chesapeake bay foundation

Richard "Jud" Henderson, an author who turned his love of sailing and the Chesapeake Bay into a series of books on maritime topics, died Feb. 18 of a ruptured appendix at the Anne Arundel Medical Center in Annapolis. He was 91.

By Frederick N. Rasmussen

Mar 15, 2016

Federal funds target bay cleanup

The efforts of Dunloggin Middle School students to help improve the health of the Chesapeake Bay has received national recognition.

Some people want us to think a stormwater fee is a lemon. They sourly call it a "rain tax." Prince George's County thinks otherwise. It is making lemonade to prove it.

Maryland charities Johns Hopkins University and the University of Maryland and U.S. Naval Academy all report offshore investment accounts

By Doug Donovan

Dec 13, 2014

Capping more than three years of study, the O'Malley administration declared Tuesday that hydraulic fracturing for natural gas can be done safely in Western Maryland, but only after regulations are tightened to reduce air and water pollution and protect residents from well contamination, noise and other disruption associated with an anticipated drilling boom.

By Timothy B. Wheeler

Nov 25, 2014

Better late than never, Maryland takes needed steps to curb phosphorus pollution from poultry manure and protect the Chesapeake Bay

Dredging millions of tons of sediment from the Susquehanna River upriver of Conowingo dam would potentially cost billions of dollars and do relatively little to help the Chesapeake Bay compared with current pollution cleanup efforts, a new federal-state study says.

By Timothy B. Wheeler

Nov 12, 2014

With Maryland's long campaign for governor now over, the unexpected election of Republican businessman Larry Hogan has given rise to an intense new campaign now just beginning: The jockeying among advocates and interest groups for attention, jobs and influence in a rare GOP administration.

An O'Malley administration plan to restrict the use of chicken manure as crop fertilizer could cost Eastern Shore farmers from $22 million to nearly $53 million over the next six years, depending on how quickly they have to comply, a new study says.

By Timothy B. Wheeler

Nov 7, 2014

Can Baltimore continue to do what it takes to become a thriving metropolis like Boston and San Francisco, or are we destined to be stuck in the Detroit-Cleveland post industrial doldrums?

Moving to counter worrisome declines in one of the East Coast's most prized fish, an interstate commission has ordered a 25 percent cutback in the catch of striped bass along the Atlantic coast next year and a somewhat more gradual reduction by anglers and commerical fishermen in the Chesapeake Bay.

By Timothy B. Wheeler

Oct 30, 2014

Eastern Shore farmers don't oppose phosphorous management — if it's science based.

Hollifield Station Elementary School students joined Gov. Martin O'Malley Tuesday along the Upper Little Patuxent River in Ellicott City to plant trees, roll out burlap matting and announce $600 million in bay restoration funds over the next six years.

Anne Arundel County datebook

An input meeting to discuss the Loch Raven North Small Watershed Action Plan takes place Sept. 29 from 6:30 to 8 p.m.

Gail Wagner, of Pleasant Valley, said her two sons wanted to participate in the Chesapeake Bay Foundation's Create a Wetland Project for two very different reasons.

State and federal environmental officials have reached cleanup agreements with the owners of the former Sparrows Point steel mill in Baltimore County.

Rain inspires new Hogan attack

Five cases of flesh-eating bacteria infections have been found this year in the Chesapeake Bay and its tributaries.

National program of American Legion

Environmental groups have gone to court in an attempt to force state regulators to strengthen orders given to Baltimore city and three of Maryland's largest counties to curtail their storm-water pollution. Meanwhile, in a recently disclosed assessment, the Environmental Protection Agency also found shortcomings in Maryland's storm-water control efforts, both in new development projects and in established communities.

While Maryland and most other Chesapeake Bay states are making decent progress in reducing pollution fouling the estuary, Pennsylvania is "substantially off track" and will receive additional federal help and backup action if necessary, the Environmental Protection Agency reported.

Government officials involved in the multistate Chesapeake Bay cleanup pledged Monday to broaden and accelerate the long-running effort, including a vow to address the impacts of climate change on the ailing estuary.

Despite early progress reducing Chesapeake Bay pollution, levels of a key pollutant, phosphorus, have not come down in many rivers in the past decade — and are actually worsening in several, officials say.

As the nation enjoys a boom in crude oil production and grapples with the heightened risks and logistical constraints of moving ever-increasing volumes of the volatile commodity through its cities and towns, two companies in Baltimore appear to be carving out a new local foothold for the industry.

The Obama administration announced Tuesday that farmers in the Chesapeake Bay region can vie for a share of $400 million available nationwide for reducing erosion and polluted runoff from fields and feedlots.

Amid warnings that slashing the striped bass catch by a third next year could devastate Chesapeake Bay commercial fishermen, Atlantic states regulators agreed Tuesday to consider gradually reducing the catch over three years instead.

Worried by recent declines in Maryland's state fish, Atlantic states fisheries regulators are weighing slashing the annual striped bass catch by up to one-third next year all along the East Coast and in the Chesapeake Bay.

The Chesapeake Bay's blue crab population remains at a low level for the second straight year, officials announced Thursday, blaming the severe winter for killing off a large number of the iconic crustaceans.

State officials are investigating a wide-ranging fish kill spotted Monday stretching from Fells Point in Baltimore harbor out into the Chesapeake Bay. Authorities have yet to pinpoint a cause.

Baltimore has joined with other major US cities in defending the federal government's authority to impose a "pollution diet" on the Chesapeake Bay.

Right now, as the drama unfolds in Crimea, millions of Marylanders are facing the possible imposition of new and disruptive gas pipelines and compressor stations across much of their state. The gas would come from controversial "hydraulic fracturing" — or fracking — wells spread across the Appalachian region. It would be piped through Maryland to a massive $3.8 billion "liquefaction" plant for natural gas at a place called Cove Point right on the Chesapeake Bay.

Longer look at Sun brief on Baltimore Lab School in Charles Village buying its building and severing ties with Washington Lab School.

Last chance to save the bay

No doubt a winning photo — or at least a runner up — is out there in the wilds of Harford waiting to be taken.

Key senators have put language in the state budget bill that would stall Maryland's efforts to limit one of the Chesapeake Bay's main pollutants, phosphorus.