Bay Scores Lower than Last Year

The Chesapeake Bay Foundation just released its 2007 State of the Bay Report, and the results aren't good. This year's score is 28 out of 100, one point lower than last year's score. Three of 13 indicators fell, phosphorus, blue crabs, and water clarity.

Leopold Vows to Continue Case Against Island Home

One of John Leopold's first acts as County Executive suggests he possesses the nerve to proceed where his predecessor feared to tread. Throughout the election season, both Leopold and George Johnson heard continuously about the Little Dobbins Island house, and what an embarassment it had become. So, it comes as little surprise that Leopold declared that the County will continue its lawsuit against Mr. Wagner and went on the record with the Sun yesterday, saying "[the situation] has been a black eye for the county. It's my intent to do everything in my power to ensure that this does not reoccur."

While Leopold has remained tight-lipped about the Board of Appeals decision, the Board continues to expose its ineptness in defending the Bay. Board Member Vance Remillard offered that it was not the Board's place to punish Mr. Wagner.

No, of course not. Why would we expect this regulatory board, appointed by representatives of the citizenry to "punish" a man who constructed an island home in the critical area of Magothy River without permits? Unfortunately, the two members who understand their role on the board, Billy Moulden ("There is no entitlement to a variance") and Anthony V. Lamartina are outnumbered by rubes who see their job as rubber-stamping variance requests.

The light at the end of this tunnel though, is that, according to the litigation director for the Chesapeake Bay Foundation, "There's plenty of room there for an appeal." Let's hope that CBF, the Magothy River Association, and the County will keep pursuing this effort to seek justice.

Bay Still Failing, but Not Quite as Badly

The Chesapeake Bay Foundation released its State of the Bay Report this morning. The Bay's score is up to 29 from 27 last year (to grade a 29 as a "D" seems a heck of a curve). According to CBF:

A score of 40 points would be enough to meet the 2010 goal of getting the bay off the nation's "dirty waters" list; a 70 would indicate a restored bay; and 100 would represent the pristine estuary that Capt. John Smith explored early in the 17th century.

The report found that improvements had been made in the levels of nitrogen and phosphorus pollution in the Bay, as well in dissolved oxygen, riparian buffers, and oysters. Declines were reported in both the amount of wetlands and numbers of shad in the Bay.

While improvements in nutrient pollution are encouraging, experts warn that they could be the result of a dry spring, causing less runoff, rather than permanent changes to pollution loading in the Bay.

CBF v. (sort of) EPA

Well, the Chesapeake Bay Foundation has finally "lost patience" and decided to petition the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) for failing to make states comply with provisions of the Clean Water Act, particularly those concerned with the emission of nitrogen from wastewater treatment plants. We can be sure the folks at EPA are shaking in their boots (they aren't even required to reply). Those concerned about the environment have repeatedly settled for suggestions rather than regulations (see: Chesapeake 2000 Agreement), petitions rather than lawsuits (see: CBF v. EPA, 2003), and yet some wonder why the Bay Index keeps dropping faster than a State Delegate at the sight of a slots lobbyist.

As Howard Ernst, author of Chesapeake Bay Blues, is fond of saying (approximately), we can either continue the "feel good" compromises that have gotten the Bay into its current sorry state, or we can get serious about protecting the Bay, sue polluters when the need arises, and step on some toes.