Algae Blooms, Fish Kills, Dead Zones - Another "Average" Summer For Chesapeake Bay System

[hatrack]

If this was an average summer for the Chesapeake Bay, no one wants to see bad. The Chesapeake Bay Foundation put out that message in a new report Monday that detailed poor conditions up and down the bay - not just in Hampton Roads.

The rivers in Hampton Roads bloomed red with algae in August and September, but as the foundation report makes clear, that was hardly an isolated incident. Algal blooms, a bigger-than-usual dead zone and fish kills plagued waters from Hampton Roads all the way to rivers in the Blue Ridge.

Noting that the federal Chesapeake Bay Program predicted an average summer for conditions in the bay, the Bay Foundation said that "in this case, average is awful."

Despite seemingly favorable, dry conditions - heavier rainfall would wash more pollutants into the bay - the summer turned out to be not a good one for algal blooms. If anything, the problem with blooms - which explode when phytoplankton in the water feed on excessive nitrogen and phosphorus - is proof that the pollution always present in the bay is a problem enough, even without heavy runoff. "What we know for a fact is that there is too much pollution," said Bay Foundation spokesman Chuck Epes. "It's been well-documented and well-monitored. What can we control and how can we prevent this? We can prevent pollution."

EDIT

http://www.dailypress.com/news/dp-24734sy0sep18,0,6589924.story

[kestrel91316]

1. Fertilizer runoff (residential and agricultural). Factory farm waste

discharges.

We KNOW what causes this, and yet we do nothing. Everyone in the Chesapeake Bay watershed who puts weed-n-feed on their lawn or buys factory meat or eats factory crops shares in the blame.

[OKIsItJustMe]

2. The report is here

http://www.cbf.org/site/PageServer?pagename=exp_sub_state_badwater_report