Bay 'dead zone' still bad in '09

But scientists have new knowledge of how it works

By PAMELA WOOD, Staff Writer

Published 11/27/09

The low-oxygen "dead zone" in the Chesapeake Bay this summer was slightly larger than average and bigger than scientists had predicted, officials said this week.

Courtesy photo

Unusual weather conditions - dry weather in Pennsylvania and New York and a wet summer in Maryland and Virginia - threw off scientists' predictions, but gave them new understanding into how the dead zone works.

"It was a pretty insightful year for us," said Bill Dennison, a University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science professor and vice president who leads the research team.

The dead zone is caused when the nutrients nitrogen...

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We really have to decide. - 2009-11-27 20:25:54

Is it more important for commerce to drive development, or for the health and well being for ourselves and future generations. This is not new information. We've known the bay has been endangered for years, and we have heard politicians and people of good spewing words about saving the bay. But, each time,officialdom has been challenged: commerce or bay health, rare was the decision to put the Bay first. Local zoning has ignored the bay preferences, even though information about wetlands, polluted runoff, building in floodplains have been priorities since the 1980's. The latest concerns mean nothing, unless there is real action. People have known these problems for years, and some have cooperated with new rules and restrictions while others plotted their next development and government cooperation. It is frustrating to watch the games played by those concerned about the Bay, those who have the power to do something about it and those who those who continue to discredit "the worriers" as being NIMBYs. It is time for solutions, and real local will to plan to the future and stop the "quick fixes". The County Executive, the County Coucil, The Board of Appeals and the courts have to realize that the BAY is in real danger and perhaps it is time to do something about it.

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Maryellen Brady - Edgewater, MD - Karma: Neutral