Federation Blog

Check out the links below to a Fox 5 expose on the efforts of Omega Protein to buy off Virginia politicians so that it can keep ravaging the menhaden populations in the Bay.

 Part 1

 Part 2

Former West/Rhode Riverkeeper Bob Gallagher recently had a great letter to the editor published in the Capital.  Several Waterkeeper groups, including the Federation, have signed on in support of the Attorney General's bills that he references below.  Please contact your legislators and ask them to support the bills as well:

Federal regulations regarding vessels with installed toilets have been in effect since 1980. At that time, it became a crime to dump untreated sewage from a boat to the water. The concern then was bacteria pollution. The law eliminated discharge of a dangerous pollutant from an easily controllable source.

The law has an exception for boats that have toilet systems that grind up the waste and kill the bacteria before the waste is pumped overboard. These systems remain legal except in a few designated "no discharge zones."

The 1987 Chesapeake Bay Agreement called for the elimination of "pollutant discharges from recreational boats." We now understand that pollution from nutrients like nitrogen is the biggest problem facing our rivers and the bay. Sewage from boats, whether treated or untreated, is a highly concentrated form of nitrogen pollution. Pumping even treated boat waste overboard is like dumping fertilizer in the bay.

Attorney General Doug Gansler has recently caused the introduction of legislation that would expand no discharge zones to include all Maryland waters (SB 513/HB 1257). Gansler's bill would require that boats that have these currently exempt "treatment systems" have them pumped out just like the great majority of other boats that store waste in holding tanks.

Less responsible elements of the maritime industry oppose the bill for the reason that boats affected by the legislation contribute only a very small amount to the nitrogen pollution that is suffocating the bay.

With the current state of water quality in the Bay, we need to stop nitrogen pollution from every controllable source. Moreover, why should any of us have to swim or crab near a boat that is discharging "treated" sewage? I support the Attorney General's bill.

Bob Gallagher

 

The X,Y,Z plot below was developed using the monitoring data that I collected, and was compiled by Dr. Muller at the United States Naval Academy. This plot is for July and indicates both a hypoxic (in dark red) and an anoxic (in black) zone from Liberty Marina toward the Rt 50 Bridge.  Hypoxic conditions are 2.0 mg/l or less and anoxic are 0.2mg/l or less.  This is one indicator used in the South River Scorecard for the River's health.--diana 

You all may not be seeing me out on the South River until spring.  This snow and ice has kept me from going on patrol or sampling, which gave me time to give the boat a new coat of bottom paint and an oil change for the Honda.  Hope to see you all on the river soon.---diana 

The environmental community continues to work with legislators to prevent a weakening of the Maryland Department of the Environment's (MDE) stormwater regulations slated to go into effect in May 2010. The Federation, along with others, is working to arrange a meeting between the environmental community, the development community, and regulators to see if some of the concerns with the bill that have been raised can be handled administratively, rather than with new laws. We appreciate everyone who contacted their legislators and asked them to stand firm on the regulations. The message definitely got across. We'll keep you posted as things progress.

In the past couple of weeks, bills to expand the uses of Bay Restoration Fund (BRF) dollars (SB 20/HB 313) were introduced. These bills would allow the septic portion of the BRF to be used to subsidize the conversion of communities with failing septic systems to sewer, in some instances. Given that there are a number of such communities on the South River and in Anne Arundel County, this has been a priority for the Federation for the past 2 years. Our hope is that we can get it passed this session. Calls to legislators in support of these bills are always appreciated.

Finally, as you may have read in the paper, the Watershed Protection & Restoration Act (SB 686/ HB999), which require local jurisdictions implement a fee on existing impervious surfaces to create a dedicated funding source for stormwater retrofits, is a priority for the environmental community and the Federation. In Anne Arundel County alone, there is estimated to be a $1 billion backlog of stormwater restoration repairs that are currently needed. A dedicated source of funds to address these issues on a continuing basis is the only way we can hope to make progress on this restoration work which is so critical to improving water quality. The bills will be dropped in the House and Senate next week and we will alert you as soon as they are.

The idea that ignorance could be a strength sounds odd (unless you're an Orwell fan), but the acknowledgment that one has significant knowledge gaps, rather than a full or almost complete understanding of an incredibly complex system, can be empowering, particularly in an evolving discipline.  That case is well made by Dr. Eugene Turner in the article linked here, "The value of 'ignorance' in restoration."

The central thesis is that the assumption that "restoration" is bound to work is very likely a road to perpetuating failure.  If we aren't monitoring what works and what doesn't, and revising our strategy when things don't work, we're going to end up wasting a lot of time and money and missing great opportunities to improve outcomes.

On Tuesday evening, the environmental community gathered in Annapolis to discuss our legislative agenda.  In the clip below, I discuss the reasons we need a state requirement for local stormwater utilities.   Video courtesy West/Rhode Riverkeeper, Chris Trumbauer.

 

Andrew Muller pulling the anchor for me on the South River after we were done water quality monitoring.

Meeting with a landowner last week, I came across this 1970s era photo of their farm above Bacon Ridge Branch. The photo is taken looking southeast towards the river, with St. Stephen's Church Road in the lower right-hand corner.  It really gives a great sense of how little development there was in the headwaters during that time, and just how rolling and dramatic the topography is throughout that entire area.

 Photo courtesy Tommy Boehm.

The Federation is working with a local landowner to undertake a massive restoration effort on the headwaters of Church Creek, just about Route 665 (Aris T. Allen Blvd).  As part of that effort, we have hired an environmental consulting firm to design and permit plans for the project.   Earlier this morning, I met out at the site with the consultant to walk the property and get a sense of the lay of the land.

Currently, the property is at the confluence of two streams (below), one coming from Route 2 and one from Old Forest Dr. (by the Allen Apartments) than drain some of the most heavily urbanized and paved portions of the South River watershed.  The restoration plan is to create a stream and wetland system that will trap and process sediment and nutrients from upstream and provide high quality habitat for fish, birds, and amphibians.

As was the case yesterday with Flat Creek, because the marsh was frozen much more solidly than usual, we were able to get down to tidewater where we found a pleasant surprise: Beavers!  This beaver lodge had clear signs of recent activity. 

 Not far downstream, I came across the biggest of several dams.  It's approximately 40' long by about 18" high, and is probably close to underwater at high tide.  Right now, you can see that it is impounding quite a bit of water in an area that would normally be dry.

 There are historic signs that beaver have been present further up the system, but the thinking is that perhaps, carrying the stormwater from Parole, Harbor Center, the Festival at Riva, and Old Forest Drive, the stream is too "flashy" and high energy  for their dams to remain stable in that location.  The hope is that through restoration we will have a stream and wetland complex that encourages beaver and other wildlife to once again inhabit this green corridor.