If you're following the mountaintop mining story, check out Marketplace's report on the proposed new Bush rules. I heard it last night and it's an excellent recap of the situation: namely, that the Bush administration would like to relax the rules on the controversial practice so that it can expand and continue. The New York Times also spells out the plans here, for those who prefer print (and good for you if that's you!)

Mountaintop mining, which is big in West Virginia and other parts of Appalachia, entails blasting off the tops of mountains and dumping the resulting rubble into sstreams and valleys.

Fellow blogger and West Virginia native Tim Wheeler tells me that the town where his dad was born is no more, thanks to this practice. It's buried under debris. This is Audubon Magazine describing the place in 2001: "The farms are gone; the church is gone; the school is gone; the town--all 800 houses--is gone; and the mountains to the west and north are gone."

Baltimore filmmaker Catherine Pancake, also a West Virginia native, made a well-received movie on the subject : Black Diamonds: Mountaintop Removal and The Fight for Coalfield Justice. I think it still comes around occasionally at small screenings.

Posted by Rona Kobell at 5:05 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)
                       

Since I began covering the environment three years ago, one thing has stood out about the "green" movement - it's fairly white. I try to talk to a lot of different sources on matters such as oysters, crabs, fisheries, etc., and while I have come to know a fair number of female scientists, there is not much diversity in terms of race.

I don't know if there are any high-ranking African-Americans in the Department of Natural Resources anymore. The last one I recall to serve in the agency was Mark Bundy, an assistant secretary with a doctorate in resource economics who had worked in the agency for 27 years and, according to my reporting, was well-respected. But by 2005, he was gone: the Ehrlich Administration replaced him with Ron Guns, a former delegate who chaired the House Environmental Matters Committee for a decade and was reviled by many environmentalists.

One year, Guns scored a 16 out of a possible 100 on the League of Conservation Voters' annual scorecard.

Bundy has since moved on to a position at Morgan State, where he is environmental program manager for the university's estuarine research center. The center, which studies oysters, crabs and phytoplankon, is in Southern Maryland.

It seems that members of the General Assembly are also concerned about the lack of diversity in the environmental movement. It has created a task force on the environment and race to look at the issue. The group met throughout the summer and will have a final report released soon, perhaps in the Fall.

Thanks to the Patuxent Riverkeeper's web site for reporting on this; the site also promises to post the final report when it comes out.

Posted by Rona Kobell at 5:12 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)
                       

A sewage spill is never good. But at least if you live in Maryland, your chances of knowing about it quickly are pretty good. So says a report released this week by American Rivers, which ranks the different states and their notification practices.

I'm sure the oft-criticized environmental officials are glad for the recognition, but in my recollection of large spills around here, it's watershed groups like the Herring Run Watershed Association who do the most to get the word out when the steams begin to smell foul.

Posted by Rona Kobell at 6:03 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
                       

It began as so many things do, an idea hatched among friends that no one really expected would go anywhere.

 In this case, the friends were a group of outdoors enthusiasts, sitting in the bleachers at Camden Yards, watching an exciting baseball game (remember those?)  in which one Cal Ripken was at his best.

If Cal ever got into the Baseball Hall of Fame, the friends decided, they would do something really special -- they would kayak all 444 miles of the Susquehanna River, from Baltimore to Cooperstown, N.Y., to see him become the hall's' newest member. It would be a tribute to Ripken as well as to the Chesapeake Bay, which the great Susquehanna formed thousands of years ago.

Well, Cal did, and they did. Last week, the group calling themselves Trailtrekk returned from Cooperstown. They drove from Maryland to the Hall of Fame ceremony, then paddled back home. Along the way, they spotted many bald eagles, collected water samples to analyze later and got a first-hand look at the farms/runoff issue, as many cornfields were planted flush against the river.

This group seems to have its bases covered. On the four-day trip were two scientists with the National Aquarium, a scientist from the Chesapeake Biological Lab, a doctor, an engineer, a competitive runner and the executive chef of Baltimore's Prime Rib.

There was no sniping, according to head "cat-herder" Bill Minarik.

"Most of us have known each other for a long time. We're used to roughing it. For us, this is high adventure."

Besides, he said, "when you're paddling, after a hard day, any frustrations you have, you take them out on the river, not on each other."

Minarik should be used to getting along with this bunch: on the trip were his wife, Linda, his son, Devon, and brothers George and Jim, the prime Rib chef. And no, they did not eat strip steak every night. There was a considerable amount of "roughing it" involved. So much so that the group was supposed to be honored at Ripken Stadium in Aberdeen, but they were too tired to go to the ceremony.

Now the group has a new project. Repulsed by the floating tires and other debris they saw while combing the river's islands for places to sleep, they are planning a weekend cleanup of the gunpowder, one of their favorite kayaking spots.

As Minarik said, "we realized someone had to do something about it, and that someone is us."

Posted by Rona Kobell at 5:38 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
                       

The U.S. Army Corps on engineers just announced it was approving the destruction of more than 2000 acres of wetlands for a new Florida airport, the St. Petersburg Times reports. (The article ran Aug. 17--I find the web site hard to navigate so I can't give a more precise link.) There is some worry from government officials about hurricanes, but according to this story, realtors and developers are highly in favor (surprise!) and one loval developer stands to greatly benefit. The airport would be abotu 20 miles from Panama City in a very remote area of the state next to a state forest.

Our friends in Louisiana have learned the hard way that destroying wetlands, especially such a large amount, can lead to disastrous consequences. And our friends (at least mine) in the restoration business have said it costs far more to restore a wetland that it ever would to maintain a natural one. At any rate, the environmental groups have plans to block the airport, while the developers seemed poised to keep pushing for it. In Florida, a state with some of the most committed conservationists as well as the most experienced (wealthy) developers, it could lead to an ugly showdown.

Posted by Rona Kobell at 12:12 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
                       

Climate activist Mike Tidwell's first documentary, We Are All Smith Islanders, will be showing next month at the Montgomery County Public Library in Rockville.

The movie, which Tidwell wrote and directed, uses the receding livelihoods of the watermen on the island to demonstrate the effects of glabal warming. It occasionally makes the rounds, but the press person for Tidwell's organization, Chesapeake Climate Action Network, said no screenings are planned in Baltimore or Annapolis for the near future.

All is not lost, though. If you don't feel like driving to Rockville, you can order the film from the CCAN web site.

Posted by Rona Kobell at 5:06 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (1)
                       

A few weeks ago, this blog told of the ongoing disagreement between top officials at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and Oklahoma Senator Tom Coburn.

NOAA has spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on its 200-year anniversary celebration- NOAA Administrator Conrad C. Lautenbacher Jr. says the agency decided to "seize the occasion" of the milestone to let the public know just what NOAA does.

Coburn, who is both socially and fiscally conservative, wants to know why the agency felt such expenditures were necessary -- especially in light of post-Katrina weather-service needs and the fact that NOAA already spent a bunch of money celebrating its 30th anniversary in 2000.

Coburn seemed to be asking: how many parties does one agency need?  And, more specifically, how much is it all costing? (Coburn also, it should be noted, introduced an amendment to rein in NOAA's spending after a story in The Sun showed that the agency was spending several million dollars to plant oysters in the Chesapeake Bay-- most of which watermen were later able to harvest and sell.)

NOAA recently provided the Oklahoma doctor with some answers. First of all, it clarifies, the 30th anniversary celebration honored the official birth of NOAA, when Nixon merged several programs into the agency and put them all under the Department of Commerce. The Bi-centennial reaches back further to honor the first scientific survey, the Survey of the Coast, which Jefferson commissioned.

Another difference: the price tag. the 30th anniversary party cost $204,000: about 60 grand for a promotional video, the rest for "outreach" and printed materials.

The bi-centennial will cost at least $1.6 million. That kind of cash buys a web site (25K), educational materials (640K), exhibit materials (268K) and public outreach and education events (625K-and not to be confused with educational "materials.")

"Outreach events" include an art contest in Colorado, a beach party in Hawaii, and a festival in Michigan. There are also conferences in California and a museum event in Massachusetts; it seems wherever you are this year, you won't be far from a NOAA bicentennial party. Oddly, or perhaps not so oddly, there are no events on the schedule for Oklahoma.

I'm sure some of the John Smith Trail boosters are wondering-How many talking buoys for the trail could we buy with that sort of cash? And perhaps those hurricane forecasters in Louisiana are wondering how much new equipment they could buy? Oh well, there's always the consolation prize: maybe they could get whatever wins that Colorado art contest to hang in their offices.

Posted by Rona Kobell at 5:01 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
                       

A coaltion of environmental groups and state lawmakers is planning to hold a rally near the statehouse in Annapolis tomorrow morning. It's scheduled for 10 a.m. on Wednesday, Aug. 15, at Lawyers Mall, next to the State House, on State Circle in Annapolis.

Their goal: to convince Gov. Martin O'Malley's administration to endorse a law that would reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 20 percent by 2020.

Maryland has already taken a few small steps toward slowing global warming pollution.  The legislature this spring passed the Clean Cars Bill, which will reduce carbon dioxide emissions from new vehicles sold in the state by about a third.  The state also joined the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative, which is a group of Northeastern states that have pledged to cut carbon dioxide emissions from coal-fired power plants by 10 percent.

But now state Sen. Paul Pinksy and Del. Kumar Barve want Maryland to go further, passing a law that would cut carbon dioxide emissions across the board for all industries. If Maryland adopted this 20 percent standard for all businesses, it would be following in the example of California, which has committed to a universal reduction of this size.

Gov. O'Malley has formed a "Maryland Commission on Climate Change" to study the issue, and it is holding a meeting tomorrow and plans to discuss what level of CO2 reductions the state should aim for.  The protesters will present petitions and wave a giant hour glass -- along with a large banner and other signs -- in an attempt to pressure the commission to set an aggressive goal.

Posted by Tom Pelton at 5:42 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (1)
                       

It's the season for cow-nose rays, the perennial predator that scientists and restoration managers love to hate. The rays swoop in from points north this time of year and began to munch their way across the bay, eating oysters, scallops, and everything else they can put away.  Just ask the Army Corps of Engineers, which lost nearly a million oysters during an ill-fated planting in 2004; or the Chesapeake Bay Foundation, whose oysters met a similar fate when they planted 750,000 of them not far from Stingray Point in the Piankatank River .

Now comes an alternative weekly in Virginia floating an old chestnut: let's eat the rays!  If only we created a market for these things, we could keep them in check and they wouldn't proliferate. 

Over the years, chefs have tried many different ways of making ray palatable. Some stuffed it with squid, others served it in soup or ground it for pasta filling. It tastes, they say, like beef.  I'll take their word for it.

But Karl Blankenship's Bay Journal article this month quotes experts who say creating a ray fishery won't solve the problem.

"A cownose ray fishery may not be the best answer,” the Bay Foundation's Tommy Leggett tells the paper. “Maybe the best answer is the restoration strategy using spat on shell. Rays have always been around, and they certainly didn’t devastate oyster reefs way back when—but then, our oysters grew in a reefy structure where rays couldn’t do harm to the oyster.”

A few months back, oyster restoration folks had a lot of fun with an AP story that came out announcing a new restoration technique called "spat-on-shell." The fact is, Maryland has been putting oysters on shells - in part to help them grow better and in part to protect them from predators- for more than a decade. We have lost much of our reef structure, but another reason for the rays may be a lack of predators because we are over-fishing sharks. See, it all goes back to food.

At any rate, I personally won't be ordering up a plate of Ray Marsala for lunch. I'm going to stick with the real chicken of the sea-salad bar tuna.

Posted by Rona Kobell at 11:57 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
                       

Posted by Rona Kobell at 11:01 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)
                       

As part of an effort to conserve energy and study the effects of global warming, the administration of Gov. Martin O'Malley is creating a new Office of Sustainability within the Maryland Department of Natural Resources.

Maryland Natural Resources Secretary John R. Griffin is set to announce the plans tomorrow (Friday, Aug. 10) as part of a broader, agency-wide reorganization.

The new Office of Sustainability will have six to eight employees, all reassigned from other parts of the department.  They will work together on issues such as the impact of global warming and sea level rise, the construction of green buildings, energy conservation and land-use planning.

"From growth concerns to energy consumption and Bay restoration, progress in one area depends upon progress in others if we are to successfully lead Governor O'Malley's call to create a sustainable Maryland," Griffin said.  "These internal changes will allow us to work more collaboratively and effectively -- across disciplines, across agencies, and with our parnters -- to conserve natural resources and promote stewardship behaviors that will sustain economic growth and our quality of life."

Griffin has chosen as the acting director David Goshorn, a 15-year veteran of the department who is currently director of resource assessment services for the DNR, a job that oversees water monitoring and evaluation of power plants.

Goshorn, who holds a Ph.D. in marine biology, said he wants the DNR to "lead by example" and make its own facilities as energy efficient as possible.

"One of the top challenges we have is to define what we mean by sustainability," said Goshorn, 45, of Arnold. "One topic we have identified is creating a comprehensive approach to sea level rise, and how we operate our facilities to conserve energy."

Posted by Tom Pelton at 5:48 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)
                       

Beaches across the U.S. are increasingly being contaminated by pollution and shut down by local health departments. Rain flushes filth from parking lots, sewers and subdivisions into rivers and lakes, stimulating the growth of bacteria, according to a report by the Natural Resources Defense Council.

This problem can be fixed. Federal, state and local goverments need to invest more in repairing  old and leaky stormwater systems.  Local officails also should manage develoment better so that McMansions and condos don't sprawl out into wetlands and dunes, the environmental group says.

How clean is your beach? 

If you want to find out whether it's safe to swim today, visit this web site that has up-to-the-moment postings of beach closings in Maryland and across the US.  Go to:  http://www.earth911.org/waterquality/default.asp?cluster=24

Last summer, the Natural Resources Defense Council found that ocean beaches -- for example, in Maryland, at Ocean City or Assateague State Park -- were much cleaner than beaches on the Chesapeake Bay. On the Atlantic Ocean, Assateague State Park passed 100 percent of the water quality tests last summer, and Ocean City passed 97 percent of the tests.  But on the bay, Gunpowder State Park in Baltimore County failed 20 percent of its tess and Miami Beach in Baltimore County failed 25 percent of the time.  

Here is a breakdown of how often Maryland beaches were closed last summer due to bacterial contamination:

County            Beach Name Action  Start   End  Reason 
ANNE ARUNDEL Ponder Cove Closure 6/28 7/7 Sewer overflow
ANNE ARUNDEL Sandy Point Beach  Advisory 7/28 8/4 Bacteria 
ANNE ARUNDEL Sandy Point Beach Advisory 8/13 8/25  Bacteria 
ANNE ARUNDEL Sandy Point South  Advisory 7/28 7/30 Bacteria 
ANNE ARUNDEL Sandy Point South  Advisory 8/13 8/25 Bacteria 
BALTIMORE Gun Powder Closure 6/7 6/8 Bacteria 
BALTIMORE Gun Powder Closure 7/7 7/11 Bacteria 
BALTIMORE Gun Powder  Closure 8/31 9/4 Bacteria 
BALTIMORE Rocky Point Park Closure 7/7 7/11 Bacteria 
CALVERT Breezy Point Closure 9/3 9/4 Sewer overflow
CALVERT Chesapeake Station Closure 6/27 7/25 Sewer overfow
CALVERT Chesapeake Station Closure 8/15 8/20 Sewer overflow
CALVERT North Beach Closure 6/27 7/25 Sewer overflow
CALVERT North Beach Closure 8/15 8/20 Sewer overflow
CALVERT North Beach Closure 9/3 9/4 Sewer overflow
CALVERT River Club Estates Closure 6/28 7/7 Sewer overflow
KENT  Bay Country Camp Advisory 6/30 7/20 Bacteria 
KENT  Bay Country Camp Advisory 8/9 8/21 Bacteria 
KENT  Betterton Beaching Advisory 6/30 7/20 Bacteria 
KENT  Boy Scout Beach  Advisory 6/30 7/24 Bacteria 
KENT  Echo Hill Camp  Advisory 6/30 7/20 Bacteria 
KENT  Echo Hill Camp  Advisory 8/9 8/14 Septic system overflow
KENT  Ferry Park Advisory 6/30 7/20 Bacteria 
KENT  Ferry Park Advisory 8/9 8/15 Bacteria 
KENT  Tolchester Marina  Advisory 7/10 7/20 Bacteria 
KENT  YMCA Tockwogh   Advisory 7/7 7/20 Bacteria 
KENT  YMCA Tockwogh  Advisory 8/9 8/14 Bacteria 
QUEEN ANNE'S Camp Wright Advisory 7/28 8/4 Bacteria 
ST MARY'S Elm's Beach  Advisory 7/7 7/17 Bacteria 
ST MARY'S Elm's Beach  Advisory 7/22 8/1 Bacteria 
ST MARY'S Elm's Beach  Advisory 9/1 9/4 Bacteria 

Posted by Tom Pelton at 3:38 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (1)
                       

Posted by Rona Kobell at 3:07 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
                       

The Dobbins Island case has been one of the most interesting tests to the Critical Area Law, and it's not over yet.

To recap: two brothers, Jim and Ed Wilson, purchased Dobbins Island, Little Island and some shoreline property a few years ago. They sold the shoreline land fairly quickly, and a developer bought Little Island.

In plain sight of pretty much everyone, this developer, a man named Daryl Wagner, built a home complete with a lighthouse replica, a pier, boat ramp, driveway, pool, gazebo, and even a hovercraft. Anyone who tried to get close to sneak a peek was scared off by Wagner's many dogs. Subtle it wasn't.

But for some reason, no one in Anne Arundel County's permitting department put two and two together and realized that Wagner never got the needed permits. When county officials finally noticed, years after construciton was complete, they threatened to tear the structure down. A court case ensued (well, a couple), and Wagner was eventually allowed to keep the structures up.

Now comes the owner of Dobbins Island, who is seeking to build a pier, driveway, well and septic system. The Magothy River Association and the Chesapeake Bay Foundation have challenged that, just as they did in the Wagner case; but the county's board of appeals have said the environmental groups have no standing to do so, just as it did in the Wagner case. CBF's Kim Coble laments that in an editorial today, saying that someone has to have the right to speak for the trees, the grasses, the crabs and all the other living creatures in the river.

Here's the thing though: when Jim and Ed Wilson bought the two islands and the shoreline property, they couldn't give Dobbins away to the environmentalists. They tried, calling DNR and every other place they could think of to sell it or donate it. Nobody wanted an eroding hill that had long ago become a de facto public park; the liability issues alone were too daunting.

Here, in fact, are then-DNR-spokeswoman Heather Lynch's exact words:  "The Department of Natural Resources is not interested in purchasing it, protecting it or preserving it. From our perspective, it presents a patrolling and enforcement headache."

The owner of Dobbins isn't trying to build something new-Dobbins already had a house on it, back when the island was owned by the original family and the children could walk to school on the mainland over a sandbar.

There is no explaining how Anne Arundel officials missed the Little Island faux-lighthouse, which sticks out even in the increasingly McMansion-heavy Magothy. But it doesn't sound like the Dobbins guy is trying to do the same thing. And hey, at least he's asking for permits. Let him bring back the goats that used to roam the place, and he won't even have to expend emissions to mow the lawn. Now that would be something.

Posted by Rona Kobell at 10:24 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)