Chesapeakce Bay again gets a D on report card

The scant progress made in cleaning up the Chesapeake Bay has become "a national disgrace," the head of a leading environmental group said Wednesday.

William C. Baker, president of the Chesapeake Bay Foundation, offered his blunt assessment in releasing the annual "State of the Bay" report card, which grades the overall health of the Bay based on various factors.

For 2008, the foundation gave the Bay a combined score of 28 on a scale of 1 to 100. In classroom terms, that equates to a D, the same grade as in 2007 and just one point higher than what the foundation first reported, in 1998.

"Who are we kidding?" Baker said at a news conference in Annapolis, Md. "It is 2009 and this national treasure is still getting trashed, while government refuses to use every possible tool available to stop it."

His comments reflect a growing frustration with what he called the "pathetically slow" pace of the Bay cleanup, ongoing since 1983.

For two decades, the Chesapeake Bay Foundation worked closely with state and federal regulators in devising restoration plans and holding out hope that they would turn conditions around and "save the Bay."

But more recently, the foundation has become a fierce critic of the government-led Chesapeake Bay Program, which includes Virginia, Maryland, Pennsylvania and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Among the problems: too many meetings and studies, not enough action and money.

The administration of President Barack Obama has pledged to help speed the cleanup, hiring a "senior adviser" for Bay matters.

That adviser, Chuck Fox, attended Wednesday's news conference and reiterated afterward that change is coming. Without offering specifics, Fox said the reforms would likely include more money and new regulations.

The report card measures 13 environmental factors, from oxygen levels in the Bay, to crab and oyster stocks, to acreages of wetlands and forests. Each category is assigned a score from 1 to 100, and all 13 scores are totaled and averaged for a final figure. In 10 years, that final number has never exceeded 29; 70 represents full restoration; 100 is pristine.

Christy Everett, who heads the local office of the Bay foundation in Hampton Roads, said poor water quality, little oxygen and declining crab populations are key markers in the lower Bay.

Improvements to sewage treatment plants are "being offset by increasing development and increasing storm water," which carries dirt, fertilizers and other pollutants to the Bay through storm drains, city streets or off farms, Everett said.

The report was not all bad news. It noted how underwater grasses, which breathe oxygen into the Bay and provide shelter for aquatic life, recovered last year.

And it gave a slightly higher score for land conservation, pointing out that Virginia Gov. Timothy M. Kaine is nearing his goal of protecting 400,000 acres of green space by the end of his term in January.

The foundation currently is suing the EPA for not doing enough through the Clean Water Act to force cities, towns, industries and sewage plants to clamp down on pollution discharges. The case is pending before a federal judge in Washington, D.C.

Scott Harper, (757) 446-2340, scott.harper@pilotonline.com