Posted under Chesapeake Bay
If you are concerned about the Chesapeake Bay and how to restore it to health, don’t miss former Senator Gerald Winegrad’s article in today’s Capital. An excerpt:
Agriculture contributes 43 percent of the nitrogen, 45 percent of the phosphorus and 60 percent of the sediment to the bay, more than any other source of these three key pollutants;
For some river systems, farm pollutants overwhelm pollution from development and all other sources;
Agriculture has met only 50 percent of its pollution reduction goals that were supposed to be met by 2010. For wastewater treatment plants, 99 percent of the phosphorus and 78 percent of the nitrogen goals have been met despite huge increases in sewerage flows and great expense, including the Flush Tax on all Marylanders; and
Reducing farm pollutants is the most cost-effective way to save the bay.
Winegrad asks, “We wouldn’t let a town of 25,000 people dump untreated human waste on open lands; why should we allow the dumping of the equivalent amount of manure from 150,000 chickens without meaningful regulation?”
Winegrad is part of a group environmental leaders that’s recommending 8 science-based measures to curb pollution into the Bay from agriculture. You can read that entire report here.
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