Issue Position: Environment

Issue Position

CHESAPEAKE BAY - BALANCED ON THE EDGE

The Chesapeake Bay is the world's largest and most diverse estuary, and is the most important natural resource in Maryland. The Bay serves as a breeding ground and nursery for species as diverse as blue crabs, rock fish and yellow perch, and as winter haven for countless migratory birds. It is also a stunningly beautiful body of water that draws Marylanders and out of state tourists to its shores to enjoy its bounty throughout the year.

The Bay is under assault from a new and different set of threats - rather than the unregulated discharge of industrial wastes, the Bay faces its greatest challenges now from the steady destruction of open and undeveloped land, which acts as a buffer and filter for waters entering the Bay; from aging wastewater treatment systems; from agricultural run-off which is largely unregulated under the Clean Water Act; and from air deposition of pollutants generated many miles upwind of the Bay watershed. And these threats are having as much of an impact on the watershed as the industrial wastes of decades ago. For instance, the flushing of nutrients into the Bay from farms, residential septic systems and over 300 municipal waste water treatment plants has created a massive "dead zone" in the Bay stretching from Kent Island to the mouth of the York River in Virginia - fully 41 percent of the Bay's main stem had too little oxygen to support life in August of 2005. The Bay's species are suffering as well: Recent studies have found that up to 70 percent of rockfish in the Bay are infected with mycobacteriosis, a wasting disease that can kill rockfish and can cause a severe skin infection in humans. Rockfish, which experienced a remarkable recovery after a moratorium on fishing in the Bay, are now being weakened by pollutants in the Bay and have become susceptible to diseases that were not a threat in previous years - resulting in levels of mortality in the upper Bay that are three times as high as when mycobacteriosis was first discovered in the Bay.

Now is the time to take decisive action. The health of the Chesapeake Bay hangs in the balance and we cannot hesitate another moment. If we do not take concerted action, we face the prospect of a dead Bay - empty of life and something to be avoided rather than enjoyed and celebrated. If we do not act immediately, our children and our grandchildren will rightly ask why we let this happen.

A PLAN FOR ACTION

Programs and funding to protect and revive the Chesapeake Bay must include the following items below (please click on the links below to learn more about my plan):

I. The Importance of Open Spaces

II. Rolling Back Antiquated Septic System

III. Helping Farmers Protect the Bay

IV. Fighting Air Pollutants

V. Strong Enforcement of Environmental Laws

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