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Report: Swimming in the bay is risky

Foundation files first report on human dangers in waters

By PAMELA WOOD, Staff Writer

Published 07/07/09

If you hadn't thought twice about dipping your toes in the cool waters of a local creek or the Chesapeake Bay, a new report might make you think again.

Capital file photo The nonprofit Chesapeake Bay Foundation has released its first report looking at the bay's threats to human health.

The nonprofit Chesapeake Bay Foundation has released its first report looking at the bay's threats to human health.

And it's not pretty: bacteria that can give you an upset stomach, pathogens that cause scary infections, mercury that affects brain function.

While the worst human health problems are thankfully still rare, bay foundation leaders wanted to make clear that pollution in the bay can affect people just as much as it hurts fish, crabs and oysters.

"What we're trying to do is to make it very clear to our elected officials and to the environmental agencies that they cannot continue to ignore the clean-water laws and expect the bay to get better, that there's a very direct connection to the economy, to human health and certainly to the abundance of life in the Chesapeake Bay and the rivers," said foundation President Will Baker.

The bay foundation planned to unveil the report, "Bad Water 2009: The Impact on Human Health in the Chesapeake Bay Region," during a news conference in the Annapolis community of Bay Ridge this morning featuring a Crownsville man who suffered a dangerous waterborne infection.

Bernie Voith is one of the case studies highlighted in the report. In 2005, Voith went swimming in Plum Creek on the Severn River when bacteria levels in the water had spiked, though he didn't know it.

A cut on his leg became severely infected, landing him in the hospital for two weeks and leading to months of treatment.

Read the Chesapeake Bay Foundation's full report

http://www.hometownannapolis.com/photos/090707cbf_report.pdf

Other threats outlined in the report include:

Vibrio: A class of bacteria that thrives in warm, nutrient-rich waters. Various species can cause skin and blood infections, diarrhea and other sicknesses. Reported cases are on the rise in Maryland and Virginia.

Algae and cyanobacteria: Warm, nutrient-rich water spurs harmful algae and ainfections like the one Voith suffered.

Mercury: Neurotoxin builds up in fish tissue after falling into the water from air pollution.

Drinking water: Nitrates from fertilizers and other sources can contaminate well water.

And many of the threats are caused or worsened by man's polluting of the Chesapeake Bay with nutrients, the report charges. Global warming also might be heating the waters, causing some pathogens to thrive.

Despite the concerns, Baker said he still swims in the Chesapeake Bay and its rivers - though he's more careful about it.

"I've been swimming in the bay all my life," Baker said. "But in the last year or two, I have been more concerned about swimming in the warm months - July, August, early September - after a heavy rain."

The report doesn't pull any punches in describing nasty infections and dangerous pathogens. And it calls on the government to do a better job clamping down on pollution.

Dawn Stoltzfus, a spokesman for the Maryland Department of the Environment, which oversees state and local testing of water safety, acknowledged there are serious human health concerns in the bay. And she said state and federal officials are working to improve water testing and notification, as well as to reduce pollution.

Stoltzfus said the message to be careful when swimming bears repeating.

"People should go to the beach armed with the facts," she said.

She noted that beach closures due to high bacteria counts have declined in the past few years.

"Right now, it's pretty safe," Stoltzfus said. "A lot of the illnesses they mentioned are really thankfully rare, but they need to be taken seriously."

She, too, said she swims in the bay, but wouldn't go in the water with an open sore or after a rainfall.

Stoltzfus said the foundation report was lacking in what individuals can do to lessen the problem: clean up pet waste, properly dispose of diapers at the beach, use marina pump-out stations and replace failing septic systems.

Swimmers and boaters also should check bacteria counts in waterways. In Anne Arundel, testing is done by the county Health Department and also by Anne Arundel Community College's Operation Clearwater.

"Everybody has a part in this," Stoltzfus said.

Read the Chesapeake Bay Foundation's "Bad Water" report at www.cbf.org. For more information about beach safety, visit www.marylandhealthybeaches.com or www.aahealth.org.

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Time to build water filter stations - 2009-07-08 09:13:04

Just a thought - why not build some water filter stations up and down the bay to clean it? Including some acres of non harvestable oysters?

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Nick W. - Davidsonville, MD - Karma: Neutral

Comment removed by HometownAnnapolis staff. - 2009-07-08 08:35:22

Staff message: Why is this comment hidden?

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- Karma: Bad

sediment pond - 2009-07-08 08:27:42

The title to this article should read the human threats to the Chesapeake bay.All that live on or near the bay are responsible for it's condition,no exceptions here.It seems to me that if we keep doing the things we all do that the bay will be the worlds largest sediment pond in world,this is a really sad thought.

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e. madden - edgewater, MD - Karma: Neutral

Is Anyone Surprised? - 2009-07-07 21:53:56

Being a midwestern transplant from the Lake of the Ozarks in Missouri, I was shocked when I moved here 5 years ago to find out that Maryland had complete subdivisions of houses along the bay with NO county sewer... Are you kidding me? Want to know why there is so much "remote" areas around the lakes there,,,, no sewer systems...its not rocket science people. Also,, the politicians probably don't want you all to think about this, but don't you think if you didn't dam up the Little Patuxent and every other tributary to the bay, that it would flush out the bay and clean it? I'd like to see a study on the water quality and see the correlation to when all the dams were built.. I'll bet they are too damning to be released.

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Bob L. - Annapolis, MD - Karma: Neutral

risky? - 2009-07-07 20:13:09

I swim in the bay all the time. I'm taking my sailboat out this Saturday and plan to stop in a creek to swim. "Corporal" you and any other like minded friends are welcome to join me.

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William Cooke - Baltimore, MD - Karma: Neutral

diapers - 2009-07-07 12:24:24

Emma, that is ridiculous, I have never seen anybody do that , but that has no effect on the bay's health .

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Corporal Reinhart - , - Karma: Terrible

Lots of ideas - 2009-07-07 11:58:23

One of them is to get people to use rain barrels under their downspouts to help reduce runoff and utilize the water for watering plants, washing cars, even re-route the water to our toilets. Conserving water like this can have a big impact on the up-keep of our beloved Bay. We could also insist that cruise liners dump their waste below the bay, in the open ocean no less than 12 miles out. These ships, and others, have been doing this for decades and it's high time it stops! The Chesapeake Bay is the most special body of water on the planet, in that it is the biggest estuarine system in the world. It has more shore line than Africa's west coast! We need to start treating it as such. We may not be able to save the planet, but we can, at least, clean up our bay and make it safe to swim in, or get that unexpected mouthful of water when we're tubing or water skiing. I saw a guy in Rosehaven spraying what little weeds were poking out of the cracks of his sidewalk with Roundup. I had to say something to him and he scoffed. Are people really so anal-retentive that they can't simply use a weed whacker to cut down these weeds? Or pull them when needed? Really, people, nothing is going to change without the vigilance of we who live around this beautiful body of water.

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eric sacratini - tracy's landing, MD - Karma: Good