In the 45,000-square-mile Chesapeake Bay, the country’s largest estuary, nitrogen and phosphorus from sewage treatment plants and effluents from cities and agriculture continually smother marine life.
“What’s happening in the Chesapeake Bay is not only important to our residents, but also impacts the seafood industry, recreational and commercial anglers across the Atlantic coast,” said the independent conservation organization Chesapeake Bay. says Alison Colden, senior fisheries scientist at the Foundation. organization.
Despite decades of cleanup work and evolving regulations by the Environmental Protection Agency, the bay remains at risk. To make matters worse, climate change is exacerbating the region’s problems. Increased rainfall is causing more nutrients to flow into the bay, and rising water temperatures are making it harder to reverse the damage already done to the bay.
This project Published in partnership with Baltimore Brew Supported in part by generous grants from the Pulitzer Center, the Society of Environmental Journalists, and the Institute for Journalism & Natural Resources.
transcript
narrator: Tom Weaver is the captain of a charter ship. He has been fishing in this area for over 30 years.
Tom Weaver: One of the best fishing spots in the world. One of the best places to live in the world.
narrator: The Chesapeake Bay is the largest estuary in the country. It spans over 4,500 square miles. It’s more than twice as big as her in Delaware. It is also home to 10 million people and her 3,600 species of marine life.
It is also an economic powerhouse, producing over $33 billion annually in seafood, shipping and tourism.
But over the past decade, Weaver says, finding fish for customers has never been more difficult.
Weaver: Yeah, it’s, it’s, it’s hard You are burning more fuel. Some places can only be reached by stopping and refueling. We have seen rapid declines in overall populations, from small size fish to fully breeding females.
My real concern is whether I will have enough fish to run my business successfully. You can’t do this if there are no fish around.
narrator: Fish in the bay are dying or moving due to farm and urban runoff, wastewater pollution and climate change.
This body of water is fed from the Chesapeake Bay Basin. It spans 64,000 square miles across 6 states and DC. 73% of this area is public land.
However, this watershed is bordered by heavy pollutants such as factories, water treatment plants, and large farms.
Elle Bassett: You can always tell redheads from other redheads thanks to their characteristic leaves.
narrator: River conservationist Elle Bassett says 70% of the watersheds she monitored when she worked for the nonprofit Shore Rivers were used for agriculture.
Bassett: Mainly here on the East Coast, we have row crops. Corn, soybeans.
There are also many poultry farms here on the east coast, especially in the Delmarva area. Along with that, chicken litter, which is chicken droppings, is also highly nutritious.
narrator: About 300 million chickens are raised on Maryland’s east coast each year, according to a 2021 report from the Environmental Integrity Project, a watchdog group.
Nitrogen and phosphorus are the main chemicals found in chicken manure and manure. When heavy rainfall hits farmlands, these nutrients wash into the bay. In 2021, 260 million pounds of nitrogen and 15 million pounds of phosphorus will be poured into the bay, according to Chesapeake Progress, a group that monitors the bay’s cleanup. Nearly half were from farms.
Bassett: When excess nutrients—nitrogen and phosphorus—enter our waterways, they fuel the growth of those algal microscopic plants. There are many types of algae that float and grow on the surface.
narrator: The algae eventually die and sink to the bottom of the bay. As they decompose, they deprive water of oxygen. This creates ‘dead zones’ and can lead to the mass extinction of marine life that cannot escape these areas.
The 2021 dead zone is 7% larger than the annual average. And it lasted a month and a half longer.
The bay is the primary spawning and lactating ground for up to 90% of Atlantic striped bass. According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, striped bass numbers are below sustainable levels here.
By 2022, the number of blue crabs in the bay has plummeted. This is his third straight year of sharp decline. In 2019, there were about 600 million blue crabs. By 2022, there will be less than 230 million. It’s the lowest number in his 33 years of blue crab population tracking.
But agricultural pollution is not the only problem. On the West Bank, stormwater runoff and pollution from wastewater treatment plants feed dead zones in the Gulf.
The Back and Patapsco River wastewater treatment plants are two of the largest in Maryland. However, failure of the entire system caused these plants to spew even more nutrients and sewage into the bay.
Alice Volpitta: Based on bacterial monitoring, we know that contact with Buck River water can be dangerous.
narrator: Alice Volpitta is a water scientist at Blue Water Baltimore. She said these processing facilities have discharged dangerous levels of nutrients, oils and bacteria since her 2014.
Valpisa: One way to test whether water is healthy or sick is with this device called a hydrolab. The instrument is equipped with a variety of probes that give you measurements of chlorophyll content, dissolved oxygen, temperature, and more. All the various measurements in chemistry tell us, “Does this waterway meet water quality standards?”
narrator: In 2021, Blue Water Baltimore and the Chesapeake Legal Alliance sued the City of Baltimore under the Clean Water Act. Triggered the state of Maryland to buy the Back River plant.
Since the 1960s, several cleanup efforts have taken place across the bay. But none have been successful.
Bassett: When you think about the Chesapeake Bay, it’s really hard to make a change. There are 6 states and DCs, 6 different leaders, 7 different leaders. Everyone is trying to come up with a solution to the same problem.
narrator: The latest plan is the 2010 Chesapeake Clean Water Blueprint. Here’s a state-by-state guide to reducing nutrient pollution by 2025.
In October 2022, the EPA confirmed that no Gulf states are on track to meet these pollution reduction targets. EPA is considering extending the contamination deadline.
Adam Ortiz: Our job is to make sure everyone is partnering and holding each other accountable as much as possible and doing their part to make sure the water is clean.
Valpisa: We are witnessing chronic failure to enforce these clean water laws. And that’s the big question.
A good law without proper enforcement is a toothless lion.
narrator: With no way to stop nutrient contamination at its source, some organizations are trying to catch nutrient contamination as it enters the bay.
Bassett: Many people in the Chesapeake area would say, “If we can get the grass back, we can get the Chesapeake Bay back.” Besides providing habitat, food, shelter and oxygen, they also absorb nutrients.
narrator: At ShoreRivers, Elle Bassett harvests and replants underwater seaweed every year.
Bassett: We use volunteers to go outside and find SAV beds.
narrator: SAV stands for “underwater vegetation”.
Bassett: If it is a thick bed that is healthy and sturdy, harvest the seeds from that bed.
ShoreRivers Volunteers: Mix these seeds with dry sand so that the seeds are evenly distributed.
narrator: But time is running out. Climate change means more rain and more frequent storms hitting the region, draining more nutrients from farmlands and urban areas.
Stormwater runoff carries 17% of the nitrogen and phosphorus that enter the Gulf.
Another problem is that the water temperature is rising. Summer temperatures in the Gulf have risen 2 degrees Fahrenheit since the late 1980s, according to the Virginia Institute of Marine Science.
Bassett: Hot water contains less oxygen than cold water. We are stressing our environment. Dead zones are increasing. And it’s not just us, it’s climate change that’s having an impact.
Ortiz: It should come as no surprise to any of us that a body of water, especially one as large and complex as the Chesapeake Bay, is difficult to reconstruct. The climate change challenge is undeniably tough.
Weaver: This is a public resource. You, I, and everyone here have equal rights to access this, this bay, and everything in it. It is our responsibility as a group to manage that resource.
But the Chesapeake Bay will definitely be saved. So, it’s unlikely that you’ll go back 400 years, but you can definitely go back and it’s 100% worth it.
