Blackwater National Wildlife Refuge, this region's premier preserve of woods, wetlands, bald eagles and other critters, is growing by another 825 acres, Sen. Benjamin L. Cardin announced today.

For $1.4 million, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has bought a tract of land along the Nanticoke River owned by Tideland Ltd. The service said the land is prime habitat for eagles and migratory waterfowl, including black ducks, blue winged-teal and wood ducks, and possibly habitat for the recovering Delmarva fox squirrel. A southern portion along the Nanticoke helps preserve views for the Capt. John Smith Chesapeake National Historic Trail.

The refuge, south of Cambridge in Dorchester County, covers more than 27,000 acres, including a third of Maryland’s tidal wetlands and some of the most ecologically important areas of our state, Cardin noted.

(Osprey nesting at Blackwater, 2009 Baltimore Sun photo by Karl Merton Ferron)

Posted by Tim Wheeler at 10:02 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)
        

The world's population has hit 7 billion, according to the United Nations, which coincidentally (or not) chose today, Halloween, as the date when that mark would be reached.

The number of humans inhabiting the Earth has more than doubled in the past 50 years, and though the rate of increase has slowed, we're still adding 1 billion people every 12 years.  I'm # 2,658,582,904, according to a nifty calculator published by the BBC.  Enter your birthdate and see what number you are.

But this milestone "is not about sheer numbers," says Geoff Dabelko, director of the Woodrow Wilson Center's Environmental Change & Security Program.  "Demographic trends will significatnly impact the planet's resouces and people's security.

"Growing populations stress dwindling natural resources supplies while high levels of consumption in both developed countries and emerging economies drive up carbon emissions and deplete the planet's resources," Dabelko adds.  "And neglected 'youth bulges' could bolster extremism in fragile states like Somalia and destabilize nascent democracies like Egypt."

For a primer on how we got to 7 billion, check out this brief video from the Population Reference Bureau.  If you want to delve deeper, I recommend the special year-long series by the National Geographic on the world's growing population and what it will mean.

To bring the discussion closer to home, it's worth pointing out that as of last year, an estimated 17.2 million people lived in the six-state Chesapeake Bay watershed, up from 16.9 million in 2008, according to the Environmental Protection Agency.  It's projected that number will hit 20 million by 2030.  For an analysis of how that growing human population works against restoring the bay, check out writer Tom Horton's 2008 report for the Abell Foundation.

(Photos: Top, Beach in China, 2007 AFP/Getty; Above, Commuters in Hanoi, 2011, Reuters)

Posted by Tim Wheeler at 9:01 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
        

With Halloween just around the corner, the Washington-based green group Environment America is sponsoring a spooky-themed cleanup of the Anacostia River on Saturday (Oct. 29), as well as a teach-in of sorts on the woes afflicting the Chesapeake Bay.

Volunteers will be picking up trash in Bladensburg Waterfront Park, 4601 Annapolis Road in Bladensburg, from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m.

Folks are encouraged to dress up in costumes, though also to wear clothes and boots they don't mind getting grungy.

Not one to miss a chance to talk policy, Environment America plans to use the event to tout "10 scary problems" plaguing the bay.  Among them:

- Chickens outnumber people 1,000 to 1 on Maryland's Eastern Shore, the group says, and poultry growers on the Delmarva Peninsula generate upwards of 1 billion pounds of manure annually;

- The "dead zone" that forms each summer in the bay, where fish and shellfish can't get enough oxygen in the water, stretched from Baltimore Harbor to the Potomac River, covering a third of the bay;

- The state has lost more than 75 percent of its wetlands

And so on.  Not sure whether they're scary, or just depressing.  The event's co-sponsored by the American Public Health Association, which is holding its annual meeting in DC over the weekend.

(Flotsam on the water at Bladensburg Waterfront Park, summer 2011)

Posted by Tim Wheeler at 8:20 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Chesapeake Bay, Events, Volunteer
        

Halloween's approaching so plan on hearing some scary stuff about "PlanMaryland," the state's blueprint for encouraging development in and around existing cities, towns and villages.

Some rural politicians are hopping mad about the 188-page tome, which state planners have been laboring over for three years. The planners say it's intended to carry out the state's longstanding Smart Growth policies, which aim to preserve Maryland's vanishing farmland and natural areas while also reducing pollution.  An added benefit, proponents say, is that more compact development should save taxpayers money, reducing expenditures on roads, utilities and other public services for ever-expanding suburbia. 

State officials have held dozens of meetings around the state to explain the plan and take public comments. They also tweaked it recently in a vain attempt to mollify critics, repeatedly saying that local officials would still be free to allow development wherever they choose, just the state will no longer provide funds to subsidize sprawl.  But criticis have decried it as part of a "war on rural Maryland" being waged by the O'Malley administration, choking off any prospects for economic development or growth outside of cities.  Some have called it communistic and part of an insidious move for global government under the United Nations.

As reported by Nicole Fuller in The Baltimore Sun, one of the hotbeds of hostility to the state growth plan is Carroll County, where predominantly conservative politicians have clashed with Democratic state executives over growth and transporation in years past.  Its commissioners have ponied up $10,000 to sponsor a forum in Pikesville on Monday afternoon to air criticisms of what they see as flawed premises of the plan, including concerns about the impacts of climate change and of suburban sprawl.

"We are on a mission to get at the truth about these underlying premises," Commissioner Richard Rothschild told me in a recent interview. "Do automobiles detract from our economy?" he asked.  "Do greenhouse gases threaten the safety and security of our state?"

Among the speakers invited to the forum are Lord Christopher Monckton, a British politician and former newspaper editor who's been an outspoken critic of the science showing human activity is altering the planet's climate. His critiques have been rebutted as error-filled by climatologists, who point out Monckton's lack of scientific credentials.

Another listed speaker is Wendell Cox, an Illinois-based consultant who's critical of planning, rail transport and land-use regulation. He's argued lately that "smart growth" policies and not just out-of-control mortgage lending helped fuel the housing bubble that ultimately dragged the economy into recession when the real estate market collapsed. Smart-growth advocates don't see it that way, and point out that houses on the suburban fringe often fell in value worse than those in closer-in, walkable communities.

Though expressing some concerns about "getting set up," State Planning Secretary Richard E. Hall says he's accepted the organizers' invitation to attend. While he said he expects to be a verbal "punching bag," he said he and his staff intend to explain once more "what we're trying to do and not trying to do" for anyone who hasn't already made up his or her mind.  Maybe he should wear a goblin mask.

The forum is from noon to 5 p.m. at the Pikesville Hilton, 1726 Reisterstown Road. It's free to those who RSVP in advance, $25 at the door. Call 410-386-2075 or email kfuller@ccg.carr.org

(Baltimore Sun file photo)

Posted by Tim Wheeler at 9:55 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)
        

Maryland is moving ahead with plans to impose controversial new limits on how and when farmers can fertilize their fields. 

The proposed changes to the state's "nutrient management" regulations, submitted Thursday to a legislative committee for review, are meant to reduce polluted runoff from farms as part of Maryland's effort to restore the Chesapeake Bay.  But they've stirred intense opposition as they were being drafted from farmers and from local officials as well, because they not only limit the application of animal manure to farm fields but also of sewage sludge. 

Opponents have complained the move by the Maryland Department of Agriculture is unwarranted and costly, potentially requiring Anne Arundel County, for instance, to spend upwards of $30 million to store its sewage sludge over the winter. 

UPDATE: "The consensus from most folks I have spoken with agree that these new guidelines will hasten the demise of Maryland Agriculture to about 10 years down the road," emailed state Sen. Barry Glassman, a Republican representing Harford County who's heard from a lot of farmers in his area concerned about being required to fence livestock away from streams.  Glassman works for Constellation Energy but raises sheep as a hobby.

But state agriculture officials say the rules are based on research indicating more needs to be done to curtail farm pollution.

“As science evolves and we learn more about how to better manage farms, it’s appropriate to change policies," Agriculture Secretary Earl F. "Buddy"  Hance said in a press release announcing the move.

Among the changes:

- Curtailing the use of fertilizer on grain crops planted in the fall. Officials say research at the University of Maryland has shown nitrogen usually isn't needed at that time to produce abundant wheat and barley in the spring, and the added nutrients often wind up washing off the field into nearby streams and ultimately the bay.

- Requiring that animal manure, sewage sludge, wastewater and other "organic" fertilizers applied to crops be worked into the soil.

- Barring the common practice of spreading animal manure, treated sewage or food processing waste on fields in wintertime, requiring that they be stored until spring or diverted to other uses, such as burning them to produce energy.

- Forbidding fertilizer application within 10 to 35 feet of water ways. Farmers would have to fence off their pastures to keep livestock out of streams.

Some of the new rules wouldn't take effect until 2014 or even 2016, to give farmers and local governments time to make needed changes in their operations.

"We are mindful that these changes may require new technology," Hance said, "and we continue to offer farmers existing cost-share programs to help us meet the goal of a healthier Chesapeake Bay.”

The state has about $40 million $10 million this year available to help farmers finance manure storage sheds, stream fencing and other related conservation measures, according to Louise Lawrence of the MDA. (The higher figure given me earlier by MDA spokeswoman Julie Oberg included funds for cover crops, manure transport and other best management practices not directly related to these rules).

Farm leaders and rural lawmakers hadn't seen the proposed regulations last night, so withheld comment.

"They say they've made changes, but it's difficult to know," said Patricia Langenfelder, president of the Maryland Farm Bureau. "The details (will determine) how badly we're going to push back or not."

Environmentalists also were guarded in their reaction, though overall welcoming the move.

"Generally speaking, this is a good couple of steps in the right direction," said Jenn Aiosa, senior scientist with the Chesapeake Bay Foundation. "They're tightening down some things that in the past definitely have been problematic."

Given the furor the rules stirred as they were being drafted, the joint Administrative, Executive and Legislative Review Committee is likely to hold a hearing on them. If approved, they would then be published in the Maryland Register, and the public would have 45 days to comment before the department finalizes them.

For a summary of the nutrient management proposal, go here.  To read the proposed regulations, go here.

(2008 Baltimore Sun file photo)

Posted by Tim Wheeler at 8:25 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
        

The second annual Clean Energy Summit blows into B'more today, rescheduled and relocated here after the earthquake in August damaged the Bethesda hotel where it was supposed to be held.  That 'quake may have been an omen.

There'll be a lot of talk at the Hilton Inner Harbor on Friday about solar and wind power, electric vehicles, biofuels, public policy and more.  There's lots happening on those fronts, but plenty of uncertainty and uproar, too. 

Construction is under way on Maryland's first utility-scale solar array in Emmitsburg, for instance, and the state was recently recognized as one of the top 10 states in promoting energy efficiency.  But in Washington, cost-cutting pressures cast a shadow over funding for clean energy, and there's even talk among at least some Republican lawmakers of cutting off tax incentives for virutally all forms of energy, including solar and wind, nuclear and even at least some breaks for oil and gas. 

Despite the federal policy turmoil, more and more businesses and homeowners are looking for clean energy, installing more efficient lighting and solar arrays, among other things.  To help stoke that interest, the summit winds up Saturday with a free consumer show.

From 9:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m., the public has a chance to drive a Chevy Volt and learn more about solar hot water and photovoltaics, geothermal heating and cooling, the new generation of cleaner woodstoves and - perhaps most important of all - how to go about financing the upfront costs that can ultimately lead to lower utility bills.

For more info, go here.

(Wind turbines on Backbone Mountain near Oakland MD.  2010 Baltimore Sun photo by Kim Hairston)

Posted by Tim Wheeler at 12:37 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
        

Scientists have confirmed a fungus is causing deadly white-nosed syndrome in bats across much of North America, including western Maryland.

In an article today in the journal Nature, scientists with the U.S. Geological Survey and other researchers identified Geomyces destructans as the cause of the rapidly spreading syndrome, which has been blamed for severe declines in bat populations in the Northeast.

Researchers found that 100 percent of healthy little brown bats exposed to G. destructans while hibernating in captivity developed white-nosed syndrome.  They also demonstrated that the fungus spreads through contact between individual bats.

More than 200 bats with the characteristic white fungus were found hibernating in an Allegany County cave near Cumberland in 2010, along with several dead animals, according to the Maryland Department of Natural Resources.   Bats with suspected white-nose syndrome also have turned up in Garrett and Washington counties, according to the USGS. To see a map showing where the disease has been spotted, go here.

(Hibernating brown bat with white muzzle typical of white-nose syndrome.  USGS photo via Reuters)

Eastern bat populations have plummeted since the syndrome was first seen in New York in 2006.  Since then, it's now found in 16 states and four Canadian provinces. In the Northeast, where it appears most intense, bats have declined by 80 percent.

Researchers hope that confirming the cause of white-nosed syndrome will help wildlife managers figure out how to protect bat populations. For now, though, they're asking people to stay out of caves, tunnels and other spots known to be big bat hangouts, and in any case urging precautions be taken when venturing around bats, such as decontaminating clothing and equipment.

Though some may find bats creepy or a nuisance if they get in a house, they perform a valuable ecological service by feeding on insects that can damage crops and gardens or spread disease.  A single bat can eat more than 1,000 bugs in a night.

(Hibernating brown bat with white muzzle typical of white-nose syndrome.  USGS photo via Reuters)

Posted by Tim Wheeler at 1:39 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
        

Electric vehicle owners, you have some new places to plug in in downtown Baltimore. The city just made it easier to get around without worrying about running out of juice, unveiling nine new EV charging stations in municipal parking garages.

Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake arrived at a ribbon-cutting in the Baltimore Street garage near City Hall driving a candy-apple red Chevrolet Volt, which she rated "a nice ride."  With cameras trained on her, she plugged the charging cable into the car without a hitch.

Declaring that Baltimore aims to support the budding electric-vehicle industry, Rawlings-Blake said  the city plans to acquire 50 more charging stations in the coming year to make it even easier for commuters and residents to have EVs in the city without fear of running out of power.

The nine chargers, each capable of handling two vehicles simultaneously, were installed with a $134,000 grant from the Maryland Energy Administration. The city is providing the electricity for free - about $1.50 per 10-hour charge, according to Ted Atwood, director of General Services - but drivers still have to pay to park.

"The people most likely to use these would be commuters worried about running out of juice before they get home," said Tiffany James of the city parking authority.  But she noted that they also make it possible for residents who don't have off-street parking to own an EV. 

The chargers were made by Coulomb Technologies and are part of the ChargePoint Network.  EV owners can locate available charging stations in city garages and elsewhere by consulting the online network. A ChargePoint card is needed to plug in, but those without one can call a number listed on the station to get signed up and connected on the spot.

Atwood said city workers are test-driving a pair of Volts to see if it makes sense to add EVs to the municipal vehicle fleet. The city is looking for ways to trim its fuel bill, he said, which runs upwards of $15 million a year.

Following is a list of city garages with EV chargers:

• Arena Garage – 99 S. Howard Street (2nd Level)
  
• Baltimore Street Garage – 15 Guilford Avenue (2nd Level)
  
• Caroline Street Garage – 805 S. Caroline Street (1st Level)
  
• Lexington Street Garage – 510 E. Lexington Street (2nd Level)
  
• Little Italy Garage – 400 S. Central Avenue (1st Level)
  
• Penn Station Garage – 1151 N. Charles Street (Level 1B)
  
• Redwood Street Garage – 11 S. Eutaw Street (Lower Level)
  
• Water Street Garage – 414 Water Street (Level 3)
  
• West Street Garage – 40 E. West Street (Lower Level)
  

Posted by Tim Wheeler at 11:39 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
        

Is the O'Malley administration backing away from the 2020 deadline it set for Maryland to complete its share of the regional Chesapeake Bay cleanup effort?

On Tuesday, members of the governor's Task Force on Sustainable Growth and Wastewater Disposal suggested delaying the cleanup deadline - dropping back to the 2025 target previously agreed to by the other five states engaged in bay restoration. The members making those suggestions just happened to be O'Malley cabinet secretaries.

John R. Griffin, secretary of natural resources, presented recommendations from a committee of the task force, including one urging a gradual tripling of the $30 annual "flush fee" every Maryland homeowner pays now to help restore the bay.

Gov. Martin O'Malley called it a "stretch goal" in 2009 when he committed Maryland to reaching the state's pollution-reduction goals five years earlier than the other states involved in the bay restoration effort. He said it was to "maintain our own sense of urgency" about the cleanup, which has dragged on for more than 25 years and repeatedly missed other goals.

Without more funds, the state won't be able to take all the actions needed by 2020 to reduce nutrient and sediment pollution, officials have said.  But Griffin said state and local officials could use more time to raise the funds and get programs and projects in place to fulfill the state's obligations under the baywide "pollution diet" set by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

Trying to raise enough funds to meet the 2020 deadline just nine years hence would require such high increases in the so-called "flush fee," Griffin said, that he feared any authorizing legislation would be "dead on arrival" in the General Assembly.

Some local officials also have told him, Griffin said, that they'll have trouble identifying and planning all the projects they'll need by the end of the decade to reduce polluted storm-water runoff from urban and suburban streets, lawns and parking lots.

Griffin's committee did call for increasing the fee in stages, doubling it to $60 next year and then tripling it to $90 by 2015.  The funds would be spent upgrading 9 large and 10 medium-sized sewage treatment plants, replacing failing septic systems and providing half the money expected to be needed planting trees, creating rain gardens and other storm-water control measures. One task force member questioned if a gradual increase would raise enough funds and suggested tripling the fee outright - an approach Del. Maggie McIntosh, the Baltimore Democrat co-chairing the task force, called "ripping the Band-Aid off."

A separate task force committee headed by Agriculture Secretary Earl F. "Buddy" Hance also urged delaying the state's bay cleanup date to 2025 or even 2030.

"2020 is getting closer every day," Hance said, noting that budget-cutting in Washington has made officials uncertain how much federal funding will keep flowing to help farmers control their polluted runoff. Hance also noted that farmers and their supporters would like to have more time to resolve issues they have with the computer model of the bay that the EPA is using to direct the cleanup effort.

The 28-member task force, created by O'Malley after his legislation to curb development on septic systems failed this year, didn't vote on the recommendations.  The task force isn't slated to finalize its recommendations until the end of November.

The natural resources secretary stressed that officials are not proposing a slowdown in the pace of cleanup activities, but rather that more time is needed to ramp up efforts across the state for reducing nutrient and sediment pollution.  Picking a more realistic deadline now would be more open and honest with the public than waiting until time is almost up, he suggested.

Kim Coble, Maryland director of the Chesapeake Bay Foundation, reacted cautiously to the suggested easing of the state's cleanup deadline.

"If there is a sincere and focused effort to get all the tools in place, including incentives and regulations, then yes, 2025 is okay, " she said. But not, she added, if the delay means state and local officials throttle back on cleanup efforts.

"The jury is still out on which way it's going to go," Coble said.

(Baltimore Sun photos: Gov. Martin O'Malley with scientists checking health of Bush River, 2009, by Barbara Haddock Taylor; Natural Resources Secretary John R. Griffin, by Kim Hairston)

Posted by Tim Wheeler at 6:30 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
        

Maryland is often accused by business groups of going overboard on environmental regulation.

But according to a new study, the state actually lags behind its neighbors and the federal government in a couple key categories - the size of the fines it can levy for pollution violations, and the fees it charges businesses and local governments for seeing that they don't foul the Chesapeake Bay or local waterways.

The Center for Progressive Reform, a pro-regulation think tank based in Washington, argues in a report released today (10/21) that Maryland lawmakers have handcuffed the state's environmental regulators by not authorizing them to impose stiffer penalties on polluters.

The group also contends the state could do a better job protecting the state's waters - and paradoxically, reduce regulatory delays - by charging higher fees for permits to discharge wastes and storm runoff into streams and rivers.

The report was to be presented at a daylong forum at the University of Maryland Law School on how to hold Maryland and other Chesapeake Bay states accountable for their obligations to restore the degraded estuary.

Rena Steinzor, a UM law professor and the center's president, argues that with state and federal budgets squeezed, it's unrealistic to expect much more money can be directed at the cleanup effort in the near term.

"There aren't federal mega-bucks coming for the Bay," she said in an interview. But she added that "we can't sit by twiddling our thumbs" and let the restoration effort stall. "In times like these," she concluded, "the most effective approach is to use deterrence via enforcement."

The center has contended before that the Maryland Department of the Environment has fallen behind in its ability to safeguard the state's waters. The latest report points to the state's chronic failure to levy stiffer penalties against polluters. The maximum state fine is $5,000 per day.

The Environmental Protection Agency, by contrast, can levy penalties of up to $37,500 per day, and the federal agency is legally required to assess penalties with an eye to recouping whatever economic benefit a polluter may have gained by skirting the law.

On fees, the center contends, the state isn't collecting enough to pay for reviewing and overseeing all the permits it is asked to issue. In 2010, MDE collected $2.1 million in fees, it says, and spent $7.2 million to support the department's Water Management Administration.

Neighboring Pennsylvania and Virginia both charge fees to municipalities for overseeing their discharges of wastewater and storm water, the report notes. But Maryland lawmakers have forbidden the department from charging local governments fees.

If MDE raised its fees, it could afford to hire more inspectors and permit reviewers, Steinzor said, which should actually cut down on the amount of time it takes for the state to process a permit application.

State Environment Secretary Robert M. Summers was to speak at the forum. His spokesman, Jay Apperson, said state officials haven't seen the center's report yet, but don't agree with all its conclusions.

 "We have a wide range of administrative, civil and criminal penalty authority, and right now we are satisfied that our penalty authority is adequate," Apperson said in an email. As for fees, Apperson said state officials are reviewing the fees they charge for permits but haven't decided whether to seek increases in any.

For more information, go here.

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

Good news this week about the Chesapeake Bay's most treasured finfish is offset by some troubling news about one of the estuary's signature birds.

Maryland natural resources officials reported their annual survey tallied the fourth highest number of young striped bass, or rockfish, in state waters in nearly six decades.

It was heartenng news about the bay's most prized fish for recreational anglers and commercial fishermen alike, after  several years of below-average counts of juvenile rockfish.  As my colleague Candus Thomson reported, the upper bay is the spawning ground and nursery for three-quarters of the striped bass that roam all along the East Coast.

There's been growing concern over their status lately.  Besides sub-par spawning four out of the last five years, the overall striped bass population is down 25 percent, and up to 60 percent of adult striped bass in the bay are afflicted with a deadly disease, mycobacteriosis. The  Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission is weighing whether to curtail catches of them - a vote is set when the panel meets in early November.

Virginia saw similarly good reproduction of striped bass in their rivers feeding into the lower Chesapeake.

There's worrisome news out of Virginia, though, about ospreys, one of the birds that preys on fish inthe bay.  A biologist at William & Mary College reports a dramatic decline in survival among osprey chicks.  Bryan D. Watts, director of the college's Center for Conservation Biology, said in an op-ed published in the Richmond Times-Dispatch that "nine of every 10 eggs hatched, but only four of every 10 chicks survived to fledge. Chicks were hatching, but they were starving in the nest."

The Virginia biologists think the problem may be a shortage of menhaden, a forage fish humans don't eat but that is food for many other fish, including striped bass, and birds of prey like ospreys and bald eagles.  Where menhaden once made up 70 percent of young ospreys diet, it's declined to less than 27 percent, Watts reports.

Concerned by recent finding that menhaden have been overfished for 32 of the last 54 years, the Atlantic States fisheries panel is also weighing whether to curtail catches of them.  They're taken as bait by commercial fishermen and crabbers, but the bulk are caught by a Virginia-based fishing fleet and processed as animal feed and for their heart-healthy oil.  A decision on menhaden's fate also is slated in early November - the biologists suggest what's decided could affect more than just commercial fishermen.

Posted by Tim Wheeler at 6:04 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
        

Maryland's lawmakers are in Annapolis this week to redraw congressional district boundaries, but Republicans are using the occasion to drum up resistance to Gov. Martin O'Malley's environmental agenda.

Sen. E.J. Pipkin, who represents the upper Eastern Shore, and more than a dozen GOP delegates from rural (or once-rural) parts of the state have introduced 10 different bills aiming to counter the O'Malley administration's push to clean up the Chesapeake Bay, to limit new development on septic systems and to use state funds more effectively in fighting rural sprawl. 

Pipkin was expected to decry what he and other GOP lawmakers are calling O'Malley's "war on rural Maryland" at a tea party rally today in Annapolis that was ostensibly called to protest the governor's redistricting plan. 

Some bills target the "watershed implementation plans" each town and county must draw up for carrying out its share of the bay cleanup effort.  One measure would require each plan's costs to be estimated, and would cap the overall cost at $14.7 billion through 2017 - the pricetag the state estimated when it submitted its overall plan late last year.  Another bill would free local officials from having to carry out any cleanup actions required under the bay "pollution diet"  unless funding is provided by the state or federal governments.

Other bills attempt to curb the state's say over local land use decisions.  One measure would require legislative approval of PlanMaryland, the statewide development plan that some rural officials have complained is a power grab.  Another would bar the state planning department from doing anything that would restrict the planning and land-use decisions of local government, while yet another would strip the Department of the Environment of any say in ensuring that counties are providing adequate water and sewage treatment service to new development.

One measure also bars the state from prohibiting any septic system until recent massive storm-related sewage overflows in Baltimore and Prince George's counties are "fully mitigated."  More than 100 million gallons of diluted sewage spilled from a ruptured pipe into the Patapsco River south of the city, and 20 million gallons leaked in Prince George's County following Hurricane Irene and Tropical Storm Lee. 

None of the measures is likely to get a hearing, much less a vote, until the General Assembly returns for its regular 90-day session in January.  But the rural lawmakers were serving notice they intend to push back against O'Malley's initiatives.

The Environmental Protection Agency is requiring local governments around the bay to submit bay cleanup plans by next year, and a task force is looking at whether to resubmit failed O'Malley legislation to limit new large-scale development on septic systems. The planning department is in the final stages of adopting PlanMaryland, which officials say would only control state expenditures, not local land use decisions.

Environmentalists are girding for a fight in a few months.  Dru Schmidt-Perkins, executive director of 1000 Friends of Maryland, argues that rural Maryland is already under assault by sprawling development, and it will only get worse if Pipkin and the other GOP lawmakers succeed in thwarting the O'Malley moves.

"You say there's a war on rural Maryland, but you want to build a third bridge across the bay so more people can build over rural Maryland, which is not real rural anymore?" Schmidt-Perkins asks.

(Tea party rally in Lawyer's Mall Oct. 18.  Baltimore Sun photo by Barbara Haddock Taylor) 

Posted by Tim Wheeler at 12:44 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
        

Zebra mussels have turned up in the Sassafras River, the Maryland Department of Natural Resouces reports, making it the second river in the state where the invasive species has been found.

A resident spotted a single adult zebra mussel attached to a dock in the upper Eastern Shore river near Turner Creek, according to DNR. 

"One mussel does not necessarily constitute a population, DNR biologist Ron Klauda said in a news release issued by the department.  "but it is extremely unlikely that this is the only one out there in the Sassafras."

DNR biologists think the unusually low salt levels of the upper bay this sumemr may have helped zebra mussels spread. The Sassafras is not far from the Susquehanna River, where the mussels were first seen in the lower reaches in Maryland in 2008.

Zebra mussels have caused more than $5 billion in damage and economic losses across North America since they got into the Great Lakes in the 1980s, officials says.  The mussels attach themselves to any hard surface, and as they grow can clog water systems and power plant cooling intakes.  They're also outcompeting native mussels, some of them already endangered, for food and habitat.

Recreational boaters are often unwitting transporters of the mussels, DNR reports.  State officials urge boaters, anglers and others who use the waters of the lower Susquehanna to take precautions, such as  draining river water from bilges, live wells and other containers limiting boating from place to place.

Posted by Tim Wheeler at 3:20 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)
        

The Obama administration may have buckled under political pressure from tightening smog air pollution limits, but the Environmental Protection Agency is belatedly holding Baltimore accountable for meeting an old cap on harmful ozone levels.

The EPA announced recently that it had settled a lawsuit with the Sierra Club over the agency's failure to determine if six major metro areas with severe smog problems, including Baltimore, had met a pollution standard set in 1979. 

The agency agreed to determine if each has come into attainment with the old standard, which deemed it unhealthful if ozone levels in the air reached 125 parts per billion for one hour.  If any cities are not in compliance, they could be required to adopt new pollution control measures.

EPA has changed the ozone pollution standard twice since then, based on advice from health officials and scientists, and now considers 75 parts per billion ozone over an eight-hour period unhealthful to breathe.

The Sierra Club elected to sue EPA after realizing that the federal government never closed the loop with the old standard and determined whether all metro areas had come into attainment, as the law requires.

"That's a mandatory duty," said Robert Ukeiley, Sierra's lawyer in the case.  "EPA has to make that finding (but) EPA didn't make it."

So now EPA is pledging to determine whether Baltimore and the other metro areas - Houston-Galveston-Brazoria (TX), New York-Northern New Jersey-Long Island, Springfield (Western Massachusetts), Greater Connecticut, and Boston-Lawrence-Worcester (MA-NH) - have met the old 1-hour ozone standard. 

The public has until Oct. 21 to comment on the proposed settlement. For more info, go here.

According to Jay Apperson, spokesman for the Maryland Department of the Environment, Baltimore met the 1979 1-hour ozone standard in November 2005, but it's been out of compliance with the two subsequent standards EPA set in 1997 (85 ppb over 8 hours) and the 2008 standard (75 ppb over 8 hrs). 

EPA can't make an official determination whether the Baltimore area met the old 1979 smog standard until it jumps through some bureaucratic and legal hoops.  But EPA spokeswoman Bonnie Smith noted in an email that air monitoring data submitted by the state for 2008 through 2010 appear to indicate ozone levels did not exceed the 1-hour standard.

As for this year, with its long, very hot summer, she said the agency would have to wait until all the air-quality data have been collected and analyzed before determining.  According to Clean Air Partners, the Baltimore area had 19 "Code Orange" days when ozone levels were high enough that asthmatics and others with breathing difficulties should've limited their outdoor activities, and four "Code Red" days when smog was so thick even healthy people were advised to stay indoors.

Citing economic concerns, President Obama recentlly directed EPA's Lisa Jackson to postpone her agency's plans to tighten the standard for the next two years, acting on research showing that even the current standard does not protect certain sensitive groups of people.  Business groups had protested the impending action, arguing that a tighther standard would require expensive controls on a variety of emission sources at a time when the economy was struggling.

The administration's ozone delay has angered environmentalists, who point to polls showing strong voter support for air pollution regulations.  Nor has it mollified EPA's industry critics, who have turned their attention to blocking other proposed rules on power plants and cement kilns.

(Baltimore Sun photos: Inner Harbor on a hazy summer day, 2002 file photo; traffic jam, summer 2011, by Karl Merton Ferron)

Posted by Tim Wheeler at 12:30 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
        

Baltimore's "virtual supermarket," an 18-month old experiment in fighting urban food deserts, has captured some national attention.  Now it only has to catch on better here.

Baltimarket, as it's known, is one of six sustainability programs around the country that are going to be recognized next month at a National League of Cities gathering in Phoenix, Az.  All are examples of "creative collaboration, increased efficiency and enhanced quality of life for residents."

For many city residents, it's not that easy to get fresh fruit and vegetables, because there aren't any supermarkets in their neighborhoods. The corner markets and convenience stores that are nearby just don't carry many perishable items like that. 

Residents lacking cars often took the bus to a grocery store, then had to pay $10 to $15 for a cab ride home with their purchases, according to Laura Fox, coordinator for the online market program with the city health department.

So in March 2010, the city started offering residents of two neighborhoods without many food choices the chance to order groceries and have them delivered to a central location.  The first sites for the experiment were the Orleans Street and Washington Village library branches of the Enoch Pratt Free Library.  Fox said Santoni's supermarket, which already offers online grocery shopping, agreed to participate and waive its delivery fee.

Since then, the virtual supermarket has expanded to two more locations - George Washington Elementary School, also in Washington Village, and the Cherry Hill library branch.   Ordering also got easier - residents can now select their groceries from any computer anytime, rather than having to visit the libraries and school at designated times.  

Food stamp recipients can also order online, which is something of a rarity since federal rules do not allow electronic payments under the program.  Instead, Santoni's delivers the ordered items and collects from food stamp recipients when they come to pick up.  Pickups are tightly regimented, one-hour windows once a week.  But Fox said no-shows have been relatively few.

So far, Baltimarket has drawn more than 150 different customers, Fox says, who've placed more than 700 orders and bought more than $26,000 worth of groceries.  Roughly half of those customers have come back, Fox notes, a sign they found the service useful.

Residents can order any groceries they want, except for tobacco products (it's run by the health department, what do you expect?).  But they're also offered tips on nutrition, foods and preparation and even a cash incentive - $10 off on the first order and again for every fourth order of healthy foods.

"Just providing access isn't the whole piece to getting people to eat healthy," says Fox.

For all its national acclaim, the virtual market's not exactly doing a land-office business. She thinks more outreach might help.

"A lot of people still haven't heard about it in the neighborhoods we're in," she said.  Meanwhile, the next frontier may be to expand to serve public housing and senior living complexes, where lack of income and mobility may bring the need and desire for healthy foods together.

Launched with $60,000 in federal stimulus funds, the program's currently funded through the United Way of Central Maryland and the Walmart Foundation.

(Photo courtesy Baltiimore Health Department)  

Posted by Tim Wheeler at 8:24 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
        

An autumn potpourri of things happening this weekend:

Trees: It's autumn, ideal time to plant a sapling. Baltimore County is having a big tree sale from 9 a.m. to noon on Saturday.  The costs range from $20 - $30. The event will be held at the Baltimore County Center for Maryland Agriculture, 1114 Shawan Road.  For details, go here. 

Stream cleanup: The Friends of Gwynns Falls/Leakin Park plan to clean up the stream that flows through the park's Winans Meadow, from 10 a.m. to noon Saturday. There's plenty of debris to clear from the tropical storm flooding last month. Gloves will be provided. Meet at the parking lot of Winans Meadow at 4500 Franklintown Road, 21229. For additional information, call 410-566-2230.

Park reopening:  When you're done planting trees or clearing stream debris, why not head over to Robert E. Lee Park and check out the $6.1 million facelift it got while closed the past two years?  There's a new bridge, a new half-mile boardwalk across wetlands and a new dog park (though you'd better keep your pooch on leash, and clean up after him or her!)  It officially reopened today (Friday, Oct. 14), but there'll be activities Saturday as well.  On Lakeside Drive, near Falls Road.  For directions, go here.

(Walking dogs on at rehabilitated Robert E. Lee Park. Photo by Noah Scialom)

Posted by Tim Wheeler at 4:15 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)
        

With three waste-to-energy projects in various stages of planning now in Maryland,  environmentalists are taking aim at a new state law that sweetened the incentives for building such facilities.

The Environmental Integrity Project this week released a report asserting that waste-to-energy plants generate more pollution than coal-fired power plants.  Activists who joined EIP in releasing the report say they're going to try to convince lawmakers to repeal the law when the General Assembly meets in January.l

The report contends that Maryland's two largest existing waste-to-energy incinerators release more air pollution per hour of energy produced than do the state's four largest coal plants. Toxic mercury and lead, carbon monoxide, the pollutants that form smog and climate-warming greenhouse gases - the report says all are coming out of the incinerators stacks at a higher rate per kilowatt-hour of power generated than they are from coal plants.

With Gov. Martin O'Malley's backing, the General Assembly approved a measure this year that awards lucrative top-tier renewable energy credits to plants producing power by burning municipal solid waste.  Waste burners had been classififed as Tier 2 renewable energy sources before, and the law upgraded them to Tier 1, on par with wind and solar energy facilities.  The bill's passage surprised and angered environmentalists, who unsuccessfully petitioned O'Malley to veto it.

O'Malley administration officials contend that trash is a legitimate renewable energy source, and the state could use the help in meeting its ambitious goal of getting 20 percent of its power from renewable sources by 2022. Proponents of the plants say their facilities will meet or exceed all state pollution-control requirements.

Mike Tidwell, head of Chesapeake Climate Action Network, said activists hope to persuade O'Malley he's mistaken to back waste-to-energy, and they're angling to introduce a bill to repeal the new law.  And in the meantime, he said, "environmentalists intend to challenge the permits of every waste to energy plant in the pipeline until we defeat them."

The three projects in the offing include the new Energy Answers plant in the Curtis Bay section of Baltimore, a new incinerator in Frederick County and a proposed expansion of Harford County's resource-recovery facility. Energy Answers already has all - or nearly all - the permits it needs to start construction.

(Photo: Baltimore Refuse Energy Systems Co.(BRESCO) plant, 2009 Baltimore Sun photo by Gene Sweeney Jr.)

Posted by Tim Wheeler at 12:20 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Categories: Air Pollution, News
        

The pushback against environmental regulation grows, this time against new federal air pollution rules that would help Marylanders breathe easier, according to a state spokesman.

Attorneys general for 24 states (not including the Free State) plus the governor of Iowa have joined with the coal industry in asking the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia to extend a Nov. 16 deadline for the Environmental Protection Agency to impose a rule requiring reductions in emissions of mercury and other toxic pollutants from coal-fired power plants.  EPA is bound to act by that date under the terms of a consent decree approved by the court.

In asking the court for a year's delay, the states point to an industry-financed study saying that the mercury regulation along with another EPA rule clamping down on cross-state air pollution would increase electricity costs, eliminate jobs and could lead to power shortages.

Similar efforts to delay or block the EPA's power plant rules are being made in Congress, as some power plant operators have warned they'll shut down their coal burners rather than comply because they say it would be too expensive to put on the needed pollution controls.

But according to Jay Apperson, spokesman for the Maryland Department of the Environment, almost all the coal-fired power plants in the state, including all the largest ones, will comply with the federal rule other states are objecting to.  They've already been required to reduce mercury emissions on par with the federal rule under the state's Healthy Air Act, adopted in 2006 and signed by the governor then, Republican Robert L. Ehrlich Jr.

Maryland's law is "ahead of the curve," points out Frank O'Donnell of Clean Air Watch.  The state's law required an 80 percent reduction in mercury emissions by 2010 and will ratchet up to requiring 90 percent reduction by 2013 - compared with a 91 percent curb by 2014 or 2015 under the federal rule. 

Indeed, the MDE spokesman says that the federal rule for mercury, as well as EPA's cross-state air pollution rule requiring reductions in smog-forming power plant emissions, "will begin to level the playing field" for Maryland power plants. 

That could be why Constellation Energy, which installed scrubbers on its Maryland coal plants to comply, supports the federal rule along with some other power companies, including Exelon, suitor to merge with Constellation. Critics of the EPA rule say those power companies that support it just don't have as many coal plants to upgrade.

Whatever the case, much of the mercury, smog and health-threatening fine-particle pollution in Maryland's air blows in here from out of state, Apperson notes.  Officials estimate that up to 70 percent of the ozone-forming emissions in Maryland's air, for instance, waft in from elsewhere.

Environmentalists have rallied to EPA's side, releasing a nationwide survey that found strong public support for the disputed air pollution rules.  Two-thirds, 67 percent, oppose any delay in the cross-state pollution rule, and 77 percent object to delaying the clampdown on toxic mercury, according to the poll. Nearly 90 percent of Democrats and even 58 percent of Republicans surveyed opposed congressional action to stop EPA from adopting the rules. 

(Pollution scrubber emits steam cloud at Constellation's Brandon Shores power plant south of Baltimore.  2010 Baltimore Sun photo by Kenneth K. Lam)

Posted by Tim Wheeler at 12:00 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
        

The Maryland League of Conservation Voters gave Gov. Martin O'Malley a B+ today for his environmental record over the past three years, a slight decline from the record-high A- grade it gave him shortly after he moved into the State House.

The slippage represents activists' unhappiness over O'Malley's backing and signing a bill this year to boost incentives for generating electricity by burning trash. Under the measure, "waste-to-energy" plants get top-tier status and lucrative incentives under Maryland's program meant to promote renewable energy developement.  Green groups complained that encouraging more trash burning would pollute the state's air while undermining prospects for developing other renewable energy sources, notably solar and offshore wind projects.

The group also downgraded O'Malley on water quality, reflecting its concern that he has yet to push for an increase in the "flush fee" to finish upgrading the state's largest sewage treatment plants.

The league did give O'Malley top marks for funding land preservation, pushing through climate-change legislation, for drafting the most aggressive Chesapeake Bay cleanup plan of any of the bay-watershed states, and for restricting wild oyster harvests while encouraging watermen to move into aquaculture.

It also credited him with pushing to develop offshore wind energy and for seeking to ban large-scale new development on septic tanks.  Both measures failed to pass this year, though O'Malley hopes to revive them.

"Governor O'Malley made the environment one of the hallmarks of his administration," Fred Hoover, chair of the league's board of directors, said in a statement. "He not only kept the state's commitment to restore the Chesapeake Bay, but proposed significant environmental initiatives in each legislative session."

Still, the group pointed to areas where it wasn't satisfied and hoped for more. Besides wanting to see the "flush fee" increased, the league said it's worried that new regulations being drafted by the state to curtail farm pollution from animal manure and sewage sludge could be held up or watered down.

And, noting its unhappiness a couple years ago over the administration's compromise with developers on new storm-water pollution regulations, the league said it wants the administration to act on expired permits regulating storm-water runoff from cities and suburbs and to push for new funding so communities can pay for needed controls on storm-runoff pollution.

(Gov. Martin O'Malley wades into septic-contaminated Eastern Shore lake to push for curbs on development using individual household waste treatment systems.  Photo courtesy governor's office.)

Posted by Tim Wheeler at 10:49 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)
        

A little housekeeping announcement: The hearing this evening in Annapolis on whether to cut back the catch of menhaden in the Chesapeake Bay and elsewhere along the Atlantic coast has been moved to a new location.

The session, scheduled to run from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m., has been moved to Calvary United Methodist Church, 301 Rowe Boulevard. Plans had been to hold it in Department of Natural Resources headquarters, but I'm guessing the prospect of a big crowd prompted officials to seek larger meeting space.

With the Atlantic menhaden stock at a record low level after being overfished 32 of the last 54 years, the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission is weighing whether to clamp down. A decision may be made in November. The commission voted in August to seek public comment on a range of options, from doing nothing to cutting the catch by up to 45 percent.

Unless you're a fisherman, menhaden may not be on your radar. They're not on anybody's dinner table, but the oily fish is a prime food for striped bass, or rockfish, which is a favorite among anglers and restaurant patrons alike.  They also serve another vital ecological role in the bay, as filter feeders. 

Its lack of table appeal notwithstanding, the little fish have been heavily harvested over the years to provide feed for farm animals and farmed fish, and their oil's extracted and sold as a heart-healthy food supplement.

Cutting the menhaden catch is opposed by Virginia, home to the last large-scale commercial menhaden fishing fleet on the East Coast. Omega Protein's vessels operate out of Reedville, which almost entirely on the size of its menhaden catch has the second highest commercial fish landings of any port in the United States.

But cutting menhaden catches also could hurt Maryland's commercial fishermen, as it's caught for bait to  catch other fish and especially blue crabs.  The state's watermen aren't happy about the prospect of yet another restriction on their livelihood - ergo the likelihood of a big turnout tonight.

(AP file photo)

Posted by Tim Wheeler at 12:00 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
        

Another patch of weedy, vacant land in Baltimore city has been reclaimed by and for its residents, and a graffiti-scrawled building turned into a huge, colorful mural proclaiming neighborhood pride.

Residents of Morrell Park in southwest Baltimore toiled alongside other volunteers through summer into early fall to clear an overgrown, trash-strewn lot in the 2600 block of Washington Boulevard and turn it into a memorial garden and park.

Now there's a stepping stone path with inlaid mosaics memorializing community members and their relatives who have died. Benches also have been placed along the path to sit and enjoy the flower and vegetable beds in the garden.

A few blocks away, at 2300 Washington Boulevard, Access Art, a community art program, transformed a frequently graffiti-defaced wall into a dramatic welcome sign for the neighborhood. Artist Chris Peters worked with youth and community members to identify bits of neighborhood history and other visual imagery to incorporate into the mural, which was painted in August and September.

The projects were funded with grants from PNC Bank (via the Baltimore Office of Promotion and the Arts), the Annie E. Casey Foundation and the Parks and People Foundation. Besides Access Art, other partners were the Morrell Park & St. Pauls Improvement Association and the Morrell Park Recreation Council.

For more views of the garden, memorial walk and mural, go here.

(Photos by Marshall Clarke, executive director Access Art) 

Posted by Tim Wheeler at 11:35 AM | Permalink | Comments (4)
        

Advocates of developing offshore wind power have come to Baltimore this week with optimism that they're creeping closer to putting the first turbines off the Atlantic coast, but worried that Washington could pull the plug on the fledgling industry just as it gets started.

Maryland Gov. Martin O'Malley and Interior Secretary Ken Salazar are scheduled to open a three-day conference put on by the American Wind Energy Association.  For details on the affair, go here.

Chris Long, the association's manager of offshore policy, said several federal and state government actions have buoyed the industry and sent positive signals to investors. But liftoff still has not occurred, and there are signs some may be cooling on offshore's wind potential.

On the plus side, the gears of the federal bureaucracy are creaking forward.  In February, the Departments of Interior and Energy released a promised joint strategy for cutting the costs of offshore wind projects and speeding up their regulatory approval.

Then in March, Interior offered its first commercial lease of turbine sites off the Delaware coast, and in April approved a construction and operations plan for what could be the first offshore wind farm, the much-debated Cape Wind project off Nantucket's coast in Massachusetts.

Finally, last July, Interior's Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation and Enforcement released a mostly favorable draft environmental impact assessment for issuing offshore wind leases along the entire mid-Atlantic coast, including Maryland.

State actions also have encouraged the industry, such as O'Malley's so-far unsuccessful push to make utilities sign long-term power purchasing agreements with offsore wind developers.

But offshore wind is running into some resistance as well. The New York Power Authority voted recently to drop its plan to develop a 150-megawatt wind farm in the Great Lakes amid anxiety about the costs and the weak economy.  Estimates of how much ratepayers would need to pay to subsidize the project ranged from $60 million to $100 million a year.

Meanwhile, federal subsidies for any type of "clean" energy are drawing more critical scrutiny these days on the heels of the collapse of Solyndra, the California solar manufacturer that received more than $500 million in loan guarantees.

Rep. Cliff Stearns, a Florida Republican who chairs an energy and commerce subcommittee, once supported boosting clean energy with government loan guarantees, but has since soured on the idea.

"We can't compete with China to make solar panels and wind turbines," Stearns said.

Wind industry officials were quick to push back against the conventional wisdom that all of American's clean energy technology comes from overseas.  While it may have been true a few years ago, it isn't now.  A recent Congressional Research Service report that found the share of turbine parts made in the United States has actually grown from 25 percent in 2005 to 50 to 60 percent.

Nearly 400 U.S. manufacturing facilities produced wind turbines and components in 2010, up from as few as 30 in 2004, according ot the report. An estimated 20,000 U.S. workers were employed in the manufacturing of wind turbines in 2010.

Much of that manufacturing has located in the Midwest, where onshore turbines pepper the flat landscape. Industry officials say the mid-Atlantic could see the same job growth if offshore wind takes off.

"You go where the policies are," the wind energy association's Long said in a recent interview.

It remains to be seen whether Maryland will join Delaware and other mid-Atlantic states in adopting policies to encourage or even underwrite offshore wind. Industry officials also worry that the underlying federal support for wind could falter if Congress fails to renew wind's Production Tax Credit, which has been allowed to expire three times in the past 12 years and faces another renewal deadline next year.

Wind has managed to grow despite the lack of a stable federal policy to promote it, industry officials say, largely sustained by a patchwork of state incentives, including some in GOP-dominated states. 

The future of offshore wind in Maryland may ride on what happens in the next several months, as lawmakers and O'Malley aides chew over whether to ask ratepayers to subsidize offshore turbines off Ocean City or off neighboring states.  Lawmakers balked at the idea last winter, tabling it for furrther study.  Supporters released a pair of polls this week suggesting that large majorities of Marylanders favor offshore wind and would even be willing to pay more ($2 a month, even) to get it going. 

Meanwhile, a Maryland entrepreneur who's pursued various business and real estate ventures over the years is betting on offshore wind.  John Congedo, president of AC-Wind, has teamed up with the University of Delaware to draw up plans for the state's first turbine blade manufacaturing plant in Salisbury.  He's said he hopes to create 200 jobs.

(Wind turbines in the Netherlands, 2006 AP file photo)

Posted by Tim Wheeler at 6:40 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
        

A new poll says 62 percent of Marylanders favor putting huge wind turbines off Ocean City and would be willing to pay as much as $2 per month on their electric bills for it. 

The poll done by Gonzales Research and Marketing Strategies of Arnold was paid for by environmental groups which favor offshore wind development in Maryland. It was released the day before the opening of an offshore wind industry conference in Baltimore, at which Gov. Martin O'Malley is expected to reiterate his support.

With backing from environmentalists, labor and some clean-energy businesses, O'Malley attemped to spur offshore wind development by pushing a bill that would require the state's utilities to sign long-term contracts to buy the electricity generated by turbines placed a dozen miles or so off the coast. But lawmakers tabled the legislation for more study amid questions about how much ratepayers would have to pay.

O'Malley is expected to renew his push for offshore wind in the General Assembly next year. Supporters say the poll shows he has public backing.

"These poll results couldn’t be more clear," said Mike Tidwell, head of Chesapeake Climate Action Network, one of the groups that paid for the poll " Maryland voters want the General Assembly to bring offshore wind power to the state. Marylanders understand that the benefits of offshore wind are more than worth a modest initial investment."

According to the pollsters, 62 percent of those who responded to the survey agreed that they would be willing to pay $2 more a month on their electric bill to have a greater percentage of their power from "clean, local" wind turbines rather than from coal, oil and gas.

The support was statewide, with 55 percent backing it on the Eastern Shore in in Southern Maryland, 62 percent in Baltimore's suburbs, 67 percent in the DC 'burbs and 75 percent in Baltimore city.  Pollsters said paying up to $2 more for wind-generated electricity also won favor from 75 percent of African-Americans surveyed.

UPDATE: A second poll released today, done for the developer of a new offshore wind transmission grid, finds even stronger public support for putting turbines off the coast - especially if it means the new industry would bring jobs to Maryland.

The survey, done by Frederick Poll for the Atlantic Wind Connection, finds 77 percent of those questioned favor developing wind power off the Maryland coast  Sixty-eight percent - including 51 percent of the Republicans surveyed - agreed with the statement that they want elected officials to push offshore wind, even if it initially costs more.  Seventy-four percent want offshore wind transmission built, even if it also costs more.

(Wind turbines off the UK coast, Getty Images)

Posted by Tim Wheeler at 11:15 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)
        

Maryland's highest court has upheld the rights of environmental organizations and citizens in general to challenge government actions that they believe will harm the state's air, water or land.

In the first test of a two-year-old state law expanding citizens' standing to sue in environmental disputes, the Court of Appeals ruled, in a 5 to 2 decision, that the Patuxent Riverkeeper should have been allowed to pursue a lawsuit opposing a permit allowing a road to be built across a stream near the Washington Beltway.

Courts have granted citizens and groups broad rights to go to court to enforce environmental laws when they believe someone is polluting, but this case was about challenging prospective harm - preventing it before it occurs.  Maryland's General Assembly had passed legislation in 2009 broadening citizens' rights to sue over permit decisions, the product of a compromise between environmentalists and business interests, in which activists gave up some rights to challenge permits administratively.

But a Prince George's County Circuit Court judge tossed the riverkeeper's case, declaring that the watchdog organization had no legal standing to challenge the permit issued by the Maryland Department of the Environment, which allowed 3/4 acre of nontidal wetlands to be destroyed for a road serving Woodmore Towne Centre. 

The court said that the nutrient runoff and other pollution the riverkeeper contended would be caused by the wetland loss on Western Branch, a tributary of the Patuxent, was merely "conjectural or hypothetical," and the resident on whose behalf the group had sued was too far downstream - 8.5 miles - to be affected in any case.

But Judge Lynne A. Battaglia, writing for the majority, said the resident had "reasonable concern" that the development would harm the health of the Western Branch, and thus diminish his ability to use and enjoy the waters downstream, where he frequently paddled.  Scientific studies have shown stream degradation resulting from roads built over headwaters and wetlands, the majority noted.

Two appellate judges dissented, with Judge Glenn T. Harrell Jr. contending that the law only allows citizens to challenge permit decisions if they can show some particular harm to themselves personally, not just a general degradation of the environment.

Patuxent Riverkeeper Fred Tutman hailed the decision, saying in an email that "Marylanders need to know that if they want to challenge a state permit they no longer need to jump through (a) developer created gauntlet of harassment and inquisition into the nature of their presumed economic stakeholder interest and whether ... they can first prove they have been injured by a project or permit — all in advance of their fair day in court."

The ruling comes too late, however, to do anything about the wetland destruction challenged in this case. Tutman said the developer has already built the road over the stream.

To read the decision and dissent, go here.

(Patuxent Riverkeeper Fred Tutman prepares to launch, 2005. Baltimore Sun photo by Doug Kapustin)

Posted by Tim Wheeler at 9:04 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)
        

In the unsurprising news category, the bottled water industry finds it "disappointing" that the O'Malley administration is trying to get state workers to drink tap water instead of its products.

The International Bottled Water Association released a statement late Wednesday reacting to news from late last week that the state's Green Purchasing Committee voted to stop buying bottled water for state buildings and facilities where tap water is available.   Bottled water would still be provided in places where tap water isn't available, and agencies could decide for themselves whether to have it stocked in vending machines on site.

The move came at the behest of environmental groups, who argued that the state could save money and show support to struggling public water systems by cutting back on bottled water purchases.  Maryland spent $200,000 on Deer Park water in fiscal 2010, according to one official.

In its statement, the association contends that eliminating workers' access to bottled water will increase consumption of unhealthful soft drinks or other calorie-containing beverages.  And it argues that the cutback is a slap at an industry that employs 2,260 people in the state and spends $92 million on wages and benefits.

Posted by Tim Wheeler at 9:17 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)
        

Every week or so seems to bring news of another solar installation in Maryland. The latest is a big one, and it's in a place that hasn't seen that much sun power yet - Baltimore city.

Chimes International, which provides job training and other services for people with disabilities, has blanketed a chunk of its 12-acre campus in northwest Baltimore with 3,000 solar panels, said to be the largest in the city.  The system, which features an unusual mix of ground-mounted and three rooftop arrays, is capable of generating up to 670 kilowatts - enough, according to Chimes, to furnish 60 to 70 percent of the nonprofit's electricity.

Washington Gas Energy Service, based in Herndon, VA will own and operate the system, which was designed and built by BITHENERGY, a Baltimore-based energy services firm.  Chimes inked a 20-year contract to buy the sun-generated power.

As if that wasn't enough, the installation includes independent solar powered outdoor lighting and an electric-vehicle charging station.  It isn't the first green project Chimes has undertaken either - its executives say through they've been able to trim $80,000 a year in energy costs at their locations in Maryland, the mid-Atlantic and Israel by weatherizing buildings, installing energy-efficient lighting and appliances and instilling conservation practices among employees.

(Photo by Corey Culbreath for BITHENERGY courtesy of Chimes)

Posted by Tim Wheeler at 8:41 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)