Why doesn't O'Malley get blamed for this? The Bay is less healthy because of his failure to do anything and raiding funds.

Surprise. The UMD Enviro Center, which enjoys substantial grants as long as the Bay has a cough, thinks the patient is a bit warm. This is not news, since UMD and the Chesapeake Bay foundation's "scientists" will never find the Bay to be acceptable, since they determine what acceptable is. Rather than treat the Bay as a patient, why don't we treat it like a chemical spill or sulphur dioxide? What's the Bay water effect on humans? Yes, we know that eating rockfish or crabs that have bacteria of sorts is bad. But now we can eat rockfish. And no one's banning crabs from the Bay. So what's the problem. Water not translucent like The Virgin Islands" waters? Never was. Hopkins over fifteen yrs ago proposed epidemiological studies as to the effect of the Bay, as of then, on human health.The public health schoool suggested that the Bay might cause human diseases or affect our drinking water, but until valid studies were done, no one could say for certain. Since then the colleges and nonprofits have hijacked billions from taxpayers to clean and study Bay. Guess what? None of those studies are systematic public health studies. Before we worry about shutting down a poultry industry that keeps thousands out of poverty, or crushing the anemic supply of moderate income housing further by ridiculous septic tank regs, why don't we find out whether the Bay might make substantial Marylanders sick. The Bay, not the good people of the region who are eating, drinking, driving, doping and sitting themselves to death regardless of the bay. Odd that the "experts" and Save the Bay O'Malley didn't fund these studies when the State was flush w/cash? Perhaps they don't want a concrete study to solve whether we have a concrete, as opposed to an aesthetic, problem with the "Bay". Religion sometimes is an illusion, not a healing technique, isn't it? For the Bay Industry in Annapolis and College Park, the Bay has become a religion as profitable as a TV Sunday Preacher.

This grade only shows an increase in rainfall as compared with last year. It is frustrating that something the government clearly cannot control would be presented in a way that doesn't fully explain to the public what is going on. A letter grade change is a simplistic method that allows people to quickly make judgments about the Bay instead of reading the study's data. Governor Martin O'Malley should be celebrated for taking positive steps towards improving the health of the Bay and a report like this one will only decrease support for his future initiatives.