In the laundry list of recommendations for curbing greenhouse gases put out this week by the Maryland Commission on Climate Change, one idea that didn't make it was halting construction of the long-disputed Intercounty Connector. 

That's not surprising, perhaps, when you consider that the commission was appointed by Gov. Martin O'Malley. Despite an otherwise green record - he scored a record-high A-minus recently from the Maryland League of Conservation Voters - the governor has taken heat from environmentalists for his vow to complete the six-lane tollway through Washington's suburbs.

The issue divides environmentalists - not over its substance but over the political pragmatism of potentially angering a powerful patron.  A lawsuit filed by environmental and community groups to stop the highway was thrown out, allowing construction to begin - though the groups have appealed.

"It was one of the most controversial topics discussed," said Brad Heavner, state director of Environment Maryland and a member of one of the climate commission's working groups. 

It seems that ICC foes did briefly plant their flag during the climate commission's deliberations last fall, before being thwarted by supporters of the east-west highway.  A small working group focused on transportation and land use issues reportedly put forward a recommendation to stop building the ICC in consideration of its impacts on climate change.  They argued that that the $2.4 billion project would encourage more driving - and release more climate-warming greenhouse gases - than if the state expanded transit service and put tolls on existing roads to ease traffic congestion.  

The Environmental Defense Fund, for instance, has estimated that building the 18.8-mile highway would boost gasoline consumption in the Washington region by 5 percent within a generation.  And if the state invested instead in transit and other measures to reduce driving, the difference in fuel use could be as much as 11 percent, according to the group's analysis.

But the working group quickly backtracked amid protests from ICC backers, at least one of whom reportedly had been absent when the stop-work recommendation got the preliminary nod.  Unable to resolve their differences over what to do about the ICC, the group did agree to recommend that the state weigh climate-change impacts of all big publicly funded transportation and land-use projects that may be proposed in the future.

"In the end, there was a move to weaken the recommendation, to be basically forward-looking and not focus on any particular project," said Michael A. Replogle, transportation director of the Washington-based Environmental Defense Fund and a member of the working group.

Replogle said he helped broker the fallback position.  Although still firmly convinced that halting the ICC could significantly reduce greenhouse gas emission in that part of the state, he said he and others decided it wasn't worth a pitched battle over this one project.

"The reality is the ICC's under construction now," he said.

Posted by Tim Wheeler at 12:52 PM | Permalink | Comments (4)
                    

  For those who try to read the tea leaves at political conventions, the Chesapeake Bay gets a rare boost in the Democratic party platform being presented today in Denver.  

"We support a comprehensive solution for restoring our national treasures - such as the Great Lakes, Everglades and Chesapeake Bay - including expanded scientific research and protections for species and habitats there," the draft platform reads. 

Whether that means an Obama administration would give a big federal boost to bay restoration remains to be seen.  But it's been quite a while, apparently, since our dear bay merited mention in the laundry list of positions on which Democratic candidates have campaigned for the White House. 

Illinois Sen. Barack Obama, to be formally handed the party's nomination later this week, has long been an advocate of cleaning up the Great Lakes.  The environmental policy statement on his campaign Web site has an entire section devoted to the lakes.  Apparently lobbying from inside and outside of Obama's campaign persuaded party leaders to add the Chesapeake and the Everglades to the plank vowing to work to restore the nation's waters.

One insider plugging for the bay was David Bancroft, former president of the Alliance for the Chesapeake Bay, a Baltimore-based regional nonprofit working to restore the bay. He's now an environmental adviser to the Obama campaign.  Before his stint at the alliance, Bancroft had worked for the Great Lakes Governors Council.

Bancroft wrote in an email that party officials from Maryland and Virginia also pushed for some mention of the Chesapeake, as did several speakers during the nationwide round of public meetings the party had to solicit ideas for its platform.   It probably didn't hurt, either, that Maryland's lieutenant governor, Anthony Brown, was tapped to help write the platform.

It may well be the first time the party's platform has specifically pledged to fight to restore the Chesapeake.  I could not find any such mentions in platform statements going back into the 1960s.

It's not clear if the Republican party will match the Dems in vowing fealty to the Chesapeake.  The GOP's platform apparently is still being drafted.  Arizona Sen. John McCain, that party's presumptive nominee, mentions Gettysburg, the Grand Canyon and the Everglades among the "national treasures" he pledges to preserve.

Continue reading "Obama & the Chesapeake" »

Posted by Tim Wheeler at 1:50 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)
                    

Dear Bayblog readers,

I wanted to write a short note to say goodbye, for now.

My family and I will be moving to Ann Arbor temporarily. I have been accepted to the Knight-Wallace fellowship at the University of Michigan. My last day here is Friday; I will be returning to The Sun sometime in May.

While in Michigan, I will be studying a subject that has been close to my heart lately -- economic approaches to environmental stability. Most of the things we are collectively doing to harm the Chesapeake Bay are completely legal: building new homes, cutting down trees, fertilizing our yards, driving too far to our jobs, etc. I will be looking to see if there are ways to encourage people to live more sustainably through carrots, since we really wouldn't want regulation to tell us where we can live, how we can garden, what kind of cars we can drive, etc.

In my 14 years as a reporter, I've covered everything from prisons to police to county government and business. I've found things to enjoy in everything, but I've never quite fell in love with a beat the way I have with the Chesapeake Bay. When Mencken talked about newspaper reporting being "the life of kings," I know what he meant. There really is nothing better than spending a beautiful workday out on the water, talking to folks who have done it all their lives. And even when it's bitterly cold and your pen freezes and you get seasick , it still beats a day at the office in my book.

In part, the bay's problems have been the gift that keeps on giving, news-wise. There is never a shortage of story ideas. I am pleased to report that Tim Wheeler will continue to cover the environment in my absence; it's a job that I know he loves as much as I do. He'll be great at it.

Over the year that we've had this blog, there have been peaks and valleys. I apologize I haven't posted very much lately; we're working on my last story before I go and time has been tight.

But I wanted to thank all of you who've stuck with us, and the ones who continue to find us through random paths (sorry all, I don't have oysterman Luke's phone number, and I don't know what happened to the necklace he gave "The Bachelorette.") Getting to know all of you has been great fun, and developing and growing this blog has been one of the highlights of my year.

I didn't start out as a blog apostle. I wanted to have a blog but wasn't sure what exactly we would do with it. It has been immensely rewarding in many ways: as a source of story ideas, a place to have opinions and thoughts both validated and challenged, a way to give voice to topics with a reach beyond Maryland, such as menhaden regulations. 

I will miss it, but I promise to occasionally check in. With Tim, I know it will be in good hands.  Keep those comments coming, and take good care of yourselves.

Until soon, I hope,

Rona Kobell

Chesapeake Bay Reporter

The Baltimore Sun 

Posted by Rona Kobell at 1:47 PM | Permalink | Comments (7)
                    

                                              Photo by Sun photographer Karl Merton Ferron 

Five watermen's groups in Virginia formed a coalition this week to fight fishing regulations pinching them and to push for cleaning up the Chesapeake Bay.

"We want to see a healthy bay because we're the ones who make a living off of it," said Ken Smith, president of the newly formed Virginia State Watermen's Association.  He was quoted in a story in the Newport News Daily Press.

Watermen in Virginia and Maryland are chafing under new crabbing restrictions imposed this year by both states.  With biologists warning that the bay's crab population is dangerously low, the two states moved to reduce the catch of female crabs by one-third.  In Maryland, that means an early end to the season for catching females on Oct. 23 - two months sooner than usual.

State officials have acknowledged that the harvest cutback will hurt watermen financially.  They rely on crabbing, one of the few significant commercial fisheries left in the bay.   Lt. Gov. Anthony Brown visited Tylerton, a remote fishing village on Smith Island, this week to see what the state may do to ease the impact.  Here's a story in the Salisbury Times about Brown's foray.

Posted by Tim Wheeler at 12:25 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)
                    

There's more time to weigh in on a proposed new highway through Charles County that highlights the tensions between growth and environmental protection in Maryland.

The Army Corps of Engineers and Maryland Department of the Environment have announced they are extending the public comment period until Sept. 15 on the county's request for a permit to destroy the wetlands as they build the four-lane highway across the creek.  The public hearing July 31 in LaPlata reportedly was standing-room-only.

In case you missed the Sun story last April about the dispute, local officials say the Cross County Connector is needed to handle the traffic from 8,000 new homes planned along its route and to link the county's growth areas.   If the highway is not built, other roads will have to be widened or built, they say.

But opponents point out the highyway would clear 74 acres of forest in addition to destroying wetlands. They contend the $60 million project would threaten the Mattawoman, an important tributary of the Potomac River and one of the best remaining breeding streams in Maryland for yellow perch, a tasty little fish once plentiful in Chesapeake Bay.

Maybe it's just coincidence, but yesterday came word of a blue-green algae bloom on the Mattawoman.  Though naturally occurring, such algae blooms "may occur in nutrient rich environments", according to the the county health department.  Such blooms can be harmful if the microscopic plants are thick enough or if they produce toxins.

To make written comments on the highway project, go here.

Posted by Tim Wheeler at 5:36 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)
                    

The 'dead zone' that's making life difficult in Chesapeake Bay for blue crabs, fish and shellfish has plenty of company, it seems. A new study led by a Virginia marine scientist reports a one-third increase worldwide over the last 12 years in the number of such dead spots on the sea bottom - where there's too little oxygen in the water for most fish and shellfish.

The study published in the Aug. 15 issue of Science found 405 dead zones in coastal waters globally.  The total sea bottom deprived of life-sustaining oxygen is about 95,000 square miles - roughly the size of New Zealand. 

The authors, Robert Diaz of the Virginia Institute of Marine Science and Swedish researcher Rutger Rosenberg, say dead zones are the "key stressor" in coastal waters, on a par with overfishing, habitat loss and toxic algae blooms.

The biggest dead zone in this country is in the Gulf of Mexico at the mouth of the Missisisippi River, the report notes.  The one in the Chesapeake forms every summer and spreads over up to 40 percent of the main bay's bottom.

Dead zones form when too many nutrients - nitrogen and phosphorus - get into the water and feed algae blooms.  The massive growths of tiny water-borne plants suck the oxygen out of the water after they die and sink to the bottom, where they decompose.  The nutrients come from fertilizer and human and animal wastes getting into the water, along with fallout from burning coal, oil and gasoline.

Dead zones were once rare, the researchers say. The first one in the Chesapeake, for instance, was reported in the 1930s.  Go here to see a Google map showing the zones around the world.

Posted by Tim Wheeler at 6:49 PM | Permalink | Comments (15)
                    

Edwin Lewis, the millionaire who built hunting cabins on an Eastern Shore Island that were later declared to be illegal, STILL has not torn them down.

Here, the Salisbury times gives the details. Apparently, he was willing to tear them down, but ONLY if he could build a house there instead.

This was a landmark Critical Area violation case -- one of the biggest ones in history, before the Little Island lighthouse/gazebo/house situation.

Posted by Rona Kobell at 10:49 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)
                    

Now here's a public service: free kayaking!

The West/Rhode Riverkeeper is sponsoring evenings of free kayaking every week between Aug. 7 and late September.

They provide the kayak, the lifejacket, even the band.

Besides being a great way to spend a summer evening, this really is also a great public benefit. If you don't have a kayak, how can you experience the water? There isn't always opportunity to rent one, especially if you have no roof rack. And even if you could find a kayak to rent, you need public access to put it in -- hard to come by when like, 98 percent of the shoreline is privately owned.

Posted by Rona Kobell at 10:24 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)
                    

This is the question Newport News reporter Patrick Lynch asks in a nice column for his paper, which you can read here.

Lynch went crabbing, or at least interviewed crabbers, in the Old Dominion state, who report they are having one of their best years yet. This was the case last year as well, at least in the Upper Bay and in parts of the lower Western Shore; crabbers were baffled by the DNR restrictions because they were actually catching more crabs than they had in previous years.

Great as the threat to crabbers seems to be from the most recent restrctions -- all aimed at getting a 34 percent reduction in harvest -- I think there is a greater threat. And that is market forces.

I went crabbing last week with Tommy Powley, a grandfatherly waterman who works out of Hoopers Island and crabs on the Western Shore. We were out from 4:30 a.m. until about 2. He caught 30 bushels of crabs in that time. And while I took a nap and chit-chatted with Powley and his crew, those three guys did not stop working for even a minute. They hoisted pots, pulled out crabs, re-baited the pots, threw them back, and culled out all the crabs that were too big and too small to keep.

Now, 30 bushels isn't a bad haul for a day's work, and Powley said that, the week before, he could have caught even more, but a mid-July size limit on males meant he had to throw back a lot of number ones.

But the problem is this: he was only getting $65 a bushel for the males, and $25 for females.

When you factor in what he has to pay two helpers, his bait, his fuel, he is making barely any money.

But someone IS making money. The question is, who?

When was the last time you bought a bushel of crabs for anything close to $65 a bushel?

A co-worker of mine said he had a crab feast last weekend and bought two dozen steamed jimmies for about $70 bucks. There are a lot mroe than 24 crabs in a bushel.

Fuel costs are a factor here. So are packing costs. Even Old Bay is probably more expensive than it was a year ago.

But still, how do we account for this huge discrepancy? How can prices in the city be more than twice what they are at the dock?

These are truly unfortunate times, when we are all strapped. Hey, I've even started bringing my lunch to work. Every little bit helps.

So, what's a middle-class person going to skimp on? Crabs. Charter boat fishing trips. Anything they can.

We might, collectively, be more inclined to buy crabs if the price dropped a bit. So, why isn't it happening?

Posted by Rona Kobell at 4:22 PM | Permalink | Comments (4)
                    

Sadly, one of the newsfolk taking the buyouts here at The Sun is none other than Tom Pelton, my deskmate and the paper's environmental beat reporter the past four years.   He cleaned out his desk on Wednesday, one of the first of about 55 members of the news staff who are leaving through buyouts and layoffs to meet cost-cutting targets set by our corporate parent, Tribune Co.

Tom will be missed, especially on Bay & Environment, where he was a prolific poster.  He broke a lot of good stories here at The Sun, and placed 2nd & 3rd, nationally, in successive years for the beat reporting award given by the Society of Environmental Journalists.

We'll still get to benefit from his reporting and insights, though, it seems.  Tom said last week he's not at liberty yet to reveal his new job, but he plans to continue nature writing, as well as his environmental broadcast segments on WYPR.

Thanks, Tom, and good luck!

Posted by Tim Wheeler at 10:53 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)