appear set to tussle over federal funding for the Chesapeake Bay cleanup effort - along with almost every other environmental program.

While proposing to trim overall funding for the Environmental Protection Agency, the president's budget for fiscal 2012 requests $67.4 million for EPA's Chesapeake Bay program - $4.4 million more than he proposed for this year and $17 million above what the agency actually received in fiscal 2010. 

According to the Chesapeake Bay Foundation, his spending plan also included an increase in federal funding for upgrading Washington's Blue Plains sewage treatment plant, the bay's largest, from $20 million last year to $25 million next year.  Though not specifically for the bay, overall federal conservation program funding - a portion of which would go to this region - would increase to $3.6 billion, up from $2.9 billion in 2010.

The Republican-dominated House, though, has other ideas, bidding to cut this year's bay funding along with the rest of EPA's budget.   (With Congress unable to agree on a budget for the current year, the federal government has been operating under a continuing funding resolution.)

Under cuts proposed by the House Appropriations Committee, EPA's Bay program would dip 20 percent to $40 million, while Blue Plains funding would be halved.   Other environmental and conservation programs, in which this region would share, also would get pared back.  Most notably, EPA's clean-water revolving fund, which helps states and communities finance upgrades to sewage treatment plants, would be cut by two-thirds, from $2.1 billion last year to $690 million.   The president proposed about a 30 percent reduction, to $1.55 billion.

Not surprisingly, the Annapolis-based bay foundation favors the Obama administration's plan to increase spending on the Chesapeake restoration effort over the "devastating cuts" the House would make not just in bay cleanup funding but in all clean-water programs. 

(News cameras record workers on Capitol Hill stacking Obama administration's 2012 budget.  REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst)

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The University of Maryland is going solar, installing more than 2,600 photovoltaic panels on one of its buildings near the College Park campus.

The 631-kilowatt system is to be placed on the roof of the Severn building, a multi-purpose structure less than a mile from the campus.  It will be installed by Standard Solar Inc. of Rockville, and owned and operated by Washington Gas Energy Services. UM has agreed to buy the electricity generated by the solar panels - about 792 megawatt-hours annually - under a 20-year contract.

University officials say it will be one of the biggest solar installations in the state, though it's dwarfed by the 2.1-megawatt solar "farm" being built at the University of Maryland Eastern Shore.  Spice maker McCormick & Co. already has 1 megawatts' worth of solar panels on two of its buildings in Hunt Valley, and poultry producer Perdue announced recently it was putting 5,000 solar panels capable of generating up to 1.1 megawatts of electricity at its Salisbury headquarters.

Even if it's not so huge after all, the solar panels at College Park should reduce the campus carbon footprint by more than 600 tons a year, university officials estimate, or about as many greenhouse gas emissions as you'd get from burning 64,000 gallons of gasoline annually.

The College Park project was made possible by a grant from the Maryland Energy Administration. Under Project Sunburst, MEA provided grants to subsidize 18 different solar installations on school, university and government buildings. Funding for the grants, which provide rebates of $1,000 per kilowatt-DC of photovoltaic capacity installed, came from federal stimulus funds.

State officials said when announcing the grants last year that the 9.9 megawatts' capacity from those projects would roughly triple the solar generating capacity on Maryland's electric grid. Other big Sunburst projects to come include 750-kilowatt systems atop Baltimore's Convention Center and at Anne Arundel Community College.

(Solar panels atop McCormick manufacturing plant in Hunt Valley, 2010. Baltimore Sun photo by Lloyd Fox)

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The explosive, albeit planned development of Clarksburg in the Washington suburbs is testing whether Smart Growth and storm-water pollution laws really can prevent degradation of nearby streams. So far the results are not encouraging.

Clarksburg is the fastest growing place in Maryland, according to Census data released this week, with a population that skyrocketed 650 percent over the past decade to nearly 14,000. The growth there was planned - Montgomery County approved it as far back as 1994.  And though there are McMansions on large lots in outlying neighborhoods there, the detached and town homes clustered in Clarksburg's core certainly would qualify as Smart Growth.

So far, something like 2,700 homes and a half million square feet of offices and stores have been built or permitted, mostly on the eastern side of Interstate 270, with 8,900 homes and 3.7 million square feet of shopping and work space planned in the first three phases of this huge community.

But the project has not gone exactly as planned. As reported today in The Baltimore Sun, residents are still waiting for the shopping and other walk-to amenities that were promised as part of the massive development. Many neighborhood streets and roads are not complete.

Something else that was promised when the county decided to plant a community there has not gone as planned, either. Ten-Mile Creek, one of Montgomery County's last trout streams, was supposed to be shielded from harm, even though it flows past Clarksburg's town center.

"It's the most sensitive, most high-quality stream we have in Montgomery County," says Diane Cameron, conservation programs director for the Audubon Naturalist Society, based in Chevy Chase.  It also drains into Little Seneca Lake, a backup drinking-water supply for the county.

The county took what, at the time, seemed like extra precautions to protect this fragile stream.  It limited the amount of pavement and rooftops to 15 percent in the areas where most of the offices, stores and other businesses were planned.  It limited housing density in nearly two-thirds of the stream's watershed, required wider "conservation areas" along stream valleys east of the highway and designated the creek watershed a "special protection area."

But the "boomtown" effect of Clarksburg's rapid growth has apparently taken its toll, before the community is even half built out.  Overall, Ten-Mile Creek's health ranged from good to excellent, based on stream monitoring done by the county since 1994.  But since development began in the "special protection area," conditions in a portion of the headwaters east of I-270 have declined to just "fair," according to a 2009 county report. 

Although only about 3 percent of the creek's overall watershed is built upon or paved over, about 12 percent of the land draining into the headwaters portion showing declines is "impervious surface."

Evident slippage in the stream's health has renewed debate over future growth in Clarksburg, including the fourth phase expansion west across I-270 into what is now rolling forest and farmland. Audubon and other activists have raised objections to the county's plans to build a bus and heavy equipment depot on 22 acres about a mile from the creek.  They've also called for scaling back the density of future residential growth on three tracts there now zoned for construction of up to 1,600 new homes. 

Others, though, have argued that the creek's decline stemmed from so much land being disturbed for construction all at once, and that water quality will recover once the development already under way is finished and all storm-water pollution controls are in place.  They note the state last year adopted new storm-water pollution regulations, requiring tighter controls on runoff from new development so that more rainfall soaks into the ground rather than washing off into storm drains or ponds.

Cameron says research indicates that all the best pollution control measures required now won't keep streams from losing the abundance and diversity of aquatic insects and other creatures that make them hospitable to trout and other fish. She points to a recent U.S. Geological Survey study that found the number of fish and aquatic insects in urban and suburban streams start declining at low levels of development, often below what's considered protective of the environment.

Audubon wants the county to limit pavement and rooftops in the expansion of Clarksburg to no more than five percent of the land, as researchers have shown there is no safe level of development before stream health starts to degrade.   The group also is arguing for requiring two-thirds or more of the land be kept in forests and fields.

A group tasked by the County Council with studying the stream's future split last year over whether to scale back planned development or let it proceed, relying on upgraded pollution control measures.  The council has yet to take up the issue.

(Clarksburg town center. 2011 Baltimore Sun photos by Amy Davis)

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