The heat wave gripping Maryland is cooking up unhealthy levels of ozone air pollution, or smog.

With the thermometer hitting another record high of 97 degrees at BWI Tuesday, air monitors reported ozone levels that pose health risks for people with heart or breathing problems in hte Baltimore and Washington areas, but also in western Maryland and on the Eastern Shore. Individuals in those sensitive groups could experience health problems and are urged to limit their time outdoors.

Air quality reached "orange" levels, meaning a risk for sensitive groups, in Northeast Baltimore and in Davidsonville, Edgewood and Essex in the Baltimore area. Other areas registering sensitive air quality were Frederick County, Hagerstown in Washington County, Millington in Kent County and Beltsville in Prince George's County.  Ozone actually hit "red" levels, meaning a risk of causing discomfort and breathing problems even for healthy people exercising outdoors, in northern Virginia.  Southern Maryland and Montgomery County, it seems, enjoyed moderate to good air quality.  

Tuesday was the third time ozone pollution has gotten to orange levels this month, but the most extensive worsening of air quality. The other two times orange levels were reached Thursday in Padonia north of Baltimore and on Monday in Calvert County.  In May of 2010, by comparison, there were four days when ozone hit orange levels.

The stifling heat's forecast to hang around for at least another day, and air-quality forecasters are warning of another "Code Orange" day on Wednesday, a risk for sensitive individuals. 

Smog or ozone pollution forms when emissions from cars and trucks, power plants and other sources "bake" in sunny, windless skies.  Officials urge people to cut back on driving, using power mowers and painting, among other things, to reduce emissions when bad air days are predicted.

To learn more and stay up on the latest air-quality forecasts and readings, go here. 

(Worker laying asphalt in West Baltimore towels off perspiration. Baltimore Sun photo by Barbara Haddock Taylor)

Posted by Tim Wheeler at 5:41 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
        

As if it wasn't hot enough already, some green groups and their business allies turned up the heat today on the O'Malley administration and state lawmakers, issuing a report saying Maryland's efforts to reduce climate-warming pollution are falling short and warning of more flooding like that pictured above.

Only one of the top 10 programs for reducing greenhouse gas emissions in the state's 2008 Climate Action Plan is on track, according to the report by Environment Maryland, a statewide green group.  Five have shown mixed results, the report says, while the state has made "minimal progress" in one area and no progress at all in three others.

"We've made some progress, but not enough," said Tommy Landers, campaign director for Environment Maryland. To illustrate the need for climate action to avoid rising sea level, he and the others released the report at a press conference on the waterfront in Fells Point, where they displayed a photo of the area under water in the wake of Tropical Storm Isabel in 2003.

The state's participation with other northeastern states in the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative, which caps carbon-dioxide emissions from power plants, is the only program that's essentially on track, Landers said.  Even that, though, needs to be tightened to have more impact, he said, and the tens of millions of dollars raised by making utilities buy pollution "allowances" should be spent more on promoting energy efficiency and renewables. 

The decision announced last week that New Jersey would withdraw from the regional greenhouse-gas effort complicates matters, but doesn't mean it still can't benefit Maryland, the activists say. 

The state has been slow to get started and has underfunded programs to help homeowners and businesses improve their energy efficiency, the report says.  Peter Van Buren, head of Terra Logos Energy Group, a Baltimore energy improvement firm, said nearly 500 homeowners have taken advantage of the rebates offered by the Maryland Energy Administration for home efficiency investments, but those funds are about to run out.

 Meanwhile, the report said, the administration has done virtually nothing to discourage driving, and activists renewed their criticism of the law passed this year and signed by Gov. Martin O'Malley that puts power-generating trash incinerators on par with wind, solar and other renewable energy facilities.

Ford Schumann, head of Infinity Recycling, a small Eastern Shore firm, said the state also has failed to aggressivly promote recycling, composting and waste reduction as a way of lowering methane and other greenhouse gas emissions.  Recycling has actually fallen off from 2007 to 2009, the most recent year for which data are available, the report says.

George "Tad" Aburn Jr, air management director for the Maryland Department of the Environment, acknowledged that some energy-efficiency efforts have had "difficulties," as he put them, but he argued that overall the state is making good progress toward meeting the goal set in the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Act adopted two years ago.  That law calls for lowering climate-warming emissions 25 percent below 2006 levels by decade's end.

While Environment Maryland's report focused on 10 major emission-curbing programs, Aburn said there are actually a total of 70 or 80 different efforts under way that collectively should more than meet the law's goal.

MDE is slated to begin airing its draft plan this summer for how the state will reduce greenhouse gases at least 25 percent by 2020. 

(Baltimore Sun photos: Top, flooding in Fells Point after 2003 Tropical Storm Isabel, by Kim Hairston; Above, separating recyclables from waste, 2007, by Amy Davis)

Posted by Tim Wheeler at 5:31 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)
        

New Jersey's governor is pulling out of a 10-state regional greenhouse gas reduction effort, saying it's ineffective at combatting climate change.  Maryland's Gov. Martin O'Malley has taken his counterpart to task, saying he's "simply wrong."

“The whole system is not working as it was intended to work. It is a failure,” New Jersey's Chris Christie said, according to the Associated Press.  Christie, a Republican, voiced doubts in November about the causes of climate change, but today said he believes it's real and caused at least in part by human activity.

Conservatives have been pressing governors in the Northeast to give up on the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI), which requires fossil-fuel power plants in those states to buy allowrances for their emission of carbon dioxide, the leading gas blamed for warming the earth's climate.  Critics have pointed out that the caps on carbon-dioxide emissions are too loose to require any real reductions.

Maryland is one of the 10 states participating in RGGI. O'Malley, a Democrat, issued a statement saying he was disappointed by Christie's decision and disputing his claim the initiiative is ineffective.

"RGGI represents an important multi-state effort to address climate change at a time when consensus eludes Congress," O'Malley said.  The initiative has avoided carbon-dioxide emissions in Maryland equivalent to taking nearly 3,500 cars off the road, he said.

The auctions have raised $162.4 million in revenues for Maryland as well.  The funds are used to promote energy efficiency and alternative energy, but much of the money has been diverted to lower electric bills for low-income households.

Posted by Tim Wheeler at 2:37 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)
Categories: Air Pollution, Climate change, News
        

Six environmental groups announced today that they are going to court to defend the "pollution diet' put on the Chesapeake Bay by the Environmental Protection Agency.

The groups, including the Chesapeake Bay Foundation, Defenders of Wildlife and National Wildlife Federation, have filed a motion in federal court to intervene in the lawsuit filed earlier this year by farming organizations seeking to block the EPA from enforcing the pollution reductions called for under its diet, known bureaucratically as a "total maximum daily load."

The American Farm Bureau Federation and Pennsylvania Farm Bureau complained in their suit, filed in Harrisburg, PA, that EPA lacked the scientific basis and legal authority to order cutbacks in nitrogen, phosphorus and sediment from all sources in the six bay watershed states.  Those two farm groups have since been joined by the Fertilizer Institute and national organizations representing corn, chicken and poultry growers.

Spokesmen for the green groups argued that science supports the pollution reductions called for by EPA, and that each state has developed its own plan for making them.  They contend EPA action is warranted under the Clean Water Act and overdue, as decades of mostly voluntary efforts by states had failed to make the needed cleanup.

"The new Bay TMDL pollution limit is our best chance to reverse course and restore the health of the Chesapeake and the fish and wildlife that rely on it for surivval," said Greg Buppert, attorney for Defenders of Wildlife.  Brian Glass, senior attorney with Citizens for Pennsylvania's Future (PennFuture) also argued that the farm groups' lawsuit, if successful, would actually hurt farmers by endangering the supply of fresh, clean water for their operations and prevent growers from getting government help in protecting their farms from pollution.

No trial date has been set, but lawyers for the parties are to confer June 28 on the schedule for proceeding with the case, according to Jon Mueller, lawyer for the bay foundation. 

(Barley planted as cover crop grows on Eastern Shore. 2008 Baltimore Sun photo by Glenn Fawcett)

Posted by Tim Wheeler at 1:58 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)
        

That’s right, folks! The Charles Street Friday Market will open for the second time this year on Friday, 3 – 7pm, on Lanvale Avenue at the 1700 block of Charles St. This open air market features local organic produce, art, live music, and Flying Dog beer. A portion of all proceeds will benefit the League of Dreams. If you’re interested in volunteering, selling produce, or if you’re a musician or artist who would like to participate, contact Chip at contact@CWPRAGENCY.COM.

Posted by Christy Zuccarini at 9:48 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
        

Anyone seen these purple kite-like things hanging in Baltimore area trees?  No, they're not a form of Ravens worship. They're glue-smeared traps to detect an invasive beetle from Asia that's devastating ash trees in Maryland and elsewhere.

Emerald ash borers have already killed tens of millions of ash trees across the United States since showing up in wood packing material in Michigan in 2002 and in nursery trees shipped to Maryland a year later.

Federal and state government have rallied to save the popular tree, which is used in landscaping, for tool handles, flooring and baseball bats.  More than 61,000 of the purple prism-shaped traps have been deployed across the country - about 2,600 of them in  Maryland - to spot the little half-inch long beetles.  This is the time when traps are deployed because the borers tend to emerge from where they hatched and fly to other trees to spread their devastation. 

The purple color attracts borers, and the traps' appeal is magnified by a bait suspended inside them that gives off "essence of ash tree".  But US Department of Agriculture spokeswoman Sharon Lucik says the attractions are only strong enough to draw borers from trees nearby, not from far away.

The traps by themselves can't catch enough beetles to stop them.  So USDA experts have imported three different species of non-stinging wasps from China, where they are natural predators of the ash borers.  The wasps, which experts say pose no risks to other species, have been released in Maryland and seven other states among beetle-infested trees, where they kill borer eggs and larvae.  First released last year, the wasps seem to have survived the winter. says USDA's spokeswoman.

Encouraging as that may be, there's still something important that the public can do to help slow the spread of this pest - burn only local firewood.  One of the main methods for transmitting ash borers, according to USDA, has been carrying firewood - often ash - from one place to another. 

So now, with camping season kicking into high summer gear, officials are urging campers not to haul wood with them but to gather or buy it where they stay. " Burn it where you buy it," is the slogan.

Good advice, but you have to wonder if the wood you can buy at the 7-11, supermarket or home store is really local.  Perhaps there ought to be a law, or some kind of borer-free certification required? In the meantime, check the label of any firewood bundles you buy, or ask the seller where it comes from.  And demand that only local wood be sold.  That'll be good for local suppliers and good for your ash trees, too. 

For more info, go here.

(Photos: Top, Emergald ash borer trap in Ellicott City by Nate Pesce for Patuxent Publishing; Above, adult emerald ash borer, Michigan State Universitiy photo via AP)

Posted by Tim Wheeler at 6:32 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)
        

With summer travel season nearly here and gas prices still flirting with $4 a gallon, a new report points out that Marylanders could be saving $541 per family at the gas pump this summer if the federal government had ordered greater fuel efficiency in cars and trucks.

Environment Maryland called on the Obama administration Tuesday to raise the mileage standard to 60 miles per gallon for all new vehicles. The admnistration did mandate greater fuel efficiency in new cars and trucks built between 2012 and 2016 but the environmental group wants Obama to trump that and "move clean cars into the fast lane."

The environmental group projects that Marylanders will spend $2.4 billion at the gas pump this summer. By mandating higher fuel efficiency, that payout could be trimmed by $1.3 billion, it added. Besides saving vehicle owners money, the group contends, greater fuel efficiency also would ease US dependence on foreign oil and reduce air pollution at the same time.

(Bloomberg photo)

Posted by Tim Wheeler at 7:13 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)
        

With Memorial Day approaching, summer is almost upon us - a great time to get outdoors and explore some of the many parks around us.

What are your favorite places for hiking, picnicking and enjoying the outdoors? One of mine is Swallow Falls State Park, boasting some of the most gorgeous scenery in Maryland.

Near Oakland in Garrett County, it's a 3 1/2 hour drive from Baltimore, a bit beyond Deep Creek Lake, but worth it. It's an awesome place of rushing mountain streams, majestic forest and roaring waterfalls. Muddy Creek Falls, seen above in a short video I shot recently, is the state's highest free-falling waterfall, with a 53-foot drop.

Swallow Falls also harbors the state's largest remaining stand of Eastern hemlocks, towering evergreens that once covered much more of the landscape. A 40-acre patch of hemlocks there somehow escaped the logger's saws, making it one of just a handfull of old-growth forests in Maryland. You can also hike along scenic and wild Youghiogheny River.

The park has a picnic area, pavilion, playground and nature programs during the summer, as well as tent camping. A few miles south is Herrington Manor State Park, featuring a 53-acre lake, boat rentals and 20 cabins for rent.

If you're wondering what parks are near you, outdoor gear maker North Face has a handy web locator. And as part of its annual "Explore Your Parks" promotion, the company offers a free state park day pass with purchase of any of its products.

Posted by Tim Wheeler at 8:50 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
        

Gov. Martin O'Malley signed into law today legislation that limits both the content and the application of fertilizer for urban and suburban lawns, a measure supporters say should help rescue the Chesapeake Bay from the nutrient pollution fouling its water.

Touted by proponents as the most comprehensive regulation of lawn care in the Bay region, if not the nation, the law bars phosphorus in any fertilizer except those meant to boost growth of new or repaired lawns. It also limits nitrogen content.

The measure further restricts when and where homeowners and lawn-care outfits can apply fertilizer - specifying, for instance, that none is to be sprayed or spread within 10 to 15 feet of water, depending on how it's applied.

The law bars any local fertilizer bans or regulations, and would appear to invalidate the restrictions in force since 2009 in Annapolis, the only municipality or county to enact any. But proponents say the application limits in the statewide law essentially mirror the Annapolis ones, except for that city's requirement that merchants selling fertilizer post a sign urging customers not to overapply it.

Under the state law, lawns are not to be fertilized before March 1 or after Nov. 15, though lawn-care outfits get a couple more weeks in the fall than do-it-yourselfers. The paid applicators can keep working to Dec. 1, as long as they're using spraying liquid "fast-release" plant food. (CORRECTION: Mark Schlossberg of the Maryland Association of Green Industries says it comes in granular and liquid form.)

Lawn-care professionals also get latitude to continue applying "natural organic" or "organic" fertilizer containing phosphorus, though beginning in 2013 the amount of that plant nutrient would also be limited and couldn't be applied at all to lawns where tests show the soil already has plenty of phosphorus.

But people paid to apply fertilizer would be required to undergo training and obtain certification from the Maryland Department of Agriculture, much as pest-control workers are now.

State officials predict that the law should reduce the overall amount of phosphorus getting into Maryland's portion of the bay by 3 percent. They say they don't have a handle yet on how much nitrogen might be kept out of the water. But it's estimated that 14 percent of the nitrogen and 8 percent of the phosphorus polluting the bay comes from urban and suburban land, much of it fertilizer washed off by rain.

Though the law would make a relatively small dent in the bay's overall pollution problem, it's an important one, if only politically. Agriculture Secretary Earl F. "Buddy" Hance noted that Maryland's farmers have been under increasing regulation over the years, and this measure addresses a source of water problems largely ignored until now. The state has 1.1 million acres in turfgrass, he pointed out, nearly as much land as farmers use for growing crops.

"This is an opportunity for homeowners to do their share," said Del. James Hubbard, a Prince George's County Democrat who introduced HB573 on behalf of the Chesapeake Bay Commission. The commission, representing lawmakers from Maryland, Pennsylvania and Virginia, pushed the states to adopt lawn fertilizer limits this year. Virginia enacted curbs on phosphorus, and legislation is now being drafted in Pennsylvania.

Any person who violates the law's restrictions on fertilizing lawns can be fined up to $1,000 for a first offense, and up to $2,000 for each repeat infraction. But Ann P. Swanson, the bay commission's executive director, said she believes the law's main impact will come from fertilizer manufacturers reducing the nutrient content of their products.

Chris J. Wible, director of environmental stewardship for Scotts Miracle-Gro Company, a leading lawn products seller, noted that his firm and another had voluntarily agreed to reduce the phosphorus content of their lawn fertilizer years ago. With this legislation in the works and similar curbs being discussed up and down the East Coast, Scotts announced earlier this year it would make all its lawn fertilizer products sold nationally phosphorus-free by 2012.

As for ensuring that homeowners heed the application limits, the bay commisson's Swanson said that would come from people learning about the need to change their lawn-care habits, rather than from any enforcement crackdown. There was no additional money budgeted to enforce this law, nor were any extra funds provided for carrying out the public education campaign the law calls for, according to Hance, the state agriculture secretary.

Swanson said people themselves would have to make sure the law is followed, much as public pressure discourages littering. "We're really going to have to rely on one neighbor helping another," she said.

(Top: A Perry Hall lawn being fertilized, Baltimore Sun photo by Amy Davis; Bottom: Notice posted on fertilizer display at Annapolis TrueValue hardware store, photo by Tim Wheeler)

Posted by Tim Wheeler at 6:39 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)
        

The website wholeliving.com contains a wealth of resources for mind body health, green living, fitness and beauty. Integral to their top tenets of whole living is the idea of mindfulness or, what some refer to as wise reflection. Without delving too much into Buddhist psychology, let's just say that being mindful is perhaps the most significant step towards whole living. Consciousness of what we eat, what we use, what we waste and how we live overall may sometimes seem like an extravagance. But stop. Take a moment to sit, breath and reflect on these things. Begin with what surrounds you at home. Is your environment a pleasant one?

Meditation aside, it's also the time of year when many of us reflect on what we want to get rid of. And even the most attentive assessment of our possessions can result in a mountain of boxes filled to the brim with winter clothing, discarded flowerpots, worn out shirts, and Altoid tins. Why do I specifically mention these things? Because every one of them can be re-used to create something spectacular for your home and perhaps even serve as little reminders that mindfulness is always within reach.

Supply Tins

When you finish off that last Altoid, save the container. It's the right size for holding office supplies like paper clips and stamps. 1. Trace the top of the tin onto leftover contact paper or cork sheets (found at craft stores) and cut out the pattern. 2. Use glue to affix the cover to the tin. 3. Label the top to indicate what's inside. Cost: less than $10

Rustic Candles

Melt down the dregs of burned-out candles to make new ones in old flowerpots. You'll give both items a new lease on life. 1. Scrub the inside of the pot only, leaving the outside aged. 2. Use a coin to cover the drainage hole in the bottom. 3. Insert a ready-made stiff cotton wick (sold at craft stores) or make your own wick out of cotton twine. To hold the wick upright, tie one end loosely to a pencil laid across the top of the pot. 4. Melt chunks of old candles in a pot set over a low flame or in a double boiler. Pour the liquid wax into the flowerpots. 5. Let set overnight and then trim the wick. Cost: about $2

Oxford Napkins

At some point, a cotton button-down wears out its welcome on a hanger. Turn it into cloth napkins or dishcloths, reducing your need for paper products. "The softer and more worn, the better," says Seo. "Faded plaids and check patterns look especially great." How to: 1. Wash the shirts well and cut the fabric into uniformly sized pieces, about 12 inches square. 2. Either leave edges frayed or sew a hem for a cleaner look. Cost: $0

Sweater Seats

Cozy up a set of chairs by reupholstering them with pieces from outgrown or thrift-store sweaters. 1. Cut a sweater apart, working up the side seams and across the shoulders. Trim off the neck hole and sleeves, leaving two squares of fabric slightly larger than the seat of the chair. 2. Unscrew the seat cushions from the chairs. (The screws are usually on the cushion's underside.) 3. Cover the cushions with the sweater fabric, and secure the cloth edges to the underside using a staple gun or small tacks. 4. Trim any excess and reattach the cushion to the chair. Cost: $0

Projects and images courtesy of Wholeliving. com. Read more at Wholeliving.com: 25 Eco-Chic Ideas for Your Home.

Posted by Christy Zuccarini at 9:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
        

With study after study showing that Maryland's Smart Growth laws and policies have been ineffective at curbing sprawl, the O'Malley administration has a new-old remedy: a state development plan.

PlanMaryland, it's called. Drafted by the state Department of Planning, the 188-page document is meant to fulfill a 40-year-old law never acted upon that calls for the creation of a state growth plan.

It was released last month, and state planners are holding a series of "open-house" style forums this spring and summer to get public reaction. The next one is Thursday May 19, from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m. at Long Reach High School in Columbia, 6101 Old Dobbin Lane.

With upwards of 5.8 million people living on the state's 6.2 million acres, the population is projected to grow nearly 15 percent over the next 20 years, adding another 900,000 residents.

PlanMaryland doesn't propose any radical changes in direction - it calls for concentrating growth in towns, cities and "rural centers," whatever those are, where infrastructure already exists or is planned. It also calls for preserving environmentally sensitive and rural lands. Its third primary goal is more amorphous - "sustainability", defined as ensuring quality of life while preserving those natural and cultural resources that distinguish Maryland as a place.

The plan proposes a collaborative new planning effort for state and local governments to designate the places where they believe growth should occur and where land should be shielded from development. And it proposes tweaking state policies and funding formulas to better focus government spending on highways, schools and other infrastructure on those areas designated for growth.

It's not clear how this new "place designation" process is going to improve on the failure of state and local governments to invest enough in existing communities so they can accommodate new growth through redevelopment.

Much of the sprawl of the recent past, developers say, has been a byproduct of neighborhood opposition to increased density, or even of local government building bans imposed, because of overcrowded schools and inadequate water and sewer systems.  Politicians have been unwilling to raise taxes or fees enough to provide and maintain needed infrastructure in existing communities, and have been all too willing to let developers build instead on farmland, where the roads aren't already jammed and the cows don't vote.

A big part of the problem as well is that there is no agreed-upon, uniform definition of what constitutes "smart" growth. The legal and political battle of recent years over Terrapin Run, the large-scale development proposed in mostly rural Allegany County, illustrates that. While urban living has seen some gains lately, many people have still voted with their feet for less crowded surroundings  - though not quite as dramatically as the Bay Bridge walk pictured here.

The recession and real estate slump appear to have resolved the Terrapin Run fight, at least for now. But pressure to grow will return as the economy recovers - though where and how it plays out may be different than in the past, as Baby Boomers age, the state overall becomes racially and ethnically more diverse and more foreign-born immigrants settle in the suburbs.

"PlanMaryland will not immediately resolve issues like local adequate public facilities ordinances that discourage growth in suitable areas, public sentiments against more growth, or the limited public funding available to address the problems we face," the document says.

What it will do, planners say, is give state and local officials a chance to work through their differences on where to spend what funding is available, and to use permitting and regulatory authority as well to guide growth where all agree it should occur.

State planners are seeking feedback through Sept. 1 on their growth plan.   There've been two forums held already on the Eastern Shore, and there'll be five more after the Columbia meeting - including two more in the Baltimore area.  The next is May 25 at Morgan State University, also at 5-8 p.m., in the university student center, 1700 E. Cold Spring Lane. 

To see a full listing of forums. or to learn more about the state growth plan - and to comment on it online - go here.

(Baltimore Sun photos: Top, development in western Howard County, 2006, by David Hobby; above, Bay Bridge walk, 2006, by Jerry Jackson.)

Posted by Tim Wheeler at 10:50 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
        

Gov. Martin O'Malley has announced he'll sign the bill providing financial incentives to new and existing waste-to-energy plants, saying he believes burning trash to produce power is better than landfilling it.

The governor issued a statement late today outlining his decision, just a few days after he said he was torn whether to sign the legislation. State law requires 20 percent of Maryland's energy to come from renewable sources by 2022.

The bill, SB690, would make waste-to-energy facilities eligible to sell Tier 1 renewable energy credits, a benefit potentially worth hundreds of thousands of dollars to a major plant. Facilities that would burn trash or shredded debris are proposed in south Baltimore and in Frederick County. Some existing waste-burning facilities already are eligible for a less lucrative renewable energy credit.

Environmental groups had lobbied the governor to veto the bill, even though his Maryland Energy Administration had backed it. They contended that boosting incentives for waste-to-energy plants could undermine the state's recycling efforts and might weaken the prospects for developing industrial offshore wind projects, a priority of O'Malley's.

The governor countered that waste-to-energy complements rather than competes with recycling, pointing out that recycling is already thriving in Montgomery County, which has an existing trash burner.  Acknowledging concerns about air pollution, O'Malley said he would direct the Maryland Department of the Environment to maintain tight controls on mercury emissions from any such facilities.

Posted by Tim Wheeler at 5:50 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)
        

General Motors broke ground today on an electric motor plant in White Marsh, which the company billed as the first by a major U.S. automaker dedicated to making components for plug-in electric and hybrid vehicles. Gov. Martin O'Malley, Energy Secretary Steven Chu and other muckety mucks were on hand to laud the Detroit-based comany's commitment to alternative energy. Read our story here.

Meanwhile, GM officials pointed out that their Baltimore operations complex is sporting a new, 1.23-megawatt rooftop solar array that's expected to generate 9 percent of the power the facility needs, saving an estimated $330,000 in energy costs during its lifetime. Constellation Energy installed the solar array, which it will continue to own and maintain under a 20-year power purchase agreement with GM.

It's the second such alternative energy project for GM - Constellation put a 951-kilowatt system on the car maker's service and parts operation warehouse in Fontana, Calif. Technically an addition to the existing facility making two-mode hybrid and heavy duty transmissions, the electric-motor plant won't be open until 2013.

(Photo courtesy GM)

Posted by Tim Wheeler at 5:00 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
        

The controversy over hydraulic fracturing to tap natural gas can be highly technical and contentious. Some students at New York University put this catchy music video together to highlight the concerns that have been raised about "fracking," as it's commonly known.

 Of course, it's just one side, and there's debate over how "new" fracking is, much less how big a threat. Check out the comments posted with the video. I happen to agree with the observation it sounds like something from the HBO series "Flight of the Conchords." More seriously, feel free to go here to get the admittedly less musical point of view from Chief Oil & Gas, one of the companies drilling in Pennsylvania and seeking approval to drill here in Maryland.

Posted by Tim Wheeler at 2:00 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)
        

The rush to tap natural gas reserves in Pennsylvania prompted the environmental group American Rivers today to name the Susquehanna River the most endangered water way in the country.  One of the nation's longest rivers, The Susquehanna supplies drinking water to six million people. It's also the chief tributary of the Chesapeake Bay.

The designation comes as national environmental groups press for a crackdown on the gas drilling technique known as hydraulic fracturing, which involves pumping millions of gallons of water laced with chemicals and other substances deep into the ground to extract methane from layers of rock.

American Rivers points to the rash of spills, leaks and contaminated drinking-water wells in Pennsylania that have been linked to fracking, which is being used to get at gas locked in vast Marcellus shale deposits underlying much of Pennsylvania, New York, West Virginia and western Maryland.

The group is calling for Pennsylvania, New York, and the Susquehanna River Basin Commission need to impose a "complete moratorium" on water withdrawals and "fracking" until there are comprehensive regulations in place to safeguard drinking water and the environment.

"The potential for future environmental and public health catastrophes along the Susquehanna will only increase, considering the number of new wells projected and the amount of toxic wastewater produced," the group says in a release.

New York already has temporarily halted fracturing to study the issue. Maryland has had a de facto moratorium for more than a year now, holding up permits sought by a pair of companies to drill exploratory wells in Garrett County near the Pennsylvania border.  A bill that would have placed a two-year moratorium in drilling in Maryland while more study is done died, but state officials say they don't intend to issue permits unless and until they're sure adequate safeguards are in place - a process that could take close to two years anyway. 

In a related development, the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection today announced it has levied more than $1 million in fines against Chesapeake Energy, one of the companies drilling for gas there, for contaminating wells in one county and for a fire in February at one of its wells.

Paul Swartz, executive director of the Susquehanna basin commission, called American Rivers' demand for a moratorium "misguided."

The commission has only a 'limited' role in the regulation of natural gas development, he said, in overseeing water withdrawals and consumptive water uses. Concerns about water contamination need to be addressed by state and federal governments, he said.

Swartz also contended that American Rivers exaggerrates how much of the Susquehanna's flow would be needed to provide drilling fluid for the hundreds of thousands of wells that could be drilled. The group said 1.5 times the river's annual flow would be used to sustain drilling operations. But Swartz countered that with 18 million gallons of freshwater flow per minute, the river's flow would be minimally affected - less than 3 percent of the flow, he said, even in dry spells.

Other rivers making American Rivers' annual "most endangered" list include Briston Bay rivers in Alaska and Roanoke River in Virginia and North Carolina, which the group says are threatened by mining operations.  To see all the rivers on the list, go here.

(Baltimore Sun photos: Top, Susquehanna River at Conowingo Dam, 2005 by David Hobby; natural gas well in Pennsylvania, by Doug Kapustin)

Posted by Tim Wheeler at 1:21 PM | Permalink | Comments (7)
        

Baltimore city public works crews continue to struggle to clear a carpet-clogged sewer line that's pouring hundreds of thousands of gallons of raw sewage into Herring Run in northeast Baltimore.   That's right, carpet-clogged - a rolled-up carpet apparently was stuffed down a manhole, according to Kurt Kocher, spokesman for the city Department of Public Works.

City officials announced late Monday afternoon that more than 10,000 gallons of sewage had spilled into Herring Run near Harford Road at Argonne Drive, but the overflow is up to around 700,000 gallons now, with no end in sight, Kocher reports.

"We are going to have to do a pump-around upstream to relieve pressure behind the carpet and whatever else may be jammed behind it," Kocher said in an email early this morning.  Signs like the one pictured above have been posted along Herring Run to warn people not to go near the water, but Kocher said late yesterday afternoon - before the rains began again this morning - that the stream was a "not too appetizing shade of gray, and the odor isn't all that great either."

Kocher said that a room-sized rug, rolled up, apparently is the chief blockage in the sewer line.  The city has filed a police report on the incident and intends to prosecute if the dumper or dumpers can be found. 

"They had to go to a lot of trouble to haul that downhill and put it in a manhole,'' the public works spokesman said.  "That's very very stupid and very destructive."

Baltimore's harbor and the urban-suburban streams that feed into it are plagued by unsafe bacteria levels.  The harmful bacteria comes from myriand chronic sewer leaks, plus pet waste, litter and other organic matter washed into storm drains by rainfall throughout the watershed, which extends beyond the city line into Baltimore County.  The city is spending upwards of $1 billion to fix the worst of its sewer overflows, but littering - especially on this scale - sure doesn't help. 

(Photos courtesy Baltimore city Dept Public Works)

Posted by Tim Wheeler at 10:45 AM | Permalink | Comments (4)
        

The "Bay Barometer," an annual report card on the health of the Chesapeake Bay and the efforts to restore it, is missing in action.

It was scheduled for release last month, but got held up at the last minute. Shawn Garvin, the Environmental Protection Agency's Mid-Atlantic regional administrator, said in an email to officials from Maryland and other bay region states that a key component of the annual update, the assessment of progress over the past year in bay restoration efforts, had not been completed.

"We want to make sure we get it right, of course," said Margaret Enloe, spokeswoman for the Chesapeake Bay Program, the restoration "partnership" of EPA, bay states and the District of Columbia. EPA officials are in the process of revising a computer simulation, or model, that's used to calculate how much nitrogen, phosphorus and sediment pollution has been reduced across the six-state bay watershed.

"Until that model is ready to run again," she said, "we are not going to have those numbers."

The "Barometer" released last spring found that in 2009 the bay's health had improved modestly - about six percent - while efforts to improve water quality and protect wildlife habitats and manage fisheries had made only incremental gains overall, to about 62 percent of restoration goals.

But the calculation of how much progress has been made on cleaning up nutrient and sediment pollution likely will change with a revised computer model. Enloe said if the model is ready to go soon, officials hope to be able to release the Barometer "sometime in mid-year."

While the Barometer is stuck in study hall, the public isn't exactly in the dark about how the bay is doing. The annual bay health report card put out by the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science, released as usual a few weeks ago, found that the Chesapeake's overall condition had slipped slightly in 2010 for the first time in four years. It graded the bay's health at C-minus, or "moderately poor."

The Bay Program has parceled out some info that's part of the annual Barometer report - reporting a 7 percent decline last year in Bay grasses, and the results of an eight-year sampling of thousands of streams and rivers in the six-state watershed, which found 45 percent in fair to excellent shape and 55 percent in poor to very poor condition for sustaining fish populations.

Given the other measures of bay health out there, and the sea-change in the bay restoration effort this past year with the imposition by EPA of a baywide pollution diet, one wonders why bother with the Barometer? 

Enloe said Bay Program officials have actually talked about whether to continue the annual report, but felt at least one more was needed, if only to take stock of progress in achieving the bay restoration goals that were supposed to have been reached by the end of last year. That was the deadline set in 2000 for completing the bay restoration effort begun in 1983.

As Karl Blankenship of the Chesapeake Bay Journal notes in recent article, a few of the more than 100 commitments made in that 2000 bay restoration agreement have been achieved. A fifth of the six-state watershed's land has been preserved from development, and dams have been removed reopening more than 1,000 miles of rivers for migratory fish to spawn as they once did. But many more pledges, such as rebuilding the bay's depleted oyster population or restoring thousands of acres of lost wetlands, have not.

With EPA taking a leading and more regulatory role in directing what once had been a voluntary, mostly state-led restoration effort, the Bay Program finds itself at a crossroads, Blankenship writes. So it's no surprise, perhaps, that the annual report on how the bay restoration is going is hung up there, too.

(Bay Bridge, 2008 Baltimore Sun photo by Doug Kapustin)

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

CHAI, the housing and community development agency for The Associated, the federation of Jewish organizations, will be offering a tour of its new green building in northwest Baltimore Tuesday May 17, along with discussions on incorporating sustainability in new and existing structures.

The building, at 5809 Park Heights Ave., has been awarded a silver LEED certificate by the U.S. Green Building Council. LEED stands for Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design.

"See the Green @ CHAI" will be from 4 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. For more, go here.

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Ecologist and author Sandra Steingraber will be in town Wednesday May 18 to talk about her new book, Raising Elijah - Protecting Our Children in an Age of Environmental Crisis. 

Currently scholar in residence at Ithaca College in New York, Steingraber has explored in her writings the links between the environment and health.

Her first book, Living Downstream, An Ecologist's Personal Investigation of Cancer and the Environment, used her own experience as a cancer survivor to examine the environmental links to cancer.

In a later book, Having Faith: An Ecologist’s Journey to Motherhood, she tackles fetal toxicology in the context of her own pregnancy. She's the mother of two.

Her latest work, Raising Elijah, strives to connect parenting to public policy on the environment. She links many childhood health issues, such as asthma and developmental problems, to environmental factors, including air quality and chemical contamination.

She'll speak at 7 p.m. at the Enoch Pratt central library downtown. Her talk is part of the Sustainable Speakers series presented by the library in partnership with Baltimore Green Works. For more, go here.

(Photo by Dede Hatch, courtesy Sandra Steingraber)

Posted by Tim Wheeler at 10:33 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
        

It's spring, so there's something green to do every weekend, if not every day. Here are just a few:

BALTIMORE CITY - Roland Park is staging Seven Generations, its second annual weekend-long celebration of sustainability. On Saturday, May 14, there'll be a native plant sale, green expo and garden tour, among other things. Sunday features a "ciclovia" of pedaling, jogging or strolling down Roland Avenue from Northern Parkway to Cold Spring Lane.  Events start around 8 a.m. each day, and last into afternoon. Go here for more.

TOWSON - The Rotary Club of Towsontowne is staging an ECO-fest, a rain barrel and compost bin sale, on Saturday, 8 a.m. to 2 p.m., at Towson United Methodist Church, 501 Hampton Lane.  Looks like it's going to rain, so better get a rain barrel while supplies last.  For more info, go here.

EASTERN SHORE - The 11th annual Great Worcester Herp Search needs volunteers Saturday to help scour the woods and fields for turtles, snakes, frogs and salamanders. Last year, searchers tallied 204 reptiles and amphibians, including box and snapping turtles and five-lined skinks.  The search kicks off 9 a.m. at Furnacetown off Route 12 near Snow Hill with a pre-hunt training session. Pack a lunch, sunscreen and rain gear, of course.  For directions, go here.

(Guiliana Cascio holds a box turtle found near Showell.  Photo courtesy Maryland Coastal Bays Program)

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The weekend weather forecast may be calling for some rain, but that won't stop the Solar & Wind Expo from going on Friday through Sunday at the state fairgrounds in Timonium.

Gov. Martin O'Malley will host a roundtable discussion of Maryland's energy future on Friday. On Saturday, electric-vehicle advocate Chelsea Sexton, featured in the film "Who Killed the Electric Car?", will deliver the keynote address.

There'll also be a bevy of seminars and workshops on home weatherization, the hows and whys of solar, wind, geothermal and more.  Doors open at 10 a.m. each day.  Tickets are $12 at the door, with kids under 12 free, and $2 off if you arrive by light rail, buy online or present any ad or article (including a printout of this one).  For details, go here.

(Baltimore Sun photo)

Posted by Tim Wheeler at 9:30 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
        

Montgomery County's leaders have now done what Baltimore city's and Maryland's have balked at doing - impose a nickel tax on throwaway retail bags to fight litter. 

On Wednesday (May 11) County Executive Ike Leggett signed the bag-charge bill passed recently by the County Council, saying he hoped the new law would make shoppers more environmentally conscious rather than raise a lot of revenue.

It's modeled on the nickel-bag tax that took effect in 2010 in the District of Columbia, which has been credited with substantially reducing disposable bag use and litter there.

The Montgomery law, which takes effect Jan. 1, would levy a five-cent tax on almost every paper or plastic carryout bag provided by retail establishments in the county. Exceptions include bags for prescription drugs, newspapers, goods sold at farmers markets and other seasonal vendors' stands and prepared foods or drinks taken from restaurants. Merchants would get a penny back on every bag to help cover their administrative costs.

Officials estimate the bag tax will raise about $1.5 million in revenues its first year, which would be dedicated to help pay for controlling storm-water polllution, restoring streams and cleaning up litter. Plastic bags are one of the top four items found littering stream banks and clogging storm drains in the county.  Officials figure they spent about $3 million in 2009 on litter prevention and cleanup.

"This is good for the environment, and I expect many people who are not already doing this to adjust," Leggett said in a news release. “ As I have said before, we do not see this as a source of revenue. The more people who use reusable bags, the less revenue to the County and that is just fine.”

In Baltimore, where tons of floating trash and debris wash into the Inner Harbor every month, City Council mulled a heftier 25-cent bag tax or even banning disposable sacks altogether, as San Francisco did. But retailers and bag manufacturers protested, and after a protracted debate the council opted instead to require retailers just to promote recycling of plastic bags, or switch to paper.

Legislation that would tax non-reusable bags statewide has gone nowhere in Annapolis the past two years, despite support from environmental groups.

Posted by Tim Wheeler at 8:30 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
        

Maryland has become the first state in the nation to embrace a green construction code, which green building advocates hope will pave the way (so to speak) for much more energy-efficient and environmentally friendly structures.

Gov. Martin O'Malley signed into law legislation passed this year by the General Assembly authorizing the application of the International Green Construction Code on all commercial buildings and residential buildings more than three stories high.

HB972, sponsored by Del. Dana Stein, D-Baltimore County, authorizes the Maryland Department of Housing and Community Development to adopt the code, and it enables local governments to do so as well.

In a year when lawmakers chose to study rather than act on most major environmental issues, the construction code measure is hailed by Stuart Kaplow, chairman of the US Green Building Council Maryland, as "the most significant environmental legislation adopted in Maryland this year." He called it "pro-business and pro-environment"

Proponents say the green construction code is likely to expand energy-efficient and environmentally friendly building practices.  It is faster, cheaper and easier to follow, they say, than the USGBC's Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design rating system, which puts off some developers because of the costs and delays in getting third-party certification of the green features in a building's design and construction.

Why do green buildings matter?  According to the USGBC, buildings account for 40% of US energy consumption, 39% of CO2 emissions and 13% water consumption. Building them greener can reduce energy use by up to 50%, CO2 emissions by as much as 39% and potable water use 40%.

(Construction cranes, 2008 Baltimore Sun photo by Doug Kapustin)

Posted by Tim Wheeler at 11:37 AM | Permalink | Comments (8)
        

Most Chesapeake Bay rivers and streams are still in poor health, federal scientists report, even though levels of nutrient pollution have slowly dropped at two-thirds of the places where they've been monitoring water quality for the past 25 years.

A survey of 7,886 sites throughout the six-state watershed found 54 percent were in poor or very poor condition, with relatively few snails, mussels, water insects and other bottom-dwelling organisms that indicate a healthy waterway. Another 19 percent were judged in fair condition, with just 13 percent in good and 14 percent in excellent shape.

That's a sobering counterpoint to the other, mostly good news about nutrient pollution put out Monday by the U.S. Geological Survey. The agency reported that nitrogen and phosphorus levels have dropped long-term at 22 of the 32 river and stream sites it has monitored since 1985. Sediment levels have declined at 40 percent of the gauges.

While nutrient and sediment pollution spiked last year - a jump attributed to unusually wet weather - there's been an improving overall trend over the past 25 years, USGS scientists say. Nitrogen levels measured in the Susquehanna River, the bay's largest tributary, have declined by 26 percent, said USGS scientist Scott Phillips. Nitrogen dropped 23 percent in the Potomac and 18 percent in the James, the bay's next two major rivers.

But in two rivers - the Choptank, on the Eastern Shore, and the Pamunkey, north of Richmond in Virginia - nutrient pollution is actually worse now than it was in 1985, according to the USGS. Phillips blamed the Pamunkey's decline on extensive development that's occurred throughout its watershed. The Choptank's worsening condition likely reflects the delayed effects of too much fertilizer put on farm fields years and even decades ago, Phillips said, with the nitrogen now seeping into streams from ground water.

Some rivers showed no change up or down overall, including the North Branch of the Patapsco River in Carroll County, the upper Patuxent River and Gunpowder Falls at Glencoe. Nutrient and sediment pollution spiked last year, but USGS attributed the rise to a weather-related surge in river flows. Nitrogen levels jumped by about 20 percent, roughly the same proportion as the rise in flows, said Phillips.

So why are most of the bay's rivers and streams still in poor shape if nutrient pollution is gradually declining in most places? Because nitrogen, phosphorus and sediment need to come down even more, says the USGS. Also, because there's more to stream health than nutrients and sediment. The stream sites with the most aquatic life were in forested areas, the USGS noted, while those that fared the worst were in urban and agricultural areas - stripped of trees, mostly.

When taken together, the USGS data suggest that reducing nutrient and sediment pollution alone aren't enough to really restore the Chesapeake Bay and its watershed. Putting life back in the water may require more substantive changes on the land that drains into it.

"Incremental improvements in stream health are good," said Chesapeake Bay Foundation President William C. Baker, "but make no mistake the Bay is still dangerously polluted."

For more, go here.

(Choptank River near its headwaters, 2008 Baltimore Sun photo by Glenn Fawcett)

Posted by Tim Wheeler at 6:14 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
        

A third or more of all the oysters produced in state hatcheries to rebuild the Chesapeake Bay's shellfish population wind up getting stolen by poachers, reports Kerry Davis of the Capital News Service.

Ken Paynter, a University of Maryland researcher who monitors hatchery-produced oysters after they've been placed in the bay to grow, estimates a third of them have been illegally harvested since 2008, based on police records and eyewitness accounts. The oysters produced in state hatcheries are placed in sanctuary areas, where commercial harvest is prohibited.

Donald Meritt, who runs UM's Horn Point oyster hatchery near Cambridge, put the figure even higher, at 80 percent. Larry Simns, president of the Maryland Watermen's Association, disputes the number poached could be that high, but is quoted agreeing that the lower estimate is plausible.

About $50 million has been spent on oyster resotration since 1994, estimates state fisheries director Tom O'Connell, the article reports. Yet the bay's oyster population lingers around 1 percent of historic levels.

Legislators have approved stiffer penalties for poaching, but one lawmaker suggested efforts to protect the oyster sanctuaries are hampered by a shortage of police. The Natural Resources Police force has just 215 on staff, down from an authorized strength of 440 in 1990.

Read more: http://marylandreporter.com/2011/05/09/many-hatchery-produced-oysters-are-illegally-harvested/#ixzz1LrJowTx9

(Baltimore Sun photo)

Posted by Tim Wheeler at 8:17 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)
        

Lawmakers for Maryland and neighboring states are in Washington this week asking for more federal help in sticking to the strict "pollution diet" they've been put on for restoring the Chesapeake Bay.   They heard encouraging words, but got nothing concrete so far.

Members of the Chesapeake Bay Commission, which represents state legislators in Maryland, Pennsylvania and Virginia, met Thursday with Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lisa Jackson and with members of Congress. They were hoping to meet today with Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack.

With congressional leaders and the Obama administration locked in negotiations over how to cut federal spending to reduce the national debt, commission members didn't ask for massive new infusions of money to underwrite their cleanup efforts.  They did, however, make a pitch for a $30 million "innovative technology fund" to help find feasible alternative uses for the animal manure that's now spread on farm fields as fertilizer - and contributing to the bay's water quality problems.

Mostly, the state lawmakers urged administration and congressional representatives to hold the line on current funding for bay cleanup. They pointed to the need for continued funding of the $1 billion upgrade under way at the Blue Plains sewage treatment plant in Washington, the bay region's largest. The District of Columbia, and suburban Maryland and Virginia counties served by the plant are seeking $28.8 million in federal funds next year to help keep the costs to local ratepayers down. Without that federal contribution, they warned, the costs of the upgrade would drive up residents' utility bills even more.

Commission members did press EPA and USDA to promise bay region farmers that if they take prescribed steps to reduce polluted runoff from their fields and animal feedlots they won't face any additional regulation. They also insisted that federal facilities around the bay should be held to the same pollution reduction requirements the states have to meet now under the pollution diet, or total maximum daily load, established recently by EPA.

At their meeting at EPA headquarters Thursday, Jackson didn't offer much encouragement about funding, but did seem eager to work with the states and overcome the rifts with farmers and others over the pollution reductions required under the diet.

"We're losing resources overall as an agency and as a government," she reminded commission members. But she said the bay cleanup remains a top priority of President Obama.

"Let me assure you," Jackson said, "we remain committed even within a shrinking resource budget."

The EPA chief also expressed an eagerness to overcome what she called "tension" over the pollution reductions required under the EPA's bay restoration plan, or diet. The American Farm Bureau Federation has sued to overturn the plan, and the Republican-led House attempted to block funding for it earlier this year. 

She pledged EPA would work with USDA to try "to break down what is becoming this wall of distrust" among farmers over what they need to do to comply with the cleanup plan.  She acknowledged that a sore point has been the failure of the EPA plan to specifically acknowledge the pollution-control measures farmers have taken voluntarily that weren't paid for with government funds. But she cautioned that the effectiveness of those and other "best management practices" for controlling polluted runoff need to verified, so farmers "don't waste time on what's not working." 

Given the criticism of EPA on a variety of fronts lately and efforts on Capitol Hill to curtail its regulatory authority, the bay commission meeting with Jackson was unusually cordial, with commission members praising Jackson's agency for responding to earlier requests. At one point, Maryland state Sen. Thomas M. Middleton, D-Charles County, called it a "lovefest."

But Pennsylvania state Sen. Mike Brubaker, the commission's chairman and a Republican, said the panel has steered clear of partisan debate in seeking practical ways of advancing the bay cleanup.

The bay lovefest continued Thursday on Capitol Hill. Rep. Rob Wittman, R-Va., announced to commission members that Maryland and Virginia representatives had formed a Congressional Chesapeake Bay Watershed Caucus to advocate for the cleanup. There's been an informal "task force" of bay region representatives for years, but Wittman said the creation of an official caucus would help raise the profile of bay issues in Congress.

Brubaker, the commission chairman, welcomed the news of the caucus. But in praising it he inadvertently signaled how challenged the bay cleanup has become in politically divided Washington.

Creation of the caucus comes two years, Brubaker noted, after President Obama issued his executive order calling the bay a national treasure and pledging federal leadership in restoring the degraded estuary. Since the president's order, Congress has failed to authorize new bay cleanup legislation, and the House voted to temporarily block EPA's funding to enforce its bay cleanup plan.

(Photos: Top, Chesapeake Bay bridge at sunset, by Doug Kapustin of Baltimore Sun; above, Lisa Jackson, AFP/Getty)

Posted by Tim Wheeler at 9:35 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
        

Underwater grasses in Maryland's portion of the Chesapeake Bay declined by 15 percent last year, the Department of Natural Resources reports.

The decline parallels a baywide drop reported earlier In 2010, grasses covered about 40,193 acres of the bottom in Maryland's part of the bay and its rivers, down from 47,294 acres in 2009. Last year's coverage is about 35% of the state's 114,000-acre bay grass restoration goal.

For more information, go to http://www.dnr.maryland.gov/bay/sav/news/bgic_2010.asp.

Posted by Tim Wheeler at 11:08 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
        

The long-running Chesapeake Bay cleanup remains plagued by uneven efforts to track and verify pollution reductions, particularly from farmland, according to an independent review.
 
In a report released today, a nine-member panel of scientists with the National Research Council finds that while Maryland and other states have boosted their pollution control efforts, they’re not gathering enough information to tell how much progress they're making, especially those aimed at reducing farm runoff, a major source of the degraded estuary’s water quality woes.

The review comes as Maryland and other states grapple with the requirements of a new “pollution diet” imposed by EPA requiring substantial reductions in nutrient and sediment pollution throughout the six-state bay watershed. The American Farm Bureau has filed suit challenging the EPA plan, and local and state officials in parts of the region have complained about its costs and scientific basis.

An independent scientific assessment of the bay cleanup effort was requested two years ago after the states and EPA missed another in a series of deadlines, and a federal audit faulted the largely voluntary restoration campaign for exaggerating claims of success.  At that time, the region’s governors and federal officials vowed to accelerate their efforts and hold themselves more accountable, setting cleanup “milestones” to be reached every two years.

The scientific panel said that while setting short-term goals for the restoration should help, progress is still in doubt, in part because of inconsistent tracking and verifying of farm pollution measures. States have not accounted for controls put in place without government financial assistance, the report notes, but they also have not determined how lasting or effective have been many of the “best management practices” farmers have adopted.

As a result, the researchers said they were unable to determine the reliability or accuracy of runoff reductions reported by the states.

More generally, the report says, nearly all the states lack sufficient information to properly evaluate their progress in reducing nutrient and sediment pollution, the report says.  Their ability to make mid-course corrections is hampered as a result, the scientists warn, and policy makers and the public are likely to get an incomplete and possibly inaccurate sense of how much progress is being made to restore the bay.

The review warns that after centuries of pollution it may take years, if not decades, for water quality to improve significantly, and it urges officials to be more upfront with the public about the probability of delayed results, or risk loss of public and political support for the cleanup.

The report urges creation of a new laboratory to improve the computer modeling of the bay on which EPA’s controversial pollution diet was based.   It also recommends trying new approaches to managing animal manure on farms, curbing lawn fertilizer use and further reducing air pollution that contributes to the bay’s water problems.  

It even calls for states and the federal government to promote greater individual responsibility for reducing bay pollution, including encouraging people to reduce their consumption of meat.

Ann P. Swanson, executive director of the Chesapeake Bay Commission, representing lawmakers from Maryland, Pennsylvania and Virginia, said the independent review confirms for her that the states are on the right track in setting a series of two-year interim goals to keep them working toward an ultimate cleanup deadline in 2025.  She also noted that the scientists had warned the bay's restoration may never be realized unless cleanup efforts are adjusted to take into account the region's population growth, development patterns and the effects of climate change.

To read the full report, click <a xhref="http://www.nap.edu/catalog.php?record_id=13131" target=new>here. </a>

Baltimore Sun file photo

Posted by Kim Walker at 11:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)
Categories: Chesapeake Bay
        

Missing news about Britain's royal family since the wedding? Various media outlets, including The Washington Post, are reporting that this week Prince Charles will be visiting Washington, D.C., where he will tour the Common Good City Farm and speak about sustainable agriculture at Georgetown University.

The Prince of Wales is a huge proponent of organic and sustainable farming.  The farm at his Highgrove home is a model for organic agriculture. And he recently wrote a book about regaining balance with nature in "Harmony: A New Way of Looking at Our World." I have not read it yet but have been keeping an eye out for it at the library.

Has anyone read the book or toured the gardens at Highgrove? Tell us about it in the comments.

Photo of Prince Charles at last week's wedding from Getty Images

Posted by Kim Walker at 11:26 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)
Categories: Food
        

It may seem uncharitable to question anyone giving away money, especially in these hard times. But there's an all-too-familiar pattern in the announcement late last week by the Chesapeake Bay Trust and its federal and state government partners that they're doling out $231,000 for planning and design of "green" infrastructure projects in 10 Maryland communities.

Nine of the 10 places getting grants under the "Green street-Green jobs Initiative" are in the Washington suburbs, while just one is in Baltimore. What is Charm City, chopped liver?

The announcement came Friday at the start of a two-day "Green Streets Green Jobs" forum in Silver Spring put on by the Environmental Protection Agency. It's part of a new nationwide EPA strategy to promote rooftop gardens, permeable pavement, rain gardens and other green remedies for urban stormwater pollution. Washington D.C. is one of 10 US cities where EPA says it will encourage and support green infrastructure projects as models for the rest of the country.   Baltimore is not on the list.

DC was picked because of the Anacostia River, which drains portions of Prince George's and Montgomery counties before flowing through eastern DC on its way to the Potomac River. It is one seriously degraded waterway - trash strewn, unfit to swim or wade in in many places and with some fish not safe to eat.

But the Patapsco and Back rivers, which bracket Baltimore and make up the harbor watershed, are in bad shape, too, with similar problems. They received flunking grades for the second straight year in the University of Maryland's annual report card  on the health of the Chesapeake Bay and its tributaries.

So why the DC suburbs get the lion's share of the grants announced Friday? Because EPA provided $200,000 of the funds given out by the Chesapeake Bay Trust, and the feds (based in Washington) wanted to see their money spent in the Anacostia watershed, according to the trust.

The trust is based in Annapolis, not DC.  It's a quasi-public grantmaker that gets funding from all Marylanders, through "save the bay" license plate sales, tax checkoffs and other donations. So the trust kicked in a little more than $31,000 of its money for greening a  heavily trafficked stretch of Erdman Avenue in Northeast Baltimore.  According to trust spokeswoman Molly Mullins, it wanted to extend the street-greening effort beyond the Anacostia. The project was proposed by Belair-Edison Neighborhood Inc. and included individuals and partner groups such as Blue Water Baltimore, Civic Works and Baltimore Medical Systems.

It's not surprising EPA is focused on the Anacostia. The agency has been pushing restoration there for some time now, and used economic stimulus money a couple years back to bankroll a "green street" pilot project in tiny  Edmonston in Prince George's County.

Baltimore, meanwhile, has lagged behind other cities like Boston and DC in getting serious about cleaning up its waters. Yet the harbor, long written off as an industrial cesspool, is just as much in need of a shot in the arm as the Anacostia is.

To be sure, there are efforts under way in Baltimore to reclaim its harbor from centuries of abuse and neglect. The various watershed watchdog groups recently merged to bring more muscle to their cause, under the banner of Blue Water Baltimore. And the Waterfront Partnership - led by business and nonprofit executives - has staked out a goal of making the harbor fishable and swimmable by the end of the decade. The group is even bankrolling the drafting of a plan for reaching that ambitious target.

But there doesn't seem to be the same concerted public and private effort being made - yet - to bring back the harbor as there is with with the Anacostia.  Where will the real money and sweat come from to achieve the harbor's restoration?  In these hard times, business and foundations will only give so much. Where is the public commitment, the coordinated plan and push from city, state and federal governments combined, as is beginning to manifest itself on the Anacostia?

Perhaps it'll come, but Baltimore clearly has some catching up to do - to get organized, produce a realistic restoration plan, and start taking the hard steps needed to raise the necessary funds and to change harmful habits of the community. And citizens and their representatives - local and state politicians - will have to make sure EPA recognizes the need for help in restoring Baltimore's harbor is at least as great as it is in cleaning up Washington's Anacostia River. Until Baltimore stands up for itself and starts showing some real determination and progress, Charm City really has no one else to blame for its stepchild status when the feds are handing out the dough.

(Photos: Top, Rain garden in Berwyn Heights, by David Fronapfel, Patuxent Publishing; Middle, trash trap Anacostia River, by Kenneth K. Lam, Baltimore Sun; Bottom, Belair-Edison Neighborhood sign, by Lloyd Fox, Baltimore Sun)

Posted by Tim Wheeler at 6:39 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)