Great News for Chesapeake Bay!

Elijah Cummings (4.00 / 2)

Heh. Representative Elijah Cummings did a tremendous job organizing and turning out Maryland voters for Obama. After the election, he said he didn't expect PBO to grant any particular wish or fund any particular Maryland project, but he certainly did expect to have the President's ear. Perhaps this is a little bit of "thank you."

Or not. This is good news on the merits, regardless of politics. Thanks, Jill.

---

by: count @ Tue Sep 22, 2009 at 00:13:26 AM UTC

Polite way, indeed... (4.00 / 1)

Nutrient pollution is the polite way to refer to the problem - it's farm runoff and factory farm waste that are killing the Chesapeake.

Christ, what's next?  Will they start calling unemployment "leisure saturation"?

"The essence of the independent mind lies not in what it thinks, but in how it thinks." - Christopher Hitchens

---

by: JayinPortland @ Tue Sep 22, 2009 at 09:40:20 AM UTC

stormwater runoff from cities (4.00 / 1)

If anyone has visited Baltimore's Inner Harbor tourist destination - that water is the Chesapeake. A place where much, perhaps most of Baltimore City's stormwater dumps directly into the harbor is at the eastern edge of that Inner Harbor area. I don't think any of our urban stormwater runoff goes to a treatment plant. Baltimore County, Harford County, Anne Arundel County, all right into the bay. Similar situations prevail in Annapolis and Washington, D.C.

I wonder if this will be addressed.

---

by: count @ Tue Sep 22, 2009 at 16:34:53 PM UTC

Portland, Oregon also has storm runoff problems (4.00 / 1)

and sewage problems during heavy rains, which is a significant portion of the year in the Willamette river. Has been ever since I was a kid.

Several years ago the city started the Big Pipe project that will mitigate that, but for decades Portland kept discharging raw sewage into the river every time there was a bit of rain. EPA's been fining the city for years over than. I don't think Portland's paid much if any in the way of fines. Hopefully the big pipe will solve those problems.

City runoff is a big problem in many areas I believe. It gets to be a sore point for people living in rural areas whenever runoff is talked about in farm situations. Not that farms don't often have problems, but I'm just saying....

Regarding locavores as elitists - explain to me how supporting local business is elitist....

---

by: Joanne Rigutto @ Tue Sep 22, 2009 at 18:50:48 PM UTC

[ Parent ]