Experts: Stronger bay action needed

Group makes 24 suggestions to avoid estuary's 'slow death'

By PAMELA WOOD, Staff Writer

Capital Gazette Communications

Published 12/31/09

To save the Chesapeake Bay once and for all, the federal government needs to require more severe pollution cuts and abandon voluntary programs that haven't worked, a group of bay experts demanded yesterday.

By Paul W. Gillespie, The Capital

Former state senator Gerald Winegrad of Annapolis charges that the federal government needs to take bolder actions to restore the Chesapeake Bay.

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Calling the cleanup effort a subpar attempt at restoring the bay, the group of 38 scientists, advocates, professors and former government officials from Maryland and Virginia offered a list of 24 detailed actions they deem necessary to rescue the bay.

Taking all 24 steps is the only way to prevent the "slow death by 1,000 cuts of this great estuary," said Gerald Winegrad, a former state senator from Annapolis...

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DO SOMETHING !!! - 2010-01-12 09:26:29

how many more hours and millions of dollars are going to be spend by talking heads at multiple levels of government ( and places like the CBF) analyzing analysis and researching research before someone actually goes back to basics gets a few baseline readings and initiates action ? Maybe it is time for some civil disobedience and radical tactics to wake everyone up.

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Fred Shubbie - annapolis , md - Karma: Terrible

A start BUT how about Anne Arundel - 2010-01-12 09:10:58

I agree Kurt. EPA should take a hard long look at what MDE and Anne Arundel County IS NOT doing to keep the streams and bay free from polluting them. Anne Arundel County and the Maryland Dept. of the Env. KNOWS that the Millersville Landfill IS and HAS BEEN polluting our water systems for YEARS!! Also this landfill IS and HAS BEEN polluting the AIR, and the County and State DO NOTHING !!! I know this because I'm a "Freindly Neighbor" of the STINKING Millersville Landfill. What EPA should do is STOP giving there responsibilly to "others" like the State and County Gov. and do the job they are to do..... Keep the Environment SAFE !! Place more fines until the Polluters "Anne Arundel County and the State of Maryland" STOP!!! STOP the DAMN wasting of our TAX dollars on so called "studys" and stick with what we ALREADY KNOW !! WE have had VERY GOOD Environmental studys done for well over 100 years now, why the Heck spend ANY more money to do more and come up with the SAME findings. WE CAN make a difference today by stopping the BS starting with REMOVING the folks from office the WE voted for. WE put them in office WE can take them right OUT !!
Let's all start using some of the "common" since the was given to us. If you don't have any then Get the HEL- out of office!

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Frank Marion - Severn, md - Karma: Neutral

A good start - 2009-12-31 13:50:38

A better start to this problem would be to make the waste water treatment facilities stop dumping millions upon millions of gallons of raw sewage everytime it freaking rains. Last weeks "over flow" probably put more nutrients in the bay tahn every leaking septic system has in the last 10 years. Now add that number to the "over flows" that occur each and every year. Sure, farms and poultry and street run off do their part; but where is the outrage about the county and states huge part in polluting the bay. And another easy and cost free fix is to make it illegal to use fertilizer and lawn care companies. That's what the leaves that fall in the Fall are for. Mother nature has been replenishing her nutrients with leaves since there has been trees.

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Kurt Riefner - Crownsville, Md - Karma: Excellent