Virginia is buying out the licenses of more than 350 of its crabbers, paying them anywhere from $500 to $175,000 each to give up their rights to harvest the Chesapeake Bay's iconic crustacean.

Jack Travelstead, fisheries director for the Virginia Marine Resources Commission, said letters went out today (Nov. 20) accepting the offers of 359 holders of crabbing licenses. The commission had received offers to sell from 664 crabbers, roughly a third of all licensed crabbers in the state.

"I couldn’t be happier with the results,'' Travelstead said. "I am very pleased with the number of licenses we’ve been able to purchase."

Virginia had invited the state's 1,800 crabbing license holders to name their price, in a Priceline-style "reverse auction."  

Maryland made a similar offer last summer to nearly 3,700 mostly small-time crabbers, but rejected the nearly 500 bids it got, declaring they didn't get enough reasonable offers.   Only about a fourth quoted prices Maryland's Department of Natural Resources was willing to pay, with one apparent protest bidder demanding $425 million for his $60-a-year permit.  The state then offered a flat $2,260 to each crabber, and got about 530 takers - a better result, though still short of the state's goal of retiring more than 1,300 licenses.

Continue reading "Va. buys out more than 350 crabbers" »

Posted by Tim Wheeler at 1:58 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Chesapeake Bay, News
        

Attorney General Doug Gansler wants boaters to stop using the Chesapeake Bay as their toilet.

Speaking at a bay symposium Thursday at the University of Baltimore law school, Gansler said he plans to ask the General Assembly to declare the entire bay (or at least the Maryland portion) a no-discharge zone for boaters.

It's already illegal to dump raw sewage anywhere, and according to the Department of Natural Resources more than 300 marinas statewide have facilities where boaters can pump out their waste holding tanks and portable toilets.

"Most boaters do bring their tanks into the marina, and (the sewage) goes to the wastewater treatment plants," Gansler said. "But some don't." Some boaters also have "fancy heads," as he called them, which disinfect the waste but don't remove the nitrogen. Boaters with certain approved "marine sanitation devices," as they're called, are allowed to discharge their treated wastes.

The state now has two official no-discharge zones in areas heavily used by boaters - Herring Bay in Anne Arundel County, and the northern coastal bays in Worcester County.  Boaters in those areas are forbidden to dump raw or even treated sewage from their heads. Gansler said he would work with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and state lawmakers to expand the no-discharge designation to cover the entire bay.

Gansler, who has introduced an environmental bill in every General Assembly session since being elected, acknowledged that this measure wasn't as far-reaching as his previous legislative efforts. In prior years, he's pushed to ban phosphates in dishwasher detergents, to have chicken manure declared a renewable energy fuel and to give environmental and community groups legal standing to sue polluters. The first two passed, while last year's standing bill was watered down to give groups the right to challenge environmental permits, but not to sue to enforce the laws.

"We’re not going to fix the bay so its pristine after this," Gansler said, noting that boat waste discharges account for a tiny fraction (about 1 percent, he said) of the nitrogen contributing to the bay's dead zones. "But it’s something that’s very controllable,'' the AG added.

Gansler said that boaters he's spoken with favor his idea, and he suggested that it would have broad public support among non-boaters as well. What do you think?  Is the holding tank smell and pumpout hassle worth it for such a small source of the bay's pollution? Or is it the least boaters can do to help the bay that they depend on for recreation?

Posted by Tim Wheeler at 9:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
        

Computing giant IBM announced in advance of a company-sponsored "Smarter Cities" forum here that it was helping researchers at the University of Maryland Baltimore County analyze smoke patterns in wildfires.

Catonsville-based UMBC is using IBM technology to help track wildfires in real time and make predictions about the spread of the blaze and health-threatening smoke. Such up-to-the-minute information would be useful to emergency responders in making decisions about evacuating people or issuing health warnings, according to the announcement.

What that has to do with "Smarter Cities," though, I'm not exactly sure - maybe an example of how business ties can keep university researchers employed?  

In any case, the Smarter Cities forum, also at UMBC, brings together local government and business leaders to brainstorm about how to improve the economy and quality of life in Baltimore. It's the latest in a series of such forums the company has held in cities across North America.  Besides talking about how to enhance health care, education and safety, they're scheduled to look at boosting green building and public transportation.

Continue reading "Tracking smoke, plugging leaks in "Smarter Cities"" »

Posted by Tim Wheeler at 6:30 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Categories: Events, News
        

Aiming to head off a budding bipartisan move in Congress to boost nuclear power, environmentalists took to the streets - and the Internet - to dismiss atom-splitting as too slow and costly to help fight climate change.

Environment Maryland released a new report Tuesday (Nov. 17) arguing that it would take a decade or more and cost upwards of $600 billion to build 100 more nuclear plants, as some have advocated to ease planet-warming greenhouse gas emissions. The group argues that the time and money could be better spent promoting energy efficiency and renewable energy such as wind and solar.

"Nuclear power would actually hurt our ability to stop global warming,'' said Mike Sherling of Environment Maryland.

The report, which you can read here, comes as two senators, Republican Lamar Alexander of Tennessee and Democrat Jim Webb of Virginia, introduce a bill that would funnel federal funds and loan guarantees into reviving the nuclear power industry as well as promoting renweable energy.

“If we were going to war, we wouldn’t mothball our nuclear navy and start subsidizing sailboats," Alexander said. "If addressing climate change and creating low-cost, reliable energy are national imperatives, we shouldn’t stop building nuclear plants and start subsidizing windmills.” 

To highlight their objections, Environment Maryland and other activists staged a press conference (pictured above) outside the downtown Baltimore headquarters of Constellation Energy, which has applied for a permit to build a new, third reactor at Calvert Cliffs nuclear power plant. The press event drew a few lunchtime spectators, but the growl of traffic on busy Pratt Street often drowned out what they had to say.

(It should be noted that not all environmentalists oppose nuclear power.  Locally, the Maryland Conservation Council has endorsed Constellation's bid for a third reactor at Calvert Cliffs.  The group is concerned about industrial-scale wind and solar projects gobbling up land and wildlife habitat, and argues that nuclear power is safe and least expensive, for the amount of power generated.)

By coincidence, wind energy advocates were huddled nearby at the Pier 5 Hotel, conferring on how to boost the prospects for turbines atop mountains and offshore in the Mid-Atlantic region.  They have issues to overcome as well, including public resistance in some locales, and the inadequancy of high-tension transmission lines to convey the power from where it's generated to where it's needed.  This is an issue already in some western areas, but one of the speakers at yesterday's meeting said it was likely to be a concern in the East as well as more turbines get built. 

Posted by Tim Wheeler at 6:30 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)
Categories: News
        

It seems that Virginia's crabbers aren't exactly flocking to take buyouts from their state, either. As the Associated Press reports, more than 500 of the state's 1,850 commercial crabbers submitted offers to sell their licenses back to the state by the Nov. 1 deadline.

"I like being outside, and I just absolutely love catching things — absolutely love it," Joe Palmer, a 54-year-old waterman told the AP, in explaining why he didn't offer to sell his license.

Virginia has committed $6.7 million to buy out commercial crabbers' licenses, and invited them to name their price, using a method that has proven successful in reducing some other overworked fisheries. Maryland tried a similar "reverse auction" to retire relatively small-time crabbing licenses that hadn't been used in a while, but gave up after getting only about 500 offers to sell that quoted prices ranging up into the millions of dollars.

Maryland has since switched gears, offering to pay a flat $2,260 for each of the "limited crab catcher" licenses turned in. So far, state officials say, about 530 have responded to the latest offer, which remains outstanding. The 3,700 "limited crab catcher" licenses the state has issued allow holders to use up to 50 wire-mesh "pots" or traps and an unlimited amount of baited line. The state is moving to restrict the use of about 2,000 licenses that haven't reported any catch lately, to keep them from jumping back into crabbing as the bay's crab population rebounds.

(2008 Baltimore Sun photo by Glenn Fawcett)

Posted by Tim Wheeler at 11:15 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Chesapeake Bay, News
        

Miss trash or recycling day?

For those who missed trash or recycling pickup on Veterans Day in Baltimore City, officials have arranged for make-up collection this Saturday.  

Saturday is the automatic make-up day for all holidays that fall Tuesday through Friday.

So, don't let it all pile up. Put that trash and recycling out on Saturday morning.

Posted by Meredith Cohn at 7:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: News
        

It seems that emissions of climate-changing greenhouse gases took a dip in Maryland even before lawmakers in Annapolis agreed to reduce them.

Relying on federal data, Environment Maryland reports that carbon dioxide emissions in the Old Line State from burning fossil fuels declined 6 percent from 2004 through 2007. Maryland was in good company - 16 other states also trimmed their emissions of carbon dioxide from fossil fuel use in that time period, according to the environmental group's latest report.

The decline is interesting because it predates the recession, which experts say has dampened energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions because of reduced economic activity. The US Energy Information Administration, for instance, projects that carbon dioxide emissions from fossil fuel use nationwide are likely to be 5.9 percent lower this year than last.

Environment Maryland says the decline in carbon dioxide emissions in Maryland and other states shows that climate-warming pollution can be reduced without harming the economy.  The group is pressing Congress to pass legislation aimed at curtailing emissions nationwide while promoting energy efficiency and renewables.  Much of the debate in Washington is over how much that will increase the costs of energy and whether that will hurt the economy at a time when the nation is still grappling with high unemployment.

Environment Maryland suggests that carbon dioxide emissions dropped in states with policies and standards promoting energy efficiency.  Maryland, which ranks 10th in per capita carbon dioxide emissions, came in 12th in a 2008 rating of its policies by the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy, a Washington-based advocacy group. 

But all that happened before Maryland lawmakers approved the Greenhouse Gas Emissions Reduction Act this year aimed at curbing greenhouse gas emissions in the state, and even before the state approved EmPower energy-efficiency legislation in 2008 that was pushed by the O'Malley administration.  It was that bill aimed at achieving a 15 percent reduction in per capita energy consumption by 2015, that helped Maryland earn its relatively high ranking on energy efficiency.

I'm wondering if there weren't other factors at play in the 2004-2007 dip in CO2 emissions than a conscious attempt to improve energy efficiency or deal with climate change.  The decline apparently happened largely as a result of power plants switching from coal and oil to natural gas and other cleaner-burning fuels.  Could that switch have stemmed from government regulation of conventional air pollutants, which also are generated by burning fossil fuels, and big jumps in oil prices in the run-up to the recession?

Even if so, it's still noteworthy that climate-warming pollution dropped in Maryland and some other states while economic growth continued (albeit unsustainably). 

Posted by Tim Wheeler at 11:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)
Categories: Air Pollution, News
        

The missing Maryland darter is still AWOL. That's the word from biologists who've been scouring the lower Susquehanna River and its creek tributaries the last few weeks for the phantom fish, which hasn't been seen in 21 years.

Joined by a West Virginia biologist and his students with a specially equipped boat, Maryland scientists dragged the Susquehanna last weekend for the 2- to 3-inch fish, one of the rarest in the world. The searchers made 95 trawls using regular and electrified nets, according to Jay Kilian of the state Department of Natural Resources.

"We managed to catch every darter in the river," Kilian said. "Unfortunately,no Maryland darters came up."

Named for the only state in which it's ever been found, this bottom-feeding member of the perch family has been seen in just three creeks off the lower Susquehanna. It's only been found sporadically over the years, and hasn't turned up since 1978 (cx: 1988) despite repeated efforts to locate it. Scientists are reluctant, however, to declare it extinct until they've made a full-court press.

Researchers plan to make another intensive search of the river next spring, when the Marshall University team can return. In-state biologists, meanwhile, will keep checking Deer Creek and other tributaries, Kilian said.

"If it's out there, it's going to take more effort," the DNR biologist said. But after dragging the bottom so many times without success, he added, "it makes you wonder.''

Posted by Tim Wheeler at 2:09 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)
Categories: News
        

So the Obama administration has finally unveiled its plan for jump-starting the Chesapeake Bay restoration, and even environmentalists who had called for a stronger federal hand in the cleanup couldn't agree on the showing so far. Some smelled waffling in the feds' resolve to crack down on stubborn farm and storm-water pollution.

The Chesapeake Bay Foundation's Doug Siglin called the feds' draft strategy " a step forward," but didn't exactly bubble over with praise. "All in all, we're pleased that the federal government is stepping up and creating a plan that cuts across federal agencies," he said in a brief telephone interview.

Environment Maryland's Tommy Landers, though, called the draft strategy "a step backwards" from the Environmental Protection Agency's suggestion in September that federal regulations should be expanded and stiffened on poultry and other livestock farms (aka "concentrated animal feeding operations") and on municipal storm water. In the announcement Monday, the feds said they'd give the states a chance first to beef up their pollution controls, and if their efforts were enough to meet water-quality goals, then EPA would hold off on new "bay-specific" rules.

"But states (have) proven themselves incapable of that over the past 25 years,” said Landers in a written release.

Continue reading "Feds' Bay cleanup plan: step forward or back?" »

Posted by Tim Wheeler at 6:30 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)
        

Maryland ranks second from the bottom nationally in its spending of federal transportation funds on resources for walkers and bicyclists, according to a Sun story about study called "Dangerous by Design" just released by a coalition of groups led by the Surface Transportation Policy Partnership and Transportation for America.

It's also got a higher-than-average number of deaths of pedestrians on its roads.

A state official said the report doesn't count state money it spends on pedestrian-friendly improvements to its roads. And a Baltimore officials said local improvements have been made, but he acknowledged that the area has a long way to go.

According to the story, the report says Maryland ranks 49th among the 50 states in per capita spending of federal transportation funds on bicycling and walking projects. Maryland spends about 45 cents a person, compared with a national average of $1.46 and a high of $9.47 in Alaska. Virginia spends 22 cents and was the worst.

Here's the whole report.

Lots of attention has been paid on this blog about how unsafe it is to bike around the city and state. Think it's safe to even walk?

Baltimore Sun file photo of an pedestrian-unfriendly sidewalk on Sinclair Lane

Posted by Meredith Cohn at 4:42 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: News
        

Maryland Sen. Benjamin L. Cardin joined 10 other Democrats today in voting to send a climate-change bill to the full Senate for debate.

Despite a boycott by Republican lawmakers, Cardin and other Democrats controlling the Environment and Public Works Committee finished marking up the bill and voted 11 to 1 to report it to the floor. 

Its official title is Clean Energy Jobs and American Power Act, but besides promoting alternative and renewable fuels it promotes a "cap and trade" scheme for curbing emissions of carbon dioxide, methane and other so-called greenhouse gases that scientists say are changing the planet's climate.

Cardin, who's said to be weighing attending the United Nations climate-change treaty talks in Copenhagen, Denmark in December, called the legislation good for the country, for the world, and even for Maryland.  The state is a leader, the senator said, in developing alternative and renewable fuels.  (He might get some argument from advocates of wind power.)

Despite the committee's quick action, it's considered highly unlikely that Congress can tackle and pass the complex energy and environmental legislation in time for the climate talks in Denmark that begin Dec. 7.   Still, Cardin said in a statement his office released that other countries won't commit to curbing their greenhouse gases unless they see that Congress is serious.  The committee vote was essential to demonstrate "that the Senate is making progress," he said.

"We have an urgent responsibility to act," Cardin said, adding that if action is not taken, there could be irreversible catastrophic climate change that could jeopardize the availability yof water, food and fuel for all.  "We will face a world that's less diverse, less beautiful and less secure," he concluded.

(2009 Baltimore Sun photo by Jed Kirschbaum)

Posted by Tim Wheeler at 6:46 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Categories: News
        

Republican Robert McDonnell's election as governor of Virginia on Tuesday has some worrying it could spell trouble for cooperation among states and federal government to clean up the Chesapeake Bay.

Mark Rozell, a professor of public policy at George Mason University in Northern Virginia, was quoted in a story by the Capital News Service suggesting that a conservative Republican administration in Richmond could undo Virginia's recent cooperation with Democrat-controlled Annapolis and the Obama administration in Washington on adopting stronger environmental regulations and spending more to restore the bay.

Neither McDonnell nor his Democratic opponent Creigh Deeds spoke much about the bay during the campaign, it seems. But the Capital News Service reports that McDonnell mentioned the watermen's plight in his victory speech Tuesday night, though he didn't elaborate.

McDonnell's campaign Web site portrays him as a strong supporter of the bay and the environment. It says he supported several bay initiatives, including a tax refund for contributions toward restoring the Chesapeake and a ban on ban on phosphate diswasher detergent.

"Bob McDonnell is committed to working with the other Chesapeake Bay states to continue responsible policies to protect and improve the health of the Bay," his campaign site says, "including making every effort to meet the goals for the nutrient reduction outlined in the Chesapeake Bay agreement signed in 2000."

There's no mention, though, of going beyond the 2000 agreement, which all states now acknowledge they won't fulfill by next year's deadline.

(Associated Press photo)

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

Here's a listing where you don't want to be No. 1.  Forbes.com, which is fond of doing lists, has come up with "America's most toxic cities."  The business news site has ranked the nation's 40 largest metro areas by the dirtiness of their air and water, the number of places spewing toxic pollution and the number of Superfund hazardous waste dumps.

Atlanta earns the dubious distinction as forbes.com's most toxic city.  It lacks the smokestack industries one might typically associate with pollution, but the sprawl capital of America has some of the worst air quality, thanks to all the motor vehicles cruising its spaghetti bowl of pavement.

Following Atlanta are Detroit, Houston, Chicago, Philadelphia, Cleveland and Los Angeles.

Where's Baltimore? It ranks 32nd on the forbes.com list.  But that doesn't mean Charm City is all that clean, because oddly the list is in reverse order, with cleanest on top and dirtiest at the bottom.  When the list of 40 is flipped to rank the most toxic first, B'more comes in 9th. Not such a green showing. 

One has to wonder if forbes.com hasn't piled on a bit, though.  It lists 37 Superfund sites in Baltimore, when the Environmental Protection Agency only counts 11 in the city. The total doubles when the suburbs are included, but that's still well short of the figure used in the rankings.

But hey, look on the bright side.  Baltimore is only slightly worse than Portland, Oregon (#31, or 10th most toxic) often regarded as one of the crunchiest green places in the country.

Seem like a fair ranking to you?  Or a bad hit?

(2007 Baltimore Sun photo by Kim Hairston)

Posted by Tim Wheeler at 11:59 AM | Permalink | Comments (5)
        

Our colleagues at the Picture of Health blog are reporting that the big beef recall includes Maryland.

Fairbanks Farms has voluntarily recalled about a million pounds of beef that was sold at Trader Joe's, Giant and BJ's.

New York beef manufacturer Fairbanks Farms has issued a voluntary recall of a little more than half a million pounds of ground beef. The recall affects states from Maine to North Carolina. Someone has already died in New Hampshire and others were sickened in other states after eating the beef contaminated with the bacteria E.coli.

The products include ground beef, meatloaf and meatball mix. They call sell-by dates from Sept. 19-28. Here are the details from Fairbanks Farms. And here's a list of the products from the USDA.

If you have doubts, call the store where you bought the meat. Or just pitch it.

Posted by Meredith Cohn at 2:43 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)
Categories: News
        

The Washington Post has a story today about the climate bill that is winding through the Senate right now. And the chances of passage are not looking so good because Democrats are split and Republicans are largely opposing the measure.

The the House version that has already passed, this bill is likely to include a cap and trade provision that allows a certain amount of carbon dioxide and those who do not or can't comply with limits can buy credits from those who are complying.

The Dems have even thrown in an incentive to get Republican support: expedited approval of new nuclear power plants. That, the Post says, may not be enough.

Meanwhile, the New York Times had a story Sunday about how new technology to cut emission may be best suited not for coal plants, often seen as the main offender, but for other kinds of plants. At coal plants, the story says, the carbon dioxide is mixed with other pollution and it's tough to separate them.

Engineers and policymakers say it may be easier to capture the carbon dioxide at oil refineries, chemical plants, cement factories and ethanol plants because their emissions are purer. 

Baltimore Sun file photo of Calvert Cliffs nuclear power plant in Southern Maryland

Posted by Meredith Cohn at 12:15 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)
Categories: News
        

The state has found that Worcester County's commissioners violated Maryland's open-meetings law when they decided last spring behind closed doors to consolidate county departments - a move that led to the firing of 11 planners and inspectors amid controversy over the county's plans for development along the coastal bays near Ocean City.

The shakeup came as environmentalists expressed alarm over proposed zoning changes in Worcester that would allow more residential and commercial development in some sensitive areas bordering the state's coastal bays. The string of fragile lagoons along Maryland's Atlantic shore are in better shape overall than the Chesapeake Bay, but their health is slipping amid growing pollution, University of Maryland scientists have found.

County commissioners defended the staff reorganization, which eliminated Worcester's planning department, as a budget-trimming move.  But in response to a complaint by the Assateague Coastal Trust, the state's open meetings compliance board declared that the commissioner were not legally entitled to go into executive session on May 26 to talk about it. Their closed-door deliberations also roamed beyond the personnel matters they had cited as their reason for excluding the public, the board found. The county commissioners later voted in an open session on June 2 to affirm the decision they'd made in private earlier.

Kathy Phillips, the coastal trust's executive director, issued a statement saying she wasn't surprised by the state's findings, delivered to her in an Oct. 27 letter. "It is unfortunate that our elected officials felt they did not have to be accountable to the law," Phillips said, "and worse, they did not understand their actions behind closed doors should have been conducted in the light of sunshine."

For more on the coastal bays, go here and here.

(Baltimore Sun photo by Kim Hairston)

Posted by Tim Wheeler at 9:30 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Categories: News
        

A small group of environmentalists, developers and government officials have taken the first step in what could be a long journey toward rethinking how Maryland should grow over the next century.

That's right: 100 years, not just five, 10 or even 30. Inspired by reports of success with a similarly long-range visioning exercise for the Seattle area, representatives of the Chesapeake Bay Foundation, Home Builders Association of Maryland and nine other groups pledged Wednesday to launch the "Maryland 100-year Horizon Parntership."

By taking such a long-range view, says John Kortecamp, executive vice president of the home builders, the Maryland group hopes to get past the NIMBYism (aka "not in my backyard") that always seem to bog down efforts to develop more compact, walkable communities in the state.

Participants in the "Cascade Agenda," as the Seattle-area effort is called, explained at a conference at Martin's West on Wednesday that it has succeeded in building consensus among developers, environmentalists and government officials there about halting the loss of forest and farmland to suburban sprawl by building up cities and towns.

Gene Duvernoy, president of the Cascade Land Conservancy and one of the founders of the Seattle effort, said looking at long-range projections of how the region's population would continue to mushroom prompted environmentalists to realize that the keys to conserving Washington's natural resources lay in providing affordable housing and sustainable employment opportunities for the newcomers. It also won agreement that existing cities and towns need additional money to make themselves more attractive in order to ease the pressure to develop beyond the region's growth boundaries.

"It was a sloppy process," Duvernoy recalled, with lots of false turns and reverses. It took thousands of hours of talks, but the effort has gained traction, he said, in large part because it is based on using market-based incentives to conserve forests and farms rather than more government land-use regulations.

Continue reading "Taking the long view on Maryland's future" »

Posted by Tim Wheeler at 9:30 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)
        

Baltimore Gas & Electric will get $200 million in federal stimulus dollars as part of $3.4 billion in national 'smart grid' funding, according to a story in The Sun today by Washington correspondent Paul West.  

The company will use the money, one of the largest grants in the country from the Department of Energy, to install advanced power meters in customers' homes.

That will allow better management of electricity. Customers could use less electricity in peak times and slow the rate of consumption overall.

BGE will invest $251 million in the effort initially and $2.6 billion during the life of the project.

The overall goal of 100 similar contracts is to speed transition to what the Obama administration is calling "the largest single grid modernization investment in U.S. history."

Are you already on board with this program?

Associated Press photo of a "smart" meter

Posted by Meredith Cohn at 11:35 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)
Categories: News
        

Many state parks around Maryland already allow pets in certain areas at certain times of year. But officials say they keep hearing from people who want more access for their four-legged friends.

So, the Department of Natural Resources has come up with a plan to expand access at many more parks for at least part of the year. 

They also want to hear from the public on this proposal. You can post a comment here through Nov. 30.

I suspect they will hear from all sides. Some people would likely use the parks more for hiking, picnicing, etc., if they could bring their dogs. But I bet others believe their experience would be harmed if more dogs were allowed -- more noise, more poop, more run ins, etc.

Raise your paw if you're for the proposal.

Photo of Patapsco Valley State Park courtesy of the Department of Natural Resources  

Posted by Meredith Cohn at 7:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)
Categories: News, Parks
        

Maryland is one of only five states that has a published plan to address the health impacts of climate change, according to a new study by the Trust for America's Health, a non-profit group that focuses on disease prevention.

The group says that rising temperatures and sea levels are likely to spur more natural disaster, pollution and infectious diseases, which will cause more health problems and emergencies. But only Maryland, Virginia, Washington, New Hampshire and California are planning for this.

More than half of the states have climate change plans, but don't specifically work out how they will deal with related health emergencies, says the report, which is called "The Health Problems Heat up: Climate Change and the Public's Health."  Some states have no plan at all.

To prevent such problems as heat-related sickness, respiratory infections, natural disasters, changes to the food supply and infectious diseases carried by insects, the group has some policy recommendations. They iare in the areas of proper funding and research, interagency coordination, accountability, communications and public engagement, surveillance and modeling and workforce.

We've gotten to see the government respond to public health emergencies -- Hurricane Katrina, swine flu -- do you believe as a country or a state we're ready for what else may come?

Associated Press photo

Posted by Meredith Cohn at 12:02 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Categories: News
        

A broadcast remark by the Obama administration's point person on the Chesapeake Bay about strengthening federal controls on farm pollution has triggered some high-level diplomacy between Annapolis and Washington.

Pressed by lower Eastern Shore politicians who contend that "stringent" federal regulations already are driving the poultry industry from the state, Gov. Martin O'Malley has exchanged letters and and conferred by phone with Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lisa P. Jackson, seeking "clarification" about whether Maryland's chicken farmers face the prospect of tougher regulation than growers elsewhere in the country.

O'Malley wrote the EPA chief on Sept. 18, forwarding a letter he'd received nearly two weeks earlier from the Worcester County commissioners complaining that federal regulations imposed by the agency's regional office in Philadelphia put Maryland chicken farmers on "an uneven playing field" compared with growers in other states.

Continue reading "Smoothing ruffled feathers over poultry pollution" »

Posted by Tim Wheeler at 8:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (10)
Categories: Chesapeake Bay, News
        

The Baltimore City Council will hold a public hearing today on the Equal Right for Bikes Task Force, which was introduced in April.

The purpose of the task force is to work within the Bicycle Mast Plan to promote a safety program for cars and bikes by clarifyin the rules of the road for all traffic, creating a system to monitor bike-invovled accidents, recommending bike safety initiatives and spreading information on bike safety.

The hearing is at 12:30 p.m. on the 4th floor of City Hall. The master plan, if you'd like to look in advance, is here.

Thanks to One Less Car for the heads up. There ought to be a good turnout, if the numbers from the bike and pedestrian advocacy group's last event are any measure.

The Tour du Port, a bike ride around Baltimore Oct. 4, brought out 2,000 riders. That was up from 1,250 last year.

And a reminder from the group: This Sunday from 8 a.m.-1 p.m. the southbound lanes of Roland Avenue will be closed to car traffic between Northern Parkway and Cold Spring Lane for the "Sunday Streets" program. So get out your walking shoes, bikes and skateboards! 

Baltimore Sun photo of this year's Tour du Port with Mayor Sheila Dixon out front/Amy Davis

Posted by Meredith Cohn at 7:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (4)
Categories: News
        

Factories and power plants discharged more than 2 million pounds of toxic chemicals into Maryland waterways, according to a new report by Environment Maryland. And three-fourths of that wound up in Baltimore's Curtis Bay, ranking it among the top 50 waterways nationally for toxic discharges.

Drawing on toxic chemical releases reported by industries for 2007, the most recent year available, the environmental group argues that government has not done enough to minimize the health and environmental threats posed by allowing such discharges into the nation's waters.

In the Chesapeake Bay watershed, the group notes, the Susquehanna River ranked in the top 20 nationally for receiving toxic discharges, with industries reporting more than 2.6 million pounds released into the water body that supplies half the bay's fresh water. And at the other end of the bay, Virginia's James River received the 6th largest amount of toxic chemicals linked with developmental problems in children.

Toxic discharges are far higher in other parts of the country, the group's report reveals, with the Ohio, New and Mississippi rivers on the receiving end of the most pollution.  And the amounts industry reports discharging have been greatly reduced overall, since they first began reporting such releases two decades ago.

But there's still plenty that could be done in Maryland and the rest of the bay region to reduce exposure to harmful chemicals, argues Environment Maryland's Tommy Landers. He urged state and federal leaders not to skip over toxic pollution as they draw up plans for ramping up the bay restoration effort.  To see the full report, go here.

Posted by Tim Wheeler at 9:45 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)
Categories: Chesapeake Bay, News
        

Environmentalists worry that the push to clean Maryland's air could wind up degrading the state's waters.

Under the state's Healthy Air Act passed in 2006, coal-burning power plants are required to reduce their emissions of nitrogen oxides, sulfur dioxide and mercury, which impair our breathing, foul the Chesapeake Bay and make some fish unsafe to eat in large quantities. Beginning next year, the plants are supposed to reduce nitrogen oxide emissions by almost 70%, sulfure dioxide emissions by 80%, and mercury emissions by 80%.

To meet those requirements, the coal plants are in the process of installing "scrubbers" to clean the pollutants out of their smokestacks before they get into the air. But environmentalists are concerned that the pollutants scrubbed from the stacks may wind up in the water if there aren't adequate safeguards to clean the plants' wastewater.

Even before the scrubbers are hooked up, they note, at least one coal-burner, Mirant Corp.'s Morgantown plant in Charles County, is discharging hundreds of pounds of toxic chemicals daily into the Potomac River. Based on the company's own sampling, the water coming out of the Morgantown plant's outfall pipe into the river is carrying more than 200 pounds of arsenic and nearly 600 pounds of selenium a day.

"It's just shifting pollution from one medium to another in an area already suffering from pollution,'' says Jennifer Peterson, an attorney with the Environmental Integrity Project in Washington. The University of Maryland's environmental law clinic pressed the group's concerns with the state Department of the Environment.

Continue reading "Cleaning the air at water's expense?" »

Posted by Tim Wheeler at 6:27 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Categories: Air Pollution, Chesapeake Bay, News
        

It's National Lead Poisoning Prevention Week and a group of children's advocates today called for an end what they say is a "tragic, costly and preventable" environmental disease.

To bring some attention to lead poisoning, which has long been a problem in older cities such as Baltimore, the advocates, lead by the National Coalition to End Childhood Lead Poisoning, are holding a press conference today. They will be joined by officials from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, the Maryland Department of the Environment, the Maryland Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, the Baltimore City Health Department, the Baltimore County Office of Community Conservation, Episcopal Community Services of Marylande and Mt. Washington Pediatric Hospital.

They will offer an action plan, unveil an ad campaign and announce some grant money in Baltimore City and County.

The groups cite data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and Maryland state officials that show there are more than 700 children with confirmed cases of lead poisoning every year. There may be thousands more that they don't know about.

The is good news: Lead poisoning has decreased by 96 percent in Baltimore City and 95 percent in the state since 1993. But lead-based paint remain in several hundred thousand housing units.

Around the nation, as estimated 250,000 kids have dangerous levels of lead in their blood. Poisoning can lead to irreversible neurological and organ damage. It is also tied to higher school drop out rates and violent behavior. There are still 24 million U.S. homes with exposed lead hazards.

The advocates say HUD research show for every dollar used to control lead $200 are saved in treatment and other expenditures.

To save money and ensure safety, the coalition is also working on a plan with other groups to integrate lead hazard reduction into weatherization and energy efficiency work. The effort will target low-income areas in the city.

Posted by Meredith Cohn at 11:17 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Categories: News
        

Those who flush their old prescription drugs down the toilet may think they're safely disposing of the drugs. But studies show the pills end up in area waterways and in our drinking water.

The Carroll County government is among the few area jurisdictions that plans on collecting the drugs for proper disposal. A quick check didn't reveal any Baltimore area government collection sites but Montgomery and Prince George's seem to hold at least periodic collections.

For information on where to drop your expired or unwanted drugs in Carroll, beginning Oct. 24, click here.

The reason many other jurisdictions do not collect the drugs is probably because law enforcement must be on site. A county, for example, can just decide to allow the drugs to go right into the recycle bin.

The Office of National Drug Control Policy offers these tips below for those who can't find a place to take back the old drugs that can't be flushed.

Take the drugs out of the original containers. Mix the drugs with an undesirable substance such as cat liter or used coffee grounds. Put the mixture in a disposable container with a lid, such as an old margarine tub, or into a sealable bag. Conceal or remove any personal information, including the Rx number on the empty containers by covering it with black permanent marker or duct tape, or by scratching it off. Place the sealed container with the mixture and the empty drug containers in the trash.

The Food and Drug Administration has a list of drugs that it recommends be flushed here. And here's a number in case you have questions: 1-888-INFO-FDA (1-888-463-6332).

Associated Press file photo

Posted by Meredith Cohn at 7:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Categories: News
        

As we wait for the next program to encourage us to buy Energy Star rated appliances, the New York Times comes out with a story that says an Energy Department audit shows that the agency may not be properly tracking manufacturers who slap on the label.

The report says that manufacturers are allowed to self label on washing machine, refrigerators and diswashers. The label is suppose to insure that the products meet energy efficiency standards. Those manufacturers that make light bulbs and windows are required to get independent verification of efficiency.

The Energy Department is looking into the matter. Hopefully the authorities will figure this out before the stimulus money gets handed out.

The state is now working out the details of how to distribute the $5.4 million it will get. Will it add to the money companies such as BGE hand out for buying energy efficient appliances or add more kinds of products? They aren't yet sure.

Rebate money is expected to be available by the end of this year or early next year.

To read a story I wrote about the program click here.

Posted by Meredith Cohn at 12:00 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Categories: News
        

Ilya, the adventurous Florida manatee that showed up this summer in the upper Chesapeake Bay, may have ventured too far this time.

The sea cow, which visited Havre de Grace and Perryville in July, reportedly had been sighted as far north as Massachusetts and in New York harbor.  Last week, it was seen hanging around an oil refinery outfall pipe in New Jersey. Scientists identified the manatee by its distinctive scarring and speculated that it was there seeking warmth as water temperatures dropped.

Worried for the mammal's survival , wildlife officials had planned late last week to try to capture Ilya and return him to warmer waters in South Florida.  But then a nor'easter hit the East Coast, and the animal hasn't been seen since Friday.  Authorities hope the manatee is headed south on its own.  Phone home, Ilya.  Better yet, head home, if it isn't too late already.

Posted by Tim Wheeler at 9:14 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Categories: News
        

Washington College's decision to buy a contaminated waterfront tract on the Chester River is a proverbial win-win, according to an official with the small Eastern Shore liberal arts college.

Writing in the Chestertown Spy, Bryan Mathews, director of athletics and associate VP for administrative servcies, calls the five-acre plot "a wonderful gift" that the college got at a bargain and will clean up after sitting undeveloped for decades because of the toxic chemicals left behind in the ground by farm chemical and fuel storage businesses that once operated there.

"It won’t cost the citizens a thing, and in fact everyone will benefit many times over," Mathews writes. He doesn't mention the $400,000 in federal funds school officials have said they intend to apply for to help with the cleanup, which two different assessments have said could cost either $1.6 million or more than $4 million.

As reported in B'more Green earlier, the college intends to build a new boathouse there, plus a new headquarters for its Center for Environment & Society.

Posted by Tim Wheeler at 9:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)
        

Government and university biologists are mounting another, perhaps last search for the elusive Maryland darter, one of the world's rarest fish, which hasn't been seen in 21 years.

As reported in The Baltimore Sun today, scientists plan to check again the few Harford County streams where the little fish has only sporadically been found over the past century. But they also intend to broaden their search and bring in some new "electro-trawling" gear to see if the darter could be lurking in the Susquehanna River. A West Virginia biologist who's joining the search has had success finding other seemingly lost fish using the technique.

Rich Raesly, the Frostburg State University biologist who was the last to see the bottom-feeding member of the perch family in the wild, has searched in vain since then. He says the coordinated and expanded search, which scientists hope to make for two years, offers a "glimmer of hope" for the state's namesake fish.

If scientists still can't find it after that, the federal government will be left with a tough call - whether to declare it extinct and remove it from protection under the Endangered Species Act. No one likes to do that, if only because long-lost fish sometimes turn up. In the mid-1990s, Raesly and another scientist independently spotted another missing fish, the stripeback darter, after it hadn't been seen in 51 years.

For more on the Maryland darter, and the state's rare plants and animals, go here.

(Illustration by David Neely, courtesy of the MD Department of Natural Resources)

Posted by Tim Wheeler at 7:31 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)
        

The University of Maryland was named a winner of the "America's Greenest Campus" contest for its efforts to raise awareness about energy use and reduce its carbon footprint.

There were 450 universities in the competition and Maryland had the highest number of students, faculty and staff participating -- 2,257 signed up on contest sponsor Climate Culture's Web site. The site offers a tool to calculate your carbon footprint.

The university reports that Rio Salado College in Tempe, Ariz., had the highest carbon reduction, or 4.4 percent among 524 participants, based on contest results released this week.

Both schools won $5,000.

The university says the award comes on the heels of its carbon action plan to reach carbon neutrality on campus by 2050.

"Winning this contest reinforces the level of activism and interest that our students have in environmental issues," said Mark Stewart, Maryland's campus sustainability coordinator, in a statement. "Through the Student Government Association, through this contest, through constant petitioning outside the [Stamp Student] Union, there's just wonderful activism, and I'm inspired daily by the passion of our students.

Go Terps!

Posted by Meredith Cohn at 7:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Categories: News
        

Washington College is looking to expand its Chestertown campus by purchasing some land on the Chester River, where the small liberal arts school intends to build environmental laboratories, as well as a new boathouse, classrooms, and a dormitory. The move was announced last year.

The college couldn't ask for a better place to study the environment, since the five-acre riverfront tract it's acquiring is apparently contaminated with the toxic legacy of a farm chemical storage businesses that once occupied the sites. An investigation earlier this year found the soil tainted with high levels of toxaphene, a now-banned insecticide; arsenic, chromium and other hazardous substances, according to the Maryland Department of the Environment.

College officials have said they plan to forge ahead, despite a consultant's estimate that it could cost $1.6 million to get rid of the tainted soil. The school hopes to get a $400,000 federal "brownfields" grant to help with the cleanup once it acquires the property. Officals plan to close the deal today. 

But in the past several days, a grimmer assessment of the land's contamination has surfaced. An investigation done 22 years ago found the soil riddled with petroleum hydrocarbon contaminants, pesticides and heavy metals. It also warned that there was a risk that toxic chemicals from the site could be seeping into the river via the ground water. The consultant warned that "worst case" cleanup could cost more than $4 million (in 1987 dollars).

Continue reading "Washington College's toxic expansion" »

Posted by Tim Wheeler at 8:30 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Categories: News
        

The city of Baltimore held one of its twice-a-year hazardous waste drop offs last weekend and got a little less than the average response, according to the folks at Public Works.

Just more than 900 vehicles came by with paint, cleaner, batteries and other bad stuff that can't go in the regular garbage. The average for these events is 1,100. Weight figures won't be available for another week.

The city and surrounding counties have to pay to have this especially nasty stuff hauled away, so they don't expect to add a lot of new drop off events. (Sorry, but you'll have to keep the stuff in your basements until the next event.) Public Works doesn't have a cost estimate for this year, but the average cost going back to 2006 is $73,000.

Here are some other upcoming hazardous waste disposal opportunities:

Baltimore County plans its next event from 9 a.m.-2 p.m. Nov. 1 at the Western Acceptance Facility, Transway Road, Halethorpe. Residents may drop off unwanted household chemicals, paints, pesticides, medicines, mercury thermometers, fluorescent bulbs, rechargeable batteries, computers and home electronics, ammunition and automotive fluids for recycling or proper disposal. No trash.

Anne Arundel will allow resident to bring a similar list of stuff from 8 a.m.-2 p.m. Oct. 17 at the Glen Burnie Convenience Center, 100 Dover Road, Glen Burnie.  

Howard County allows residents to drop off hazardous stuff at its Waste Drop-off Center at the Alpha Ridge Landfill, 2350 Marriottsville Road, Marriottsville, Saturdays from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. April through November.

Baltimore Sun file photo of hazardous waste disposal at the Alpha Ridge Landfill in Marriottsville/Doug Kapoutsin

Posted by Meredith Cohn at 2:13 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)
Categories: News
        

When is "silencing" a journalist censorship, or simple fairness?

The blogosphere is still reverbrating about the verbal scuffle last Friday between former Vice President Al Gore and an Irish filmmaker over the status of polar bears and the global warming skeptic's subsequent stifling at the Society of Environmental Journalists' conference in Madison, Wisconsin.

I had more than a ringside seat on the incident, as it turns out.  I was the one who asked the filmmaker, Phelim McAleer, to stop hogging the microphone and sit down.  As a member of the board of director of the society, I was there to see that working journalists and society members - who'd paid to attend the five-day conference - got a chance to ask their questions.

McAleer had every right to pose his question, and to follow it up when Gore didn't answer it directly.  (To be fair, the issue raised by McAleer was hardly new - he brought up a British judge's finding in 2007 that Gore's award-winning film "An Inconvenient Truth" contained assertions about climate change that did not reflect the mainstream scientific consensus - though the judge did not dispute the film's main point that emissions from human activity are warming the planet.)  You can watch a video of the exchange between Gore and McAleer here or listen to the entire speech and Q&A here (note: big file).

McAleer, it should be pointed out, has co-produced a film that claims to expose "the true cost of global warming hysteria."  He and others have used the widely publicized incident at the society's conference to plug his film, "Not Evil Just Wrong," which is scheduled for official release in the next several days. 

That aside, he was not asked to sit down because he was putting Gore on the spot, but because there were about 10 others waiting behind him to ask questions.  The filmmaker and the former vice president had begun to repeat themselves, and time was growing short.   I posted to an unofficial SEJ blog over the weekend, summarizing the episode, which you can read here.

Continue reading "Of polar bears and 'censorship'" »

Posted by Tim Wheeler at 1:09 PM | Permalink | Comments (16)
Categories: News
        

Some of us have a hard time looking beyond today. But when it comes to thinking about growth and development - perennial hot topics virtually everywhere - what if we took a longer view? What do we want our communities to look like? Not next year, or ten or even 20 years from now. A century from now.

That's what nearly 100 businesses, civic and environmental groups and government agencies and hundreds of citizens have done in the region bordering Washington's Puget Sound. Starting four years ago, the participants hammered out the "Cascade Agenda," a call to conserve working forests, farmlands, shorelines, parks and natural areas while also making cities and towns attractive places to live, work and raise families.

Now, in Maryland, environmentalists and development interests who are often at odds want to see if taking a similarly long view here can lead to some broad agreement on how and where to grow in this state. They've come together to examine the Cascade effort and how it might work in Maryland at a one-day conference Oct. 28 at Martin's West in Baltimore County.

Continue reading "What will Maryland look like in 100 years?" »

Posted by Tim Wheeler at 12:10 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)
        

When federal government employees go shopping for new technology and goods, they must now consider their energy effeciency and environmental impact, according to a story in Federal Computer Week.

President Obama said so in an Oct. 5 executive order. This excludes weapons systems, but not the other 95 percent of new products and services the feds buy. Employees must consider such things as the products' use of water and energy and if it's made of recycled materials, the story said.

The order also says consideration for the environment must be given when disposing of goods.  

The order says its goal is “to establish an integrated strategy towards sustainability in the federal government and to make reduction of greenhouse gas emissions a priority for federal agencies."

The story says White House officials hope to create a clean energy economy and promote energy security with the new rules.

So, do you consider the environment when you make purchases? Is it appropriate for the federal government to lead by example or save taxpayer money and buy the cheapest stuff?

Posted by Meredith Cohn at 9:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: News
        

It's the EMC3 Commuter, a ragtop two-seater that's a cross between a motorcycle and a car and claims to get a whopping 60-plus miles to the gallon.  If Michael Plumhoff has his way, Marylanders will be able to test-drive and buy these babies in a couple months.

Plumhoff, of Finksburg, is the Maryland, Delaware and DC rep for the ECO Motor Co., a Seattle family-run outfit that developed the little commuter vehicle and unveiled it there last year.  Now the company is aiming to expand to the East Coast, and Plumhoff is scouring the region looking to find dealers willing to sell them.

The teardrop-shaped EMC3 Commuter is big enough to seat two 6-footers, yet small enough to fit in tight parking spaces, according to the company's Web pitch.  With a 10-gallon fuel tank, it has a 600-mile range, and its cycle-like features mean it can be driven solo in carpool lanes that allow motorcycles, the company says.    Besides its gas-sipping 3-cylinder engine, the vehicle also sports a modest sticker price - $13,995 for a manual transmission, $14,995 for automatic.

Continue reading "Look! Out in the road! It's a motorcycle - no, it's a car! And it gets 60 mpg!" »

Posted by Tim Wheeler at 6:55 AM | Permalink | Comments (5)
        

You may be wondering: What's this guy doing, cooking out on a grassy parking space downtown?  No, he's not tail-gating before a Ravens game.  It's a somewhat unusual come-on for a novel approach to car-sharing that's getting a tryout in Baltimore.

Relay Rides is the brainchild of Shelby Clark, pictured above.  With a small but dedicated team, the long-haired Harvard graduate business student is signing up people in Charm City who want ready access to wheels from time to time.  Nothing unusual about that, you say?  Like Zipcar, right?  Well, he's also rounding up car owners willing to rent out their vehicles when they're not using them.  He wants to help the two groups find each other.

Clark, a Denver native, says he got the idea for "peer-to-peer" car-sharing after finding once that he had to slog two miles through wintry streets in Beantown to pick up the nearest Zipcar available on short notice. "I was biking through the snow and hating life,'' he recalls, "And, passing cars sitting on the side of the road, I was thinking how inefficent this is.  'These cars haven't been driven in weeks,' he says he thought to himself. 'Why can't I take one of these?'"

Not that he dislikes Zipcar.  Clark says he's used the car-sharing service a lot since his car died in San Francisco a couple years ago.  But he says he's learned the hard way you can't count on getting a convenient vehicle if you don't plan at least a couple days ahead.

"This idea makes a lot more sense - it's for the people and by the people,'' says the 27-year-old MBA student.  The appeal for car owners?  "Everybody could use a couple thousand dollars right now."  And for someone wanting to start a business on limited capital, he says, it helps not to have to buy the vehicles you plan to rent out. "Since we don't have to pay for these cars, we can grow the system much much quicker," he notes.

Continue reading "Novel car-sharing biz sprouting here" »

Posted by Tim Wheeler at 12:00 PM | Permalink | Comments (12)
Categories: Air Pollution, Going Green, News, Products, Urban Issues
        

The University of Maryland improved its grade in yet another rating of sustainability among US colleges, though it fell short of true-green academic stardom because of the way in which it handles its endowment. 

The flagship of the state's university system scored a 'B' on this year's College Sustainability Report Card, the fourth annual evaluation not only of the green policies and practices on college campuses across America but also of how the schools handles their endowments.  The rating is prepared by the Sustainable Endowments Institute, a nonprofit group dedicated to socially responsible investing of donors' gifts.

College Park moved up from a B-minus last year and landed on the rating's list of "campus sustainability leaders."  Indeed, UM matched or nudged out almost every other peer institution in Maryland and in the Atlantic Coast Conference.  In-state, only private Johns Hopkins did better.  And in the ACC, UM was bested only by Duke University and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.  But on this score, UM President Dan Mote can brag about outgreening the University of Virginia (full disclosure, I'm a Wahoo alum, and parent of a Wahoo and a Terp).

Continue reading "Terps get greener?" »

Posted by Tim Wheeler at 6:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)
Categories: Going Green, News
        

How do growth and development affect the health and welfare of poor and minority communities? The Maryland Commission on Environmental Justice and Sustainable Communities plans to tackle that question and discuss solutions at a symposium tomorrow (Saturday, Oct. 3) at Morgan State University.

The session is from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. at the William Donald Schaefer Engineering Building (Building 43). For directions, go here. And for more on the commission and environmental justice, go here.

Posted by Tim Wheeler at 11:47 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
        

A Pennsylvania environmental group is warning that pollution from large-scale livestock farms in that state is worsening, and it's calling for stricter government regulations and enforcement to help restore the Chesapeake Bay.

Citizens for Pennsylvania's Future, or PennFuture, released a report contending that there's been an increase in the past five years in the amount of farm animal manure washing into one of the major tributaries to the Susquehanna River - itself the bay's largest tributary.

Among the group's findings:

- just 57 percent of livestock operations in the Octoraro Creek watershed are in compliance with "nutrient management plans" limiting how, when and where they can spread manure on their fields to fertilize crops;

- though the number of livestock operations has declined in the past five years, the amount of manure generated has increased substantially and nearly all of it is used or disposed of in the watershed.

"The cleanup program based on voluntary efforts is going the wrong way," Jan Jarrett, PennFuture's president and CEO said in a release accompanying the report. Her group called for stricter enforcement by Pennsylvania, or to have the federal Environmental Protection Agency step in and start denying permits for any new livestock operations in watersheds already impaired by nutrient pollution from farm runoff.

The Chesapeake group of the Waterkeepers Alliance has been making similiar complaints about Maryland's oversight of manure generated by livestock farms, especially the many poultry operations on the Eastern Shore.

You can read PennFuture's report here.

Posted by Tim Wheeler at 10:30 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
        

The Obama administration wants to strengthen federal oversight and regulation of toxic chemicals, citing public and scientific worries about the health and environmental effects of the compounds used in making everything from cars to clothing and even food and water containers.

Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lisa P. Jackson laid out a broad set of principles last night she said she hoped would guide Congress as it prepares to tackle an overhaul of the 33-year-old Toxic Substances Control Act, which critics consider virtually toothless and ineffective. You can read her speech here and a story about her announcement here that I wrote in The Baltimore Sun today. Other accounts here and here.

The move to address toxic chemicals nationally comes as environmental and health advocates regionally have expressed concern about their impact on the Chesapeake Bay. Not long ago, they produced a report urging closer scrutiny of their presence in the water, soil and air - and action to reduce their exposure to fish, wildlife and people.  I wrote about it earlier on this blog.

The EPA administrator's speech is drawing guarded praise from environmental advocates and scientists who believe exposure to low levels of toxic chemicals in consumer products could be responsible for a variety of health, developmental and reproductive problems in children and adults. Richard Wiles of the Environmental Working Group likened the current oversight of the thousands of chemicals in use to "the Wild West.

"EPA has no authority to regulate industry," Wiles said, "and as a result it's not unlike banking. You end up with some very high-risk products."

Continue reading "Tackling toxic chemical "wild west"" »

Posted by Tim Wheeler at 9:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: News
        

Now the anti-sprawl group 1000 Friends of Maryland is trying a new tack to keep farmland from growing houses. It's decided to extend a hand to farmers, offering to support tax reforms, public funding and other incentives to keep farming profitable and the developers at bay. Under the slogan "Keep Farmers Farming", the Baltimore-based group is launching its new campaign tonight with a $65-a-head bash at the Green Spring Valley Hounds hunt club in Reisterstown, featuring locally produced food and drink, and a chance to meet and mingle with the farmers who produced it.

"We've always supported agriculture," maintains Dru Schmidt-Perkins, Friends' executive director.  The group has long advocated for farmland preservation as a key part of the state's Smart Growth policy, which seeks to preserve rural and environmentally sensitive lands by steering development into existing urban areas.   But Friends has favored putting more teeth in the state's growth management laws, something farmers have tended to fight because they have more clout at the county courthouses.

Now the group has decided to throw its lobbying weight behind helping farmers in the belief that the best way to save the farmland is to help ease the economic pressures driving farmers out of business.

"There isn't going to be a fresh peach on every (Baltimore city) student's desk next fall if the farmer who raises the peaches is gone," Schmidt-Perkins says.  "We have to make farming work because we have to eat.  We're not going to get at climate-change issues, transportation issues, healthy food issues unless we have a really strong agriculture system nearby."

Continue reading "Can farmland be saved without the farmer?" »

Posted by Tim Wheeler at 6:30 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)
        

The Washington Post is reporting that a group of engineers at Nissan are trying to figure out how to add a little toot or whistle to the soon-to-come electric Leaf. The car is too quiet, they say. It could pose safety problems.

It's ironic considering that for years, engineers tried to make car less noisy. If you're on the street and an electric hybrid like the Toyota Prius comes by running on its battery, you can't hear a peep.

Tesla has already said it will not add noise to its electric Roadster. No word from the other car electric makers.

Congress is considering legislation to set some kind of safety standard since the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration said the electric cars are 50 percent more likely to be involved in accident with a pedestrian. The Post says there's little actual evidence because there aren't that many electric cars on the road.

So, do we need the noise? Would you prefer the quiet?

Associated Press photo of the Leaf

Posted by Meredith Cohn at 11:04 AM | Permalink | Comments (6)
Categories: Going Green, News
        

Marylanders drove less last year, while hopping the bus or train more often. That's the upshot of the latest statistics-happy report from Environment Maryland, which touts public transit as a path to energy independence and reducing global warming.

Residents of the Free State drove 1.8 billion miles fewer in 2008 than the year before, a 4 percent decrease, according to figures from the federal government. Meanwhile, transit ridership jumped by more than 15 percent, the environmental group says, the third-largest increase among states nationwide.

The state's record transit ridership saved some 60.7 million gallons of gasoline, the group calculates - which is about the amount of fuel consumed ina year by 105,200 cars carrying 1.3 Marylanders each.  Residents also saved dough, according to the American Public Transportation Association, the transit trade group - each regular rider in the Baltimore area saved more than $9,000 a year.

With transportation responsible for two-thirds of US oil consumption and about one-third of climate-warming carbon dioxide emissions, Environment Maryland urged Congress to funnel more money into transit, biking and walking. To read the report, go here.

(2008 Baltimore Sun photo by Gene Sweeney)

Posted by Tim Wheeler at 9:30 AM | Permalink | Comments (5)
Categories: News
        

Wind energy seems quite popular right now. Maryland officials are moving ahead on planning for offshore wind turbines, and the Maryland Energy Administration offers tax credits for installing wind systems at home.

But some local counties are moving a little more slowly in figuring out how to allow the eco-friendly energy producers while not infringing on the rights of neighbors. At least two Maryland counties are trying to figure out what, if any, wind turbines are acceptable on people's residential property.

Baltimore County has proposed allowing wind turbines under certain conditions, like the lot has to be an acre and the turbine can't be taller than 150 feet. A meeting is planned at 5 p.m. tonight to get citizen input. The meeting will be held in the Planning Board Hearing Room, Room 104 of the Jefferson Building, 105 W. Chesapeake Ave., in Towson.

Click here for more information and a staff report on the subject.

Anne Arundel County is also trying to decide what to do with its one applicant. Baltimore City recently rejected the first person to seek a residental turbine (on the roof of a rowhouse) because zoning law didn't allow for it. The city is currently updating its zoning law.

So, are we moving too slow? Too fast?

Associated Press photo of an offshore wind farm in Denmark

Posted by Meredith Cohn at 11:08 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)
Categories: News
        

it seems everyone is jumping on the green bandwagon these days. A new dentist's office is opening in the area that is claiming to be "eco-friendly." Dr. Judy Yu will open the Pasadena office called Cosmetic Dental FX today.

You may ask what does this mean?  

Changes include: becoming a mercury-free environment; installing a hydraulic-free, energy-efficient elevator; using recycled flooring and countertop materials; employing chemical-free steam-based sterilization; using computerized charting to reduce paper usage; and using recycled paper products only and eco-friendly cleaning products.

The office also has added energy star efficient lighting throughout office and in outdoor signage; is using digital imaging to reduce radiation; has used low VOC paint and flooring adhesive; added environmentally conscious computers and eco-friendly furniture and cabinetry.  

The office will also seeks to offer a more "spa-like" atmosphere with music and flat screen tvs, coffee, Wi-Fi and concierge service.

But do you still get your free toothbrush?
 

Baltimore Sun file photo/Lloyd Fox

Posted by Meredith Cohn at 7:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Categories: Going Green, News
        

Want to know if a business, school or some other facility in your neighborhood has been caught polluting a stream or the ground water in recent years?  Check out this interactive graphic from the New York Times.

Drawing on pollution violation data kept by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the newspaper concludes that the system set up by the 1972 Clean Water Act to protect our streams and drinking water isn't working all that well.

In Maryland, for instance, it would appear that most of the 2,691 regulated facilities have violated the Clean Water Act at least once, often multiple times. Relatively few have been fined - though I suspect that many of these are what environmental officials would call "paper" violations, including failure to submit the required reports on time.

The Maryland Department of the Environment responded to the newspaper's data with a statement saying it "places a high priority on enforcing environmental laws." You can read the full text here. In a separate graphic, the NYT did indicate that Maryland took action against a greater share of its major violators than many other states, about 36 out of 100 violations being subject to enforcement. 

This is part of an occasional "Toxic Waters" series the Times has been doing on water pollution problems across the United States. Other installments looked at drinking water contaminated by the popular weed-killer atrazine and at polluted runoff from large-scale livestock farms.

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

Maryland is studying how - and maybe even whether - to encourage development of a wind farm off Ocean City. How do you feel about it?

As reported in The Baltimore Sun a couple days ago, the state is inviting expressions of interest from wind developers while conducting an intensive review of the area of the Atlantic a dozen or so miles offshore, to see where would be most appropriate to place huge wind turbines - and if there are places along the Outer Continental Shelf to avoid. The state is also investigating whether the slowly revolving turbine blades pose hazards to birds and bats - an issue that's been raised with land-based turbines, particularly those placed on mountain ridges.  To learn more about the state's action, go here.

Beyond the environmental and economic issues - whether wind can generate enough power cheaply enough to compete with other energy sources - there's the subjective but significant one of aesthetics. Can people live with seeing the turbines, which with their blades stand more than 400 feet high? In Massachusetts, a proposal to place turbines off Cape Cod has generated intense debate, driven in part by people's differences over their visual impact.

Wind energy developers have said that when placed 12 miles offshore, the turbines will appear no taller than half a thumbnail and thin as a toothpick when seen from the boardwalk or beach. They'll be most clearly visible on the horizon in winter, when the air is clearer, they say, but barely more than blips in the hazier days of summer, when the beaches would be most populated.

Of course, that's what the developers say.  It's hard to gauge public sentiment until a concrete proposal comes in, of course. But a recent public opinion survey by Monmouth University's Urban Coast Institute found that 70 percent of Marylanders favor placing wind farms offshore, even if they'd be visible from the shoreline. In Delaware, where offshore wind has moved further along, the poll found 82 percent in favor.

Those results came from a broader survey of public attitudes on a variety of mid-Atlantic coastal issues, questioning a total of about 1,000 residents in New York New Jersey, Delaware, Maryland and Virginia. For the Maryland results, about 100 residents of Worcester County were interviewed by phone.   To see the full survey, go here.

Posted by Tim Wheeler at 10:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (7)
        

Want to B (even) More Green? We now have a Facebook page!

Check us out! Become a fan! Or just quietly get your eco-updates while you're checking up on your friends.

Or you can keep checking in with us here for all your green info.

The page is here.

Posted by Meredith Cohn at 12:15 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Categories: News
        

No one has more at stake in wanting the Chesapeake Bay cleaned up than the men and women who still make a living - or try to, at least - from the fish, crabs and oysters still hanging on amid the bay's nutrient-fouled waters..

That's the point of "Watermen Blues," a new report by Environment Maryland. The Baltimore-based advocacy group produced the 36-pager to back up its call for the federal and state governments to ramp up bay restoration efforts.

"After decades of voluntary programs, minimal accountability and lax enforcement of bay protections, it's crystal clear that we need greater accountability and better enforcement of limits on all sources of pollution," the group's Tommy Landers said in a press release accompanying the report.

Environmental groups crank out reports like a popcorn popper sometimes, packed with policy prescriptions in dry prose. This report talks policy, too, but it's got flavor. Co-authored by Heather Dewar, a talented environmental writer who used to report for The Baltimore Sun, it vividly recounts how the bay's watermen and once-thriving seafood industry have faltered.

Pollution isn't entirely to blame for that, the report frankly acknowledges.  Overfishing and lower-priced imported seafood has taken a toll as well. But it points out how fishermen have struggled as pollution has smothered the bay's grasses and starved it of fish-sustaining oxygen, rendering the deep waters a sterile "dead zone." Seafood packing houses have closed, boat carpenters have gone elsewhere to find work and watermen have been forced to take jobs on land building homes or working as prison guards

It's an eloquent, sobering reminder of how pollution hurts people and communities, even when it doesn't directly threaten their health.   They say you don't know what you've lost 'til it's gone, but sometimes what's gone is forgotten. To avoid that, read the full report, go here.

(Baltimore Sun photo 2002 by Chiaki Kawajiri)

Posted by Tim Wheeler at 6:23 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)
        

Maryland and the rest of the Chesapeake Bay states get some pretty poor marks in a new report assessing their performance in curbing polluted runoff from developed lands.

Despite adopting strict new rules aimed at protecting streams from new development and demands put on largely suburban Montgomery County to clean up already built-up neighborhoods, Maryland rates only a D-plus overall for its efforts to rein in polluted runoff, according to the Chesapeake Stormwater Network.

"Once a national leader in stormwater, Maryland has fallen behind its peers, and has not exploited the permit system to restore the bay," says the report by the network, a new environmental group dedicated to curing what it sees as a glaring weakness in the struggling bay cleanup.  The report, underwritten by the Keith Campbell Foundation, was presented last week to the Chesapeake Bay Commission at its meeting in Williamsburg, Va.

There's a "collusion of complacency" among state regulators almost baywide in avoiding tackling the problem, says Tom Schueler, the network's coordinator and a widely recognized expert in storm-water pollution.  Their reluctance is understandable because it's tough and expensive to develop without harming streams.  It's even tougher and costlier to prevent trash and pollution from washing down storm drains in communities like Baltimore that were built decades before any pollution controls were required. (The photo above is of a weed- and trash-clogged storm drain in Highlandtown.)

But unless something is done to clean up storm water, Schueler warns, the bay will never recover.  While farmland is still the leading source of nutrient pollution fouling the Chesapeake, there's more land in lawns and turf than in growing corn, he points out.  Runoff from urban and suburban lands, new and existing, accounts for 16 percent of the nitrogen fouling Maryland's portion of the bay.  And the harm it is doing is growing as more pavement and lawns spread across the state.

Continue reading "MD gets poor grade on stormwater pollution" »

Posted by Tim Wheeler at 8:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)
        

Going green isn't just a personal decision. You're neighbors get a say, too.

After I wrote about a woman who unsuccessfully tried to install a wind turbine on her Baltimore rowhouse, partially because of her neighbors' complaints about the safety and looks of the thing, I got a lot of messages from people who said they, too, faced opposition from their neighbors for their environmental home projects.

They wanted everything from solar panels to clotheslines. One guy said his association wasn't the problem, but historic preservationists were. He wanted storm windows and environmental decking but it meant he was not elligible for tax breaks.

So, I wrote another story. I talked to a woman who wanted a rain barrel and some small solar lights on her walkway. But the homeowners association said no. The association is just trying to keep things looking nice. And the neighborhood did look nice.

But there's actually a Maryland law now that says HOAs must try and accommodate solar panels, and the sponsor Sue Hecht said she may introduce another bill next session to address other issues such as wind turbines if enough people seem to have trouble going green. A "right to dry" bill that would allow clotheslines has been shot down for the past two years, but Hecht said it is also likely to be reintroduced next session.

The Sun's editorial board has also chimed in on the matter -- in favor of clotheslines.

Do you think more laws are needed? More editorials? More something? Think we should just be able to reason with each other and strike some kind of balance?

Baltimore Sun photo of Katie Roberts showing the height and location of her proposed rain barrel/Amy Davis

Posted by Meredith Cohn at 4:01 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)
Categories: Going Green, News
        

The program is a little behind schedule, but Baltimore's new Charm City Circulator buses are definitely coming this fall, members of the Charm City Circulator Team say. The system will be made up of a fleet of 21 hybrid-electric buses that will pick up residents in close-in neighborhoods such as Federal Hill and Fells Point and take them to stops around downtown.

The idea is to get people out of their cars by making it really convenient and cheap -- FREE -- to get around downtown. The buses have been behind schedule because of the recession and problems in the automotive supply chain, the team says.

But in the next few weeks there will be visable progress, including info panels at stops, signs and street markings for the "buses and bikes only" lanes on Pratt and Lombard. (Hmm, how do we feel about buses and bikes sharing lanes? And if we're okay with that, wouldn't we like to see some north-south lanes as well? I believe the city is working on such lanes.)

Anyway, the buses are supposed to run seven days a week, every 10 minutes and along three routes. There's also a plan to allow people trying to get across the harbor to take the Water Taxi Harbor Connector for free. It will leave from Maritime Park at Living Classrooms Foundation in Fells Point and from the Tide Point dock in Locust Point every 10 minutes. Go to www.watertaxi.com for more info.

So, think you'd take the new bus?  

Posted by Meredith Cohn at 12:29 PM | Permalink | Comments (5)
Categories: Air Pollution, Going Green, News, Urban Issues
        

It seems the latest ideas for restoring the Chesapeake Bay got delayed yesterday on purpose - not necessarily because they weren't quite ready.

An Environmental Protection Agency official, who would only speak on background, says the public release of federal agencies' plans for ramping up the bay restoration were held until today to avoid getting overshadowed in the news by President Obama's nationally televised speech last night about health care reform. 

"We wanted to give the subject the attention that it deserved," the official said, "and Americans were focused on health care yesteday." 

This reason for the delay was reported today by The Washington Post, quoting the same unnamed official.  But it's a different explanation than I got yesterday from Jim Edwards, deputy director of EPA's bay program office in Annapolis. He told me that more time was needed to finish tweaking the seven separate reports and to prepare brief executive summaries of each.   Calls and emails to other EPA officials and to EPA's Washington press office did not elicit any other explanation.

Of course, a one-day delay in the release of some draft reports is trivial compared with the bay cleanup's history of failing to reach its pollution reduction targets.  But given the weeks-old public pledge EPA officials had made to release the reports yesterday, it's not a model of clear communication - something EPA's bay program has been criticized for in the past.   

Posted by Tim Wheeler at 10:07 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Chesapeake Bay, News
        

If you've been anxiously awaiting, as I have, the chance to see what "game-changing" ideas federal officials have come up with for jump-starting the lagging Chesapeake Bay restoration, you'll have to wait until tomorrow. There's been another delay - an all-too-familiar event in the troubled 26-year history of the bay cleanup effort.

Today was the day the state and federal bay "partnership" had publicly announced it would release a series of draft reports outlining proposals for accelerating the pace of cleaning up the Chesapeake and safeguarding its fish and wildlife. Spokesmen for the Chesapeake Bay Program office in Annapolis had said as recently as yesterday that the seven draft reports would be posted online by around 9 a.m. today, and that there would be either a press conference or a tele-conference in early afternoon with Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lisa P. Jackson.

Late this morning, more than two hours after the promised release time, Jim Edwards, deputy director of EPA's bay program office, told me when I reached him by phone that the reports were not quite ready for prime time, and their release had been delayed until Thursday. 

The documents are still being "finalized," he said, in particular one report that focuses on restoring and maintaining the bay's "living resources," including bay grasses, oysters, crabs, fish and other wildlife. Plus, he said, officials are busily writing executive summaries so the public won't have to wade through all those 30- to 50-page reports to get the gist of what's being proposed.  For background on what to expect in the reports, go here. 

Edwards said the bay program staff still expects to present the reports to the EPA administrator by the end of the day today. If that happens, then techincially, at least, they would avoid running afoul of the deadline set by President Obama in the executive order he issued last May calling for a new federal strategy for restoring the bay. Obama's order requires the draft reports to be submitted by Sept. 9, and that a cleanup strategy be developed from those drafts and put out for public comment by Nov. 9.  EPA bay program officials, however, had gone beyond the letter of the president's order to say the reports would be made publicly available today, the day they had to be submitted.

The delayed release drew a mildly barbed response from the Chesapeake Bay Foundation, which has sued the EPA over its failure to step in in the face of repeated failure by the bay restoration "partners" to meet deadlines and commitments they've set for cleaning up the estuary. President Obama's executive order was meant to break out of that rut.

"They're not off to the kind of start that you want to be off to," said John Surrick, spokesman for the Annapolis-based environmental group. "

Posted by Tim Wheeler at 11:53 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Chesapeake Bay, News
        

Could federal regulation of lawn fertilizers be on the way?

Obama administration officials are tightlipped about the laundry list of ideas they've come up with for jump-starting the restoration of the Chesapeake Bay. Draft reports are due to be released on Wednesday -- the first step in fulfilling President Obama's May executive order directing federal agencies to take the lead in pushing for more progress in the long-running bay cleanup.

One Environmental Protection Agency official did hint last week, though, that rules on lawn care in the bay region may be among the ideas floated.

Speaking to a lunchtime gathering of lawyers in Washington, J. Charles Fox, special adviser on the bay to EPA Administrator Lisa P. Jackson, pointed out that polluted stormwater runoff from urban and suburban areas is an increasing threat to the bay.

Then Fox brought up home use of lawn fertilizers, whether do-it-yourself applications of products bought from Home Depot or Lowe’s or lawn-care services.

"We are going to have to look at this," he said, adding that "today we have more turf grass in the watershed than we do corn."

A few years back, bay area states got fertlizer manufacturers voluntarily to agree to halve the amount of  phosphorus used in lawn-care products in the region.  But the regulatory screws have tightened even more here in Maryland. The city of Annapolis this year banned lawn fertlizers containing phosphorus, while the General Assembly barred the sale of anything but low-phosphorus fertilizer for use on lawns by April 2011. Lawn care sevices and lawn startups were exempted from the state decree, however.

Continue reading "Saving the bay one lawn at a time?" »

Posted by Tim Wheeler at 1:23 PM | Permalink | Comments (5)
Categories: Chesapeake Bay, News
        

A bike commuter resource guide is now available from the Baltimore Metropolitan Council.

It talks about getting your bike ready and laws and offers maps and routes, as well. 

There's also information about combining your biking with other forms of public transportation. You may not know, but you are allowed to bring your bike on light rail and the subway in Baltimore, and the public buses now also have racks. 

There certainly has been a lot of talk about safety and security when it comes to biking in the city. But the council and area officials say they're are working on the issues.

They're adding more bike lanes and racks. More than 100 racks have been added in the region this year, and you can request a rack in your area here.

Further new bike routes are being planned for Bolton Hill, Reservoir Hill and Lake Avenue. They'll either connect existing routes or planned routes.

Hopefully, the number of accidents and thefts can be reduced.

Posted by Meredith Cohn at 10:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Categories: News, Tips, Urban Issues
        

It's been said before, but now some experts have put numbers to it: building more walkable, transit-oriented communities would reduce driving and fossil fuel consumption, and it could curb climate-warming pollution by up to 11 percent.

So says a new report by the Transportation Research Board of the National Academies of Science. If density of housing could be doubled in three-quarters of new development, compared with current building trends, then fuel use and carbon dioxide emissions could be trimmed by 7 to 8 percent from what they otherwise would be by 2030, and by 11 percent by 2050.

The experts on the board disagreed on how feasible that was - noting that local zoning and land-use controls would be major obstacles. I'm guessing many residents would bridle at having denser development built around them, too, based on the oft-heard complaints about gridlock and overcrowded classrooms whenever new housing projects are proposed. Changing the public's perception by making compact development more attractive no doubt would be key, and that will take money and time.  Some experts have suggested we have a decade or less to act to curb carbon emissions, or risk the worst-case climate-change predictions.   And money doesn't grow on trees - how much are we willing to spend, i.e. tax ourselves, to reduce the threat of warming?  To read the report or a summary, go here.

Posted by Tim Wheeler at 8:32 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: News
        

Over the next five years an ambitious group plans to plant one million trees across the United States. The American Bar Association, is partnering with the Alliance for Community Trees and Baltimore's Parks & People Foundation and will kick off the effort Sept. 23 at Franklin Square Elementary/Middle School in West Baltimore.

Parks & People, the local ACT affiliate, will bring together volunteer ABA members, students, teachers and community members to plant 10-15 trees in the schoolyard and around the building. They will also weed and mulch and plant flower beds.  

Organizers say the event will also serve as a start point for NeighborWoods Month, which is a community service campaign to build awareness of trees that not only beautify the cities where they are planted but help fight climate change. The Home Depot Foundation has provided grant money for the program. 

More information about the effort is here. The public is welcome to come help with plantings. The local school event starts at 9 a.m.. But organizers are encouraging people in general to plant more trees and care for trees.

On that front, Parks & People have a tree sale going on now -- $30-$55 a tree -- and an adopt-a-tree program for those with out yard space. Coupons for $25 off are available from the Department of Natural Resources.

Baltimore Sun file photo of ginko biloba tree outside the Sun offices/Algerina Perna

Posted by Meredith Cohn at 5:07 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Categories: Going Green, News
        

They're still struggling to rebuild New Orleans, four years after Hurricane Katrina dunked the Crescent City and other low-lying areas in southern Louisiana and Mississippi.  The costliest storm in US history hit Aug. 29, 2005.

Now come two coastal scientists who warn that what's being rebuilt is likely to get flooded again - and that other waterfront communities, including Baltimore, face the risk of similar watery calamities as global warming raises sea levels across the planet.

In "The Rising Sea," Orrin Pilkey and Rob Young argue that "the world is poised on the edge of a cliff (of its own making).  We must act now by responding to the challenges of sea level rise in a planned and rational way, taking a long-term view.  If we don't start planning now, a huge 'natural disaster' is facing us."

Their book, published by Island Press, focuses on New Orleans and Miami and other cities frequently in the cross-hairs of hurricanes.  But in a telephone interview, the authors say the Chesapeake Bay and Baltimore will not escape the rising seas, either.  We do get hit by the occasional storm - just six years ago, Tropical Storm Isabel flooded the Inner Harbor, as seen at right, as well as City Dock in Annapolis and other low-lying communities around the bay.   But Pilkey and Young say even without storms, the bay will continue to creep inexorably inland, as it has for decades.

"One of the interesting problems you guys face is your port facility," said Pilkey, professor emeritus at Duke University and a long-time critic of coastal development. As the seas rise over the next century, he says, "you can bring in bigger ships, but your docks will be inundated."

Some may wonder what the fuss is about when even the United Nations-backed scientific study two years ago projected that sea level would rise somewhere between 7 and 23 inches by the end of this century  But Pilkey and Young point out the scientific congress low-balled its estimate because it couldn't agree how much the seas would rise as ice sheets and glaciers melt in frozen Greenland and west Antarctica.   Other scientists since have suggested that that melting ice could dwarf the cautious official projections, by several feet.  Pilkey and Young suggest planners might want to assume as a worst case that sea level could actually climb 7 feet by next century.

A scary scenario, to be sure.  But, they argue, sea level rise is already under way, and no one in authority is taking the gradual threat seriously enough yet, particularly in cities like Miami, with high-rises crowding the beachfront.

Continue reading "Katrina's warning unheeded?" »

Posted by Tim Wheeler at 8:30 AM | Permalink | Comments (8)
Categories: Chesapeake Bay, News
        

The New York Times reports today that some buildings that have gotten the coveted LEED label may not actually be saving all that much energy -- a main tenet of the certification.

LEED, which stands for Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design, is handed out by the U.S. Green Building Council, a non-profit organization that has become the most well known rating system for green buildings.

But the program awards points for various design and construction measures, such as using native plants and bamboo flooring. And some estimate of energy savings from other attributes have been off base.

The council is considering changes that could mean the certification would be revoked if the building doesn't perform to certain standards. Or the certification may only be good for a year. The council wants to meet with builders before deciding.

In the meantime, some 15,000 buildings are seeking the certification and about 1,700 already have it. For owners, it can mean tax breaks and good marketing tools to land tenants.

There are several buildings in Baltimore that have or are seeking certification, and others that have taken steps but have not sought certification.

The council plans meeting in the fall, so perhaps there will be some clarification soon after.

Baltimore Sun file photo of the Fairfield Inn, which expects to become the city's first LEED certified hotel/Jed Kirschbaum

Posted by Meredith Cohn at 11:27 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Categories: News
        

It's gardening time on the Chesapeake Bay - oyster gardening, that is.

With the bay's oysters depleted by disease and habitat loss, the state Department of Natural Resources and the Chesapeake Bay Foundation separately are trying to enlist waterfront residents in bringing the pollution-filtering bivalves back.  Oysters are one of the keys to the bay's restoration, since each large one can filter up to two gallons of water an hour.

After an initial tryout getting residents along the Tred Avon River to raise oysters, the state is expanding its "Marylanders Grow Oysters" campaign to 11 new rivers around the bay. Up to 5,000 cages with baby oyster "spat" bred in a state hatchery are to be distributed to pier owners willing to tend the shellfish over the next 10 to 12 months, so that they can be "planted" on the bay bottom next summer. For details on which rivers are being targeted and how to participate, go here.

The Annapolis-based bay foundation, meanwhile, is offering oyster gardening workshops in September and October for residents with water access.  Volunteers will be given several thousand "seed" oysters for cultivation, and taught how to build four wire-mesh cages in which to grow them. Once the oysters grow to one or two inches across, they're returned to the foundation, so its staff can plant them with volunteers' help in sanctuary waters off limits to commercial harvest. CBF has a brief video about its program that you can see here.  For details on the workshops and to sign up - there's a $75 fee - go here.

Growing oysters doesn't require special talent, just some dedication - mostly rinsing the cages every couple weeks to make sure they don't get fouled with marine organisms that keep water from flowing freely past the oysters inside.  You can get an idea what's involved in the photo above, of a cage hung off a pier a couple years back at the Captain Sam Avery House Museum in Annapolis.

Sadly, there probably aren't enough piers out there to put a big dent in the bay's oyster problems. But it's a great way to enlist waterfront residents in the effort to restore the Chesapeake, which needs all the help it can get.

(2007 Baltimore Sun Staff Photo by Amy Davis)

Posted by Tim Wheeler at 6:54 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Categories: Chesapeake Bay, Going Green, News, Volunteer
        

Plans to turn a 275-acre farm near Chestertown into a housing development got a setback this week when Maryland's highest court said Queen Anne's County officials had improperly approved the project. Now residents there may get to find out if their publicly adopted growth plans have any teeth. 

This week's ruling, in Grasslands Plantation Inc. v. Frizz-King Enterprises, is one of the first court cases to come in the wake of the Terrapin Run decision last year, in which the Court of Appeals ruled that local officials need not hew strictly to their growth plans in deciding whether to approve specific developments.  In that case, developers argued their 4,300-home project in eastern Allegany County was "smart growth" because it was compact, but opponents pointed out the homes would be built in a rural area on a scenic highway near a state forest. far from any existing public water or sewer.

This is one of those seemingly dry, bureaucratic issues that ought to matter to anyone who cares about what gets built where in their community.  Every city, county and town in Maryland is required to adopt a "comprehensive" plan meant to guide growth, and the plan is supposed to reflect public input. 

In this case, Queen Anne's County's board of appeals had approved building 51 homes on the farm, over objections from a neighboring landowner, who pointed out it was outside the county's designated growth zone.  As I reported in the blog earlier this year, county voters elected slow-growth officials who subsequently adopted an ordinance requiring that developments "conform" to the county's comprehensive plan.

Now, the Court of Appeals has overturned the county's prior approval of the project and sent it back for re-hearing, citing erors made by the board.  And the high court specifically directed the local board to weigh whether this development conforms to the county's comprehensive plan under the new local law. 

Since this case was argued before the Court of Appeals, the O'Malley administration won legislative approval of a new state law requiring local officials to follow their growth plans in making development decisions.  It's unclear if this will settle the issue - in its Shore development rulilng, the high court specifically avoided commenting on it.

To read the case for yourself, go here.

Posted by Tim Wheeler at 1:21 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)
Categories: News
        

If you missed it this weekend, the New York Times had a story about how atrazine -- used on farms, lawns and golf courses to kill weeds -- has made its way into the country's drinking water.

The levels are particularly bad in farm states, including Maryland. More than 69 percent of the state's population was exposed to atrazine, raking Maryland second. The actual number of Marylanders exposed was also among the highest. 

Studies link atrazine to low birth weight, birth defects and menstrual problems, the Times says. Lab animals also seemed more likely to develop cancer.

Federal regulators insist the population isn't exposed to enough of the chemical to cause harm. Some scientists and health advocates disagree. Obama administration officials are likely to take another look.

The European Union, for example, has not studied the health risks but has banned atrazine as a precaution because it can easily contaminate groundwater.

Here, in the meantime, health advocates say pregnant women or others could avoid the chemical by drinking bottled water or using a filtration system. Not sure if the Brita filters count. The company says its test show a reduction of 96.7 percent of pharmaceutical compounds that may be found in tap water.

Since the article came out, Dawn Stoltzfus, spokeswoman for the Maryland Department of the Environment, reports that, "MDE agrees that the available data and research should be fully explored and federal standards for monitoring and treatment should be improved, if the scientific review indicates improvements are needed."

She said the department’s drinking water database goes back to 1992 and no water system has had a violation of current federal Safe Drinking Water Act maximum contaminant levels for atrazine, which is 3 parts per billion. But atrazine was detected in 46 water systems at over 0.1 parts per billion, which was the Times’ threshold.

Baltimore City, which gets its water from the Gunpowder, Patapsco and Susquehanna rivers, was one of the jurisdictions that had detectable atrazine.

Baltimore Sun file photo/Chiaki Kawajiri

Posted by Meredith Cohn at 11:05 AM | Permalink | Comments (5)
Categories: News
        

Families remodeling or renovating older homes may soon have additional protections for their children against insidious lead-paint poisoning, under a new regulatory move announced today by the Environmental Protection Agency.

The EPA declared it would strengthen a 2008 regulation requiring lead-safe work practices when repairing, remodeling or renovating homes built before 1978, when lead-based paint was banned for residential use.

The move is one of a trio of new EPA initiatives aimed at reducing children's exposure to the hazardous substance. The agency also declared it would move to ban lead tire weights, and would join with other federal agencies in producing a video aimed at educating the public on the hazards of lead paint and what precautions to take.

Maryland already regulates lead-paint exposure in rental properties built prior to 1950, but state law does not cover owner occupied homes or rental properties built between 1950 and 1978.  Dawn Stoltzfus, spokeswoman for the Maryland Department of the Environment, called the EPA move "a great step in the right direction."

Ruth Ann Norton, executive director of the Coalition to End Childhood Lead Poisoning, called it "a breath of fresh air" from the Bush administration regulation on home fixups that health advocates had considered inadequate.

"It means that all general contractors disturbing lead-based paint in MD, not just those "doing abatement" or work in older rental housing must comply with lead safe work practices," Norton wrote in an email. "Its significant."

Lead, used widely in household paints until 1978, can damage the brain and nervous system, and cause high blood pressure, hypertension, and reproductive problems. For young children, ingesting even small amounts can cause learning disabilities, decreased intelligence, and speech, language, and behavioral problems.

As noted here recently, lead poisoning has long plagued Baltimore, with its older housing stock. The number of children poisoned has declined dramatically in recent years because of tightened state rules requiring safe abatement of lead-paint hazards in rental housing, and just 2.5 percent of children tested last year had elevated levels of lead in their blood. Still, there were 468 children in Baltimore, and 713 in Maryland, who had potentially harmful levels.

For more information on lead hazards and EPA's action, go here.

Lead paint is just one of the health hazards faced by adults and children in their own homes.  The federal government has launched a borader Healty Homes Initiative, in partnership with nonprofits like the Baltimore-based coalition, to reduce exposures to carbon monoxide, radon, allergens and a host of other hazards.  For more info, go here.

Posted by Tim Wheeler at 3:45 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: News
        

Well, hon, you better plan on sweating a lot more, and staying indoors for your own safety. It seems that global climate change could double the number of oppressively hot days in Charm City and significantly worsen our summertime smog pollution, making something as simple as breathing more perilous for those with asthma, lung or heart conditions.

That was the warning delivered today in Clifton Park by a handfull of scientists and environmental activists who called a press conference there to highlight the health threats facing urban residents as the planet heats up.

"Baltimore is facing a blistering hot future due to global warming," says Doug Inkley, senior scientist for the National Wildlife Federation.  Climate scientists predict that average temperatures nationwide could increase by 4 to 11 degrees Fahrenheit within the lifetime of children born today, Inkley said, but the extremes could be even worse.

Here in Baltimore, it could mean roughly two dozen extremely hot days a year, twice what we swelter through now, according to the federation's analysis.  To read the full report, go here.

About one in four Baltimore residents lacks air conditioning, Inkley says, making them especially vulnerable to the heat.  And with 20 percent of city households living below the poverty line, they can't afford to have or run the AC.

More and longer heat waves could translate into more people being felled with health-threatening heat stress, notes Dr. Cindy L. Parker, codirector of the program on global sustainability and health at Johns Hopkins' Bloomberg School of Public Health.  Without prompt treatment, Parker says, the headaches, nausea and faintness afflicting heat stress victims can worsen into heat stroke, leading to brain damage and even death.

As if the heat is not enough, Inkley pointed out there'll be a "double whammy" as rising temperatures worsen the city's chronic bouts of summertime ozone air pollution. With the outdoor air already unhealthy to breathe at times for sensitive adults and children, higher temperatures are likely to raise the ozone levels siginficiantly, Inkley warns. Ozone inflames the lining of the lungs, causing coughing fits and tightness in the chest and may actually send some people to the hospital with breathing or heart problems.

"A lot more of us are going to become ill if we don't act," says Parker. "We can't simply adapt to ever-rising temperatures."

As if to emphasize her point, the Clifton Park swimming pool, one potential oasis from the heat, sat empty. The group called the press conference to remind the public that once Congress gets through with the health-insurance reform debate, it has pending legislation to deal with climate change. The House has already passed a bill aimed at curbing climate-warming emissions of carbon dioxide, but the Senate has yet to take it up. An aide to Sen. Barbara Mikulski stepped up to point out that she is a cosponsor of the legislation.

(2006 Baltimore Sun photo by Karl Merton Ferron)

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The federal government plans to end the popular cash for clunkers program Monday at 8 p.m., the Associated Press is reporting.

The program pays motorists up to $4,500 to trade in their gas guzzlers for new cars with better (though some say not very much better) mileage. It was also an economic stimulus program.

As of today, dealers have made deals worth $1.9 billion and the money was expected to run out in early September. The incentives are credited with sale of more than 457,000 vehicles, the AP wrote.

The Obama administration said it's tripled the number of people reviewing the applications so it can get dealers their money. They have complained about how slow the process has become. Some $145 million has already been paid to dealers.

Associated Press photo of clunkers being crushed

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Categories: News
        

The state enrolled its first Rural Legacy easement in Somerset County, north of Pocomoke City, offering protection to 20 rare wildlife and plant species on 172 acres of fields and forest, said the Nature Conservancy, which worked with the Lower Shore Land Trust and Somerset County to get the funding.

Maryland's Rural Legacy Program was created by the General Assembly in 1997 and provides funding to preserve large contiguous tracts of land and to enhance natural resources, agricultural, forestry and environmental protection while maintaining a sustainable land base for industries that are based on natural resources.

So far, the program has handed over $182.7 million to preserve 62,079 acres.

The Suffolk Farm in Somerset is home to the endangered Delmarva fox squirrel, bald eagles

and migratory songbirds, including the Baltimore oriole. The property is also historically significant.

"The house we live in is 240 years old, built by my great-great-grandfather, Captain Whittington Polk," said Chris Miles, who owns the farm with his wife and parents. "This property has been in the Polk-Miles family since Lord Baltimore deeded it to us in 1680. The easement will make sure this legacy is never lost."

State and county officials said they wanted to protect the rural character of the area.

Nat Williams, director of the Nature Conservancy in Maryland-DC, said the Pocomoke River watershed is home to the world's northern-most native bald cypress swamp. The conservation organization has helped protect 15 square miles within the watershed since 1978.

The Lower Shore Land Trust, which hold other conservation easements in Worchester, Wicomico and Somerset counties, will hold this easement along with the Maryland Department of Natural Resources.

Photo of the Baltimore Oriole courtesy of the National Aquarium

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Categories: News
        

The Baltimore Neighborhood Energy Challenge has a Web site where you can go to find out more about reducing energy use, saving money and helping the environment.

As reported this week in The Baltimore Sun, the city's Office of Sustainability, with support from foundations and Baltimore Gas & Electric Co., has launched a nine-month pilot program aiming to enlist residents of nine city neighborhoods in a campaign to cut their home energy usage and reduce climate-warming greenhouse gas emissions.

The Web site is here. Not much on it yet, just a brief explanation of the challenge and links to seek more information.  But city officials say they plan to flesh it out with tips and lots more soon. The neighborhoods in the pilot are Park Heights Renaissance, Fulton Avenue in Sandtown, Reservoir Hill, Baybrook, Banner/Middle East, Greater Lauraville, Ten Hills, Mount Washington and Roland Park.  

Do you think this campaign will get results?  Would you join?  How many of you already have compact fluorescent bulbs in your homes?  Insulated your hot water heaters and pipes, as these two members of Civic Works are doing for one of the new campaign's voluntary captains?

(Baltimore Sun photo by Barbara Haddock Taylor)

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Categories: Going Green, News
        

Imagine sitting in a small boat in quiet, open water on the Chesapeake Bay and peering down into the murky depths, when suddenly a massive SOMETHING breaks the surface right in front of you, not four feet away.

That's what Jack Cover reports happened to him this week as he was out on Eastern Bay, not far from Kent Island.  Cover, general curator for the National Aquarium, was looking for comb jellies to add to the aquarium's jellyfish exhibit. 

Cover reports in his blog that his gaze was diverted briefly by a cownose ray swimming on the surface in the distance, when without warning "a big object lauched out of the water like a polaris missile."  His initial shocked reaction was that a diver was surfacing, then he recognized this was a marine diver - a loggerhead turtle.

"It was the strangest experience,'' Cover told me.  He says he wasn't the only one startled, either.  The sea turtle, after gasping for air, took one look at him and dove back under water.  He watched it surface again four more times, each time farther away.

It's a rare treat to see a loggerhead this far up the bay.  Cover says they're seen more often in the lower bay, drawn in from the Atlantic in a quest for horseshoe crabs and blue crabs to feed upon.

But it may become rarer still to see the big sea turtles anywhere in the bay, or elsewhere along the Atlantic coast for that matter.  A group of biologists reviewing the status of loggerheads for the National Marine Fisheries Service has found that their populations off both the Atlantic and Pacific U.S. coasts are in danger of extinction.  The chief threat is from being unintentionally caught in fishing gear, primarily commercial longlines but also gillnets.  Their nesting beaches also are under pressure.   Dustin Cranor of Oceana, a Washington-based environmental group, reports that Florida officials say this year was one of the worst on record for sea turtle nesting there, in one of their prime areas for laying eggs.

Oceana and other conservation groups have petitioned the federal government to declare loggerhead populations on those two coasts endangered and to impose protective measures. For more, go here and here.

(2006 AP photo of a loggerhead at the South Carolina Aquarium in Charleston.  It was recovering after being found in poor shape on St. Simon Island in Georgia.)

Posted by Tim Wheeler at 11:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)
Categories: Chesapeake Bay, News
        

Tribune's John Horn wrote a story today about how green-themed movies are getting their butts kicked at the box office by Terminators and other escapist movies. 

It's been three years since "An Inconvenient Truth" won the Oscar, and many Americans are certainly becoming more eco-conscious in their lives. But that's not translating so much to other movies.

Doing well since it was released June 12 is “Food, Inc.,” a documentary about the dangers of the food supply. It's brought in $3.6 million. And “No Impact Man," about a man's obsessive yearlong quest to live sustainably, may also do well when it premiers in September, says Horn. 

But something is turning people off to other green movies such as “The Cove,” a documentary on Japanese dolphin killing. It's getting great reviews. But that's it.  “The Garden,” an Oscar-nominated documentary about the battle over a community garden in South Los Angeles, barely sold tickets when it premiered in April. There are plenty of others in the same situation.

Is the economy got everyone so down that they need a happy Hollywood flick to pull them out? No stars in a green documentary? Can Al Gore tell another inconvenient truth?  

Photo from the documentary "The Cove" courtesy of Roadside Attractions

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Categories: News
        

It was standing room only last night at the town hall meeting in Annapolis, and the crowd was hot. Feelings ran high.

This forum wasn't about health insurance reform, but about restoring the Chesapeake Bay.  People attending were concerned, worried, even upset.  Voices were raised at times, but no one got shouted down, not even the representative of the Obama administration who spoke.  Not even when he suggested that more regulations, not fewer, may be needed to bring the bay back to vitality.

"We have to look at game-changing solutions,'' said J. Charles Fox, pictured at right, special advisor to the Environmental Protection Agency administrator for the bay. 

Fox drew applause.  The crowd of about 350 there weren't demanding that the federal government keep its hands off their bay.   They wanted more, not less, federal muscle to stem a rising tide of pollution from population growth and development.  Speakers complained of lack of local and state enforcement of laws and regulations to prevent sediment and stormwater pollution. and an unwillingness to crack down on illegal waterfront building and clearing.

"Where are you guys?" demanded Paul Spadaro of the Magothy River Association, which has waged a long-running and so-far fruitless legal battle over a home built on Little Dobbin Island in the river.  Though environmentalists contend the development is counter to the state's Critical Area law meant to protect the bay from harmful waterfront building, Anne Arundel County has allowed the residence, in some cases issuing after-the-fact approvals for work already done.

Others complained about waterfront housing development in Annapolis, which they say has stripped all the vegetation to the water's edge on a tributary of the Severn River.

"Every time it rains, streams of sediment pour into Saltworks Creek," complained Fred Kelly, the Severn Riverkeeper.  He complained that Anne Arundel County improperly approved the development with inadequate runoff pollution controls, and now won't come inspect the damage. The Severn, he noted, flows through the state's capital on its way to the bay.

"If we can't clean up the capital river of the state of Maryland, what the hell are we doing here?" he challenged.

Continue reading "Citizens are hot about more than health care" »

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Categories: Chesapeake Bay, News
        

The first batch of oysters raised under Maryland's citizen oyster-growing program have "graduated" to a new home on the Eastern Shore.

Cages of oysters grown by 177 waterfront pier owners along the Tred Avon River in Talbot County were collected by staff from the Department of Natural Resources and the Oyster Recovery Partnership, a nonprofit group. As the DNR-supplied photo above indicates, several watermen and volunteers also helped.

The oysters from 858 cages were moved to a sanctuary near Oxford, where they're to be protected from harvest for eating so they can help clean up the water.

The program was begun last year by Gov. Martin O'Malley in a bid to enlist the public in restoring the Chesapeake Bay's signature bivalve, which helps to filter pollution from the water.  Oysters raised by residents since last October were produced by hatcheries run by the University of Maryland and by DNR.

Plans are to expand the citizens' oyster growing effort this year to other rivers and creeks around the bay. For more information, go here.

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Chevy says its new Volt electric car will get 230 miles per gallon in city driving, according to this Associated Press story. The EPA, which determines mileage for those new car window stickers, will have to confirm the number. But if that's the case, it will get four times the current industry leader, the Toyota Prius.

The car's battery pack will allow the car to go about 40 miles and the back-up engine will give it another 300, according to Chevy. The car can be plugged into any standard electric outlet. Charging is expected to cost 40 cents a day.

The MPG number may be really appealling during a down economy, even if gas doesn't cost $4 a gallon anymore. But the price tag ont he car, due out in 2010, is $40,000. That may put it out of reach of most Americans.

The company says government incentives could help. And later models of the car will cost less. Chevy is now making about 10 Volt's a week in preparation for the roll out next year.

Other companies including Ford, Daimler and Chrysler are also making electric cars, so competition may also bring the cost down.

So, the mileage make up for the cost?

Associated Press photo of Vice President Biden looking at a Volt in Detroit

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Categories: News
        

The Nature Conservancy reports that an extremely rare hybrid orchid, Platanthera x canbyi, was found at Nassawango Creek Preserve in Worcester County by a botanist hired by the conservancy for a biological survey. Less than a dozen of these plants have been seen in the state in the last 70 years, though they are native to Maryland, the group says.

The orchid is a combination of the also-rare white-fringed orchid and the crested yellow orchid. And the conservancy found three of the plants in bloom last week in the preserve.

Nassawango is owned by the conservancy and is the state's largest private preserve at 10,000 acres. Combined with state land, there is a 30-square mile conservation area that is home to 90 rare and endangered plants and animals, the conservancy said.

The conservancy says that the area had undergone a prescribed burn to clear out overgrowth and restore soil. That gives native plants a chance to come back. The orchid is indication the fire is helping on that front.

 When the botanist, Ron Wilson, discovered the plant, he called it "something very special," according to the conservancy. He then called a biologist at the state Department of Natural Resources, who came to see it. Wes Knapp said he'd never seen one before and was excited to be one of the few people in the state to get a look.

Other rare plants, including four species of sedges were found.

The conservancy is taking other steps to restore the area. It's helping to replace thousands of acres of loblolly pines with mixed native hardwoods. A 30-acre plot that was also burned has been replanted with Atlantic white cedar seedlings provided by the National Aquarium in Baltimore. Those evergreens have been in decline because of habitat loss.

The preserve is open to the public, but the conservancy asks that vistors stay on the trails. And please don't touch the orchids if you come upon them.  

Photo courtesy of Ron Wilson

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Categories: News
        

Baltimore Sun outdoors writer Candus Thomson reports today on the death of Bill Burton, long-time outdoors writer, advocate for natural resources and former Evening Sun reporter. The Pasadena residents was 82 and died Monday after a battle with cancer and diabetes.

Burton retired from the Sun in 1992 but then wrote for the Bay Weekly and The Capital in Annapolis until his second retirement in June.  During his half century on the job, he wrote newspaper columns and did a fishing report on WMAR-TV, Thomson reports. he edited numerous regional hunting and fishing magazine and was a founding member of the Mason-Dixon Outdoors' Writers Association. He was inducted inthe Maryland-Dealware-DC Press Association Hall of Fame in April.

Last month, the Board of Public Works approved a proposal from Gov. Martin O'Malley and the Department of Natural Resources to rename the Choptank River Fishing Pier for Burton.

Services will be held at 11 a.m. on Aug. 22 at Jenkins Memorial Church, 133 Riviera Dr. in Pasadena. Burton is survived by his wife of 42 years, Lois, five daughters and one son, and 11 grandchildren and two great-grandchildren.

RIP Bill.

Baltimore Sun photo of Bill Burton in July admiring Serena O'Connell's catch from the fishing pier that is now named for him on the Choptank River/Candus Thomson

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Categories: News
        

Speaking of wind turbines ...

North Carolina's State Senate voted to ban large, industrial turbines on its mountaintops, according to the New York Times' Green Inc. blog.

If the House passes the bill, it would become the most restrictive law in the country for wind turbines. 

It would limit turbines to 100 feet or less on ridgelines above 3,000 feet. Large industrial turbines are more like a few hundred feet. The House, however, isn't likely to take up the measure until it reconvenes next May.

Supporters of alternative energy say it's become a matter of what people want to look at. And apparantly North Carolina senators don't want to look at them.

Baltimore Sun file photo of a wind turbine in West Virginia/John Makely

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Categories: News
        

Only a fraction of Maryland's commercial crabbers responded to the state's offer to buy back their licenses. "Close to 500' crabbers bit on the state's offer to pay them to surrender their right to catch crabs for sale, according to Lynn Fegley, assistant fisheries director of the Maryland Department of Natural Resources.

DNR had mailed buyback offers last month to 3,676 Marylanders holding "limited crab catcher" licenses, and they had until last Friday to respond. The licenses allow them to deploy up to 50 wire-mesh "pots" or an unlimited amount of baited line to catch crabs for sale.  They cost $60 a year, but are automatically renewable and transferable.

The state has issued about 6,000 commercial crabbing licenses in all, but officials say only about 1,800 are actively fished.  Fisheries managers say they need to retire a big chunk of those unused licenses to help ensure that the Chesapeake Bay's crab population continues to recover.  If those inactive crabbers return to the water, they could overwhelm the crabbing restrictions the state has imposed to guard against overfishing.

Fegley acknowledged that the response to the state's buyback offer was "clearly short" of what DNR had hoped, but pointed out that "it’s the first time we’ve done something like this."  

This is the state's second attempt to retire unused crab licenses. Last winter, the state had tried to "freeze" more than 1,000 limited crab catcher licenses that had not reported any catch in the previous five years, but withdrew that attempt amid a flurry of protests.

Continue reading "Crab license buyback gets a nibble" »

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As part of the state overall effort to cut its carbon footprint, and save money, it plans to install solar thermal panels on the roof of Government House, the governor's mansion, to heat the water. Statehouse reporter Laura Smitherman and I reported in a story today.

Gov. O'Malley has already installed more efficient lighting and temperature control. The First Family has also ramped up recycling, planted a vegetable garden and installed an irrigation system that uses rain water caught in several barrels on the property.

The house is historic, so the solar panels will not be visable from the street. They are expected to save the family about half on their water heating bill.

A local contractor not involved in the project, Mark Bartlett, owner of AtisSun Inc., says a system for a typical homeowner costs $8,000-$10,000 and pays for itself in four to seven years (largely because there are federal and state incentives available -- though the state now has a wait list.) 

The clean energy also means a savings of about 2,000 pounds of C02 a year. The O'Malleys will probably spend a little more, but save a little more, too.

So, is this a good investment by taxpayers? Should we all get solar thermal or solar electric panels?

Baltimore Sun file photo of Government House/Barbara Haddock Taylor

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Categories: News
        

It seems we still have a long way to go when it comes to bike safety. An experience rider was killed Tuesday when he was struck in Charles North by a truck turning in his path. The full story is here.

The wife of the man, John R. Yates, said he was equipped with lights, horns and mirrows, but the truck driver apparantly didn't see him. An average of eight cyclists die every year in Maryland, according to the State Highway Administration.

The accident is increasing calls for new laws to regulate driver and cyclist behavior, driver education and infrastructure improvements. Bike advocates say that the legislature needs to approve a bill to require drivers leave three feet of space when passing a bike.

B'More Green had blog entry the other day about how other states were approving such a buffer.

Think telling people to leave three feet will help? Is this an education thing?

Baltimore Sun photo of Josh Keogh, co-owner of Baltimore Bicycle Work, who believes cyclists have a right to share the road/Kim Hairston

Posted by Meredith Cohn at 12:09 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Categories: News
        

UPDATE: Deputy Mayor Andy Frank said that the city plans to address the issue of wind turbines on homes in the city in its comprehensive overhaul of the city's old zoning laws.

He said: "There is a lesson here, which is that we need to update our zoning code to allow, under certain conditions, renewable energy devises. Mayor will ask Planning to consider this as part of Transform Baltimore."

Baltimore's zoning officials decided last night that they could not approve a wind turbine proposed by a Federal Hill woman because the four-decade-old city zoning code just doesn't allow for it. The full story is here.

The effort by Marsha Vitow to be the first to install a wind turbine on her roof in the city spurred a lot of debate at City Hall. Officials seemed to really want to approve the turbine but felt hampered by the law. David Tanner, executive director of the zoning board, said the city will now have to pass legislation allowing turbines or include turbines as an exception in the overall zoning code, which is now being overhauled.

Mayor Dixon has pushed for a "cleaner, greener" Baltimore and could very well get a change done quickly. But how ever fast, it won't be fast enough for Ms. Vitow, who said this was the end of the line for her. Her contractor, who spent a lot of time and money on plans for the safe installation of the turbine, may feel differently. He may be ready when the next resident and the city are ready.

It's not clear who, if anyone, will step up. Patrice Davidson, a neighbor who opposed the turbine, said she thought it would happen in the not-so-distant future. She said she supports green energy and believes new, more appropriate technology will be developed and code will be corrected, and some people in the city will be able to invest in wind power. This unit, she feared, was too big and unsafe and unsightly.

The vertical access wind turbine had north-south panels that spin on a poll about 8 feet tall on a base. It would have been about 6 feet wide and 300 pounds. Green Solutions of Maryland, the contractor, said it would have been secure and it could have produced 20-40 percent of Ms. Vitow's power because she's close to the water, which sends a nice constant breeze.

Other cities have approved turbines, such as San Francisco and Boston. And there are some residential wind turbines on the Eastern Shore and Western Maryland. But among the more urban and suburban counties, Baltimore and Anne Arundel counties also continue to grapple with the same issue. We'll see who works it out first. In the meantime, Maryland and federal officials offer tax breaks for those who can get approval.

Photo courtesy of Green Solutions of Maryland

Posted by Meredith Cohn at 5:35 PM | Permalink | Comments (14)
Categories: News
        

More states are taking steps to protect the growing number of people who commute by bike on local roads, according to a story in USA Today.

States including Colorado and Louisiana now require a 3-foot buffer by cars. New Jersey's House of Delegate has passed a similar measure, and Texas pass a buffer law, but the governor vetoed it. The city of Washington also has such a law.

Thirteen other state also have laws, according to the advocacy group 3FeetPlease.com.

The story says the number of bike commuters rose from about 483,145 in 2003 to about 664,859 in 2007, based on the Census Bureau's American Community Survey. That's a 37.6 percent increase.

Could Maryland use such a law?

Baltimore Sun photo of Bike to Work Day/Lloyd Fox

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Categories: News
        

A woman in Federal Hill wants to harness the power of the harbor to help pay her electric bill. She wants to be the first in the city to put a wind turbine on her roof.

Marsha Vitow and her contractor believe there is enough wind blowing across the water to power the vertical axis wind turbine, a 6-foot by 6-foot machine that has blades that run straight up and spin like a merry-go-round. There's no baseline, but they think maybe she can cut her bill by 20 percent to 40 percent.

Vitow pick wind energy because she wanted to tread a little more lightly on the planet -- and she lives in Baltimore, where Mayor Dixon has set a "cleaner, greener" agenda. Solar panels wouldn't add much power, the contractor, Green Solution of Maryland, told her.

She's run into opposition from her two immediate neighbors who fear that the turbine will be unsigltly and unsafe and will harm property values. Another 100 people in the neighborhood have signed a petition in her support.

The city's zoning board will make the final call. They hear the case today, when Vitow seeks a variance to build above the 35-foot residential height restriction. Zoning officials say there's nothing in the law, which dates to the 1970s, about turbines and they aren't sure what will happen. In the meantime, the city is working to rewrite zoning law to account for all kinds of things people do now.

If the wind turbine gets the okay, maybe others will follow?

Photo courtesy of Green Solutions of Maryland

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Categories: News
        

Nissan Motor Co. has rolled out its new electric car in Japan, the Leaf, and expects to start selling the eco-friendly blue hatchback next year, with mass production beginning in 2012, according to this Associated Press story.

The car is meant to look like other cars on the road, rather than futuristic. It will sell for about $10,000 and go 100 miles on a charge.

The U.S. government gave Nissan $1.6 billion to retrofit its Tennessee plant to make the cars and the batteries. And other companies are working on their electric cars so they can tap into the market here for low and no emissions cars.

So, are we ready for full-on electric? Think service stations will start offering plugs? 

AP photo of the Leaf, Nissan's new electric car

Posted by Meredith Cohn at 5:29 PM | Permalink | Comments (4)
Categories: News
        

The House has passed a bill to shift $2 billion in economic stimulus money to the Cash for Clunkers program, and Senate officials are likely to pass a measure next week, according to an update in the Washington Post. Officials say the government will continue to honor the deals during the weekend.

It's not clear if members of Congress will seek to up the mileage requirements or make other changes mid-stream. That would only add confusion to a program that has created a significant backlog of paperwork from dealers. Some in government worry the clunkers will be destroyed before buyers are approved for the program.

In any case, if you're still interested in getting a car with better mileage, go test driving this weekend.

END UPDATE

Cash for Clunkers hit a bump late yesterday -- the program is out of money. Government officials say they will honor the offer through today. After that, they can't say.

The Washington Post story says lawmakers are meeting today to discuss ways to keep the popular program going.  

The government had been offering up to $4,500 rebates to people who traded in their old gas guzzlers for more fuel efficient cars. The program was aimed at boosting car sales and the economy, as well as helping the environment.

Hopefully, some of you got the deal? Any plan to go test drive a new hybrid in expectation the program will be revived?

If you're looking for the details, go to the government's cars.gov.

AP photo of Hyundai Motor Co.'s first hybrid car, the Avante LPI, unvieled this month

Posted by Meredith Cohn at 5:35 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Categories: News
        

The New York Times' Green Inc. blog reports that six universities are planning to participate in a pilot program this fall involving the Kindle, the electronic box that allows you to download newspapers and books.

They expect it to help them save paper, as well as some freshman backs that would have taken the brunt of the load of heavy books.

One reader said he didn't think that using a plastic gadget filled with batteries, polymers and resins is so environmental. But printing all those books, which seem to get outdated after each semester, can't be so green either.

So, is it a good idea? Should we all be reading our books -- and our Baltimore Sun -- on a Kindle? Do you have one or want one?

AP photo of the Kindle DX  

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Categories: News
        

A group of advocates and experts is warning that pesticide pollution from farm fields and households is contributing to the Chesapeake Bay's decline, and may well be linked to declines in frogs across the region and intersex fish seen in the Potomac River.

In a report released today, the group calls on federal, state and local government to accelerate research into what threats pesticide contamination may pose to the bay, and to step up efforts to reduce such toxic pollution.

"The thing that alarms us the most are the endocrine disruptors and the findings that have come out about intersex fish and frogs with reproductive problems,'' said Robert SanGeorge, director of the Pesticides and the Chesapeake Bay Watershed Project. Endocrine disruptors are chemicals that mimic the natural hormones in humans or animals and can disrupt their growth and reproduction. 

The project is a partnership between the Maryland Pesticides Network and the Johns Hopkins Center for a Livable Future. The group's warning and recommendations are the product of two years' study, in consultation with scientists, public health experts, government officials, watermen, environmentalists, farmers and pest management industries.

The report comes as federal and state governments attempt to jump-start the 26-year-old effort to restore the bay.  The multi-state bay campaign has focused mainly on reducing nutrient pollution from sewage, farm and lawn fertilizer, power plants and vehicles.  But the report argues that not enough attention is being paid to the potential harm being done by pesticides, primarily herbicides that wash off farm fields but also the many household products with a plethora of chemical ingredients that are washed down sewers.

"There's no smoking gun," SanGeorge says, acknowledging the lack of conclusive research showing toxic chemicals in the bay and its tributaries are harming fish and wildlife and bay grasses.  But he points to studies suggesting problems and "enormous data gaps" that need to be filled.

Continue reading "Report: Pesticides hurting Bay, need closer look" »

Posted by Tim Wheeler at 8:15 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)
        

Ocean City ranks among the safest beaches in the United States because of the cleanliness of the water, according to the Natural Resources Defense Council.

The Washington-based environmental group gave Maryland's Atlantic resort a five-star rating for having relatively clean water and testing often enough to provide assurance people won't be swimming in human or animal waste.

"Ocean City actually does well year after year," said Nancy Stoner, do-director of the NRDC's water programs. "It’s got clean water, and it’s well monitored and they let people know there’s a problem there. So that’s great."

Rehoboth and Dewey beaches in Delaware and Virginia Beach garnered four stars in the NRDC's 19th annual report evaluating the water quality at US beaches. Among Maryland's Chesapeake Bay beaches, Sandy Point and Point Lookout also got four stars each. Stoner said those beaches would have ranked higher if they tested more often than once a week.

Overall, Maryland's 71 coastal and bay beaches ranked 8th nationwide for their water quality in the NRDC survey. The group does not evaluate beaches on rivers. Just 2 percent of water samples taken at the state's coastal beaches, on average, showed evidence of contamination with human or animal waste that made them unsafe for swimming.

Nationwide, 7 percent of beach water samples failed government standards. Maryland beaches were closed 61 days last year, down from 243 days the year before. Nationwide, there were 20,000 beach closings or no-swimming advisories because of pollution.

Closings are typically prompted by rainfall washing sewage or animal waste into the water. Swimming in contaminated water can result in stomach upsets, skin rashes or even more serious illnesses. Stoner said last year's nationwide beach water quality was not as bad as it had been in prior years, but said the improvement stemmed from two factors - less rainfall in some regions, and less testing, because government agencies ran short of money.

"Lack of rainfall isn’t a permanent solution," she said.

To see how Maryland's beaches rate, go here.

Posted by Tim Wheeler at 10:01 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Categories: News
        

Baltimore's longtime scourge of childhood lead poisoning continues to ease, but hundreds of young children each year still are being unwittingly exposed to a toxic metal that can cause lasting learning and behavioral problems. 

That's the upshot of the latest report from the Maryland Department of the Environment. In 2008, 468 children in Baltimore city were found to have elevated levels of lead in their blood, down from 624 the year before. That drop continues a decline that dates back at least to 1999, when the city recorded 2,902 lead-poisoned children, according to the city's health department.

Just 2.5 percent of children tested in the city had elevated lead levels last year, the state reports, down from 3.5 percent in 2007.

That's good news, because even tiny amounts of lead in young children can cause neurological problems that can hamper learning and trigger aggressive behavior; larger doses can lead to mental retardation. Youngsters get poisoned mainly by ingesting lead dust from deteriorating paint -- a particular problem in Baltimore, with its older housing stock. Most of the 713 Maryland children found last year to have elevated lead levels lived in the city.

State law attempts to regulate children's lead exposure in rental housing, but 62 percent of the youngsters found to have problems live in owner-occupied homes, according to the state.

And while lead poisoning is less of a threat outside the city, there were upticks in the number of youngsters testing positive for lead in Carroll, Frederick, Harford, Howard, Kent, Montgomery, Prince George’s, St. Mary’s and Washington counties, noted the Coalition to End Childhood Lead Poisoning.  Ruth Ann Norton, the advocacy group’s executive director, said that cities and counties alike must do more to deal with lead hazards in their housing stock, including owner-occupied homes.

For more, go here and here.

Posted by Tim Wheeler at 6:22 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Categories: News, Urban Issues