U.S. Water News Online
ANNAPOLIS, Md. -- The Chesapeake Bay is in miserable shape, according to an environmental group that recently gave bay health a D grade for an eighth consecutive year.
The Chesapeake Bay Foundation gave the bay failing grades for pollution, dissolved oxygen, water quality and underwater grasses important to help filter the water. Even the bright spots in the report -- an increase in oysters, for example -- were only marginal improvements. Oyster health scored 3 out of 100 last year; in 2006 oysters improved to 4 out of 100.
Will Baker, president of the nonprofit environmental group, said he considered it unlikely the Chesapeake Bay would meet 2010 goals for improvement without more cleanup efforts from surrounding states.
"Clearly a great deal more needs to be done," Baker said.
The group said bay health is only slightly better than last year -- up two points to 29 out of 100 -- but nowhere near close to healthy on most of the 13 indicators of bay health, including dissolved oxygen levels, water clarity and the health of oysters and blue crabs.
The slight improvement, Baker said, was largely attributable to a dry spring. Rain flushes pollutants such as nitrogen into the bay, so dry spells can help clear up the water.
"This year's improvement was driven partly by Mother Nature," Baker said.
A government agency that also monitors the bay -- the Chesapeake Bay Program -- said summer low-oxygen zones shrank in the bay this year. That report showed that 1.79 percent of the bay was anoxic, or had too little oxygen for most species to survive, compared to about 4.5 percent last year.
Baker called on Maryland, Virginia and Pennsylvania to adopt better incentives for farmers to reduce runoff into the rivers and creeks that lead to the bay. Pennsylvania's legislature, he said, is considering a new incentive program, but has not yet approved it.
The foundation noted that expensive sewage-treatment upgrades in Maryland and Virginia would improve water quality, but those upgrades probably haven't had time to be reflected in the report card. Baker said he believes it's possible to reach water quality goals set by surrounding states by 2010 -- but not without even more money for restoration.
"It's time to get serious about saving the bay," he said.
Bill Dennison, a faculty member at the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science, did not help compile the CBF report card but said it falls in line with findings of other reports that bay health is improving, but not by much.
"I don't think we've turned the corner" on bay restoration, Dennison said.
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