Bay's health among worst

The Chesapeake Bay is the nation's largest estuary.
It's also one of the most loved, most studied and most funded.
And according to a new national report, it's also one of the nation's worst when it comes to dead zone-causing pollution.

"Bottom line: It's a disgrace the Chesapeake watershed, right here in the nation's capital, is listed among the worst polluted systems in the country," said Beth Lefebvre, a spokesman for the nonprofit Chesapeake Bay Foundation. "Report after report highlights the dire situation of the bay and its rivers."

What's different about this latest report - the National Estuarine Eutrophication Assessment - is that it puts the problem in a national perspective.

While the report has a mouthful of a name, it had a simple goal: figure out how much human nutrient pollution is harming the nation's bays, sounds and gulfs.

Nutrients like phosphorus and nitrogen come from a variety of sources: fertilizer runoff from farms, air pollution falling into the water, dirty urban and suburban stormwater runoff, failing septic systems, outdated sewage plants.

When nutrients build up in the water, they fuel algae blooms. The algae block light from reaching underwater grasses and suck oxygen from the water - harming fish, crabs an oysters.

That process, called eutrophication, is an acute problem in estuaries, where freshwater rivers flow into saltwater.

"The ecological health of our nation's coastal waters is threatened by nutrient pollution. They are in need of protective action," said Dr. Suzanne Bricker, a scientist for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration who was the report's lead author.

In two-thirds of the 99 estuaries that were evaluated - including the Chesapeake Bay

- nutrient pollution is considered "moderate to high," she said.

Within the Chesapeake, the report looked at nine areas. Five - including the bay's main stem - had high levels of nutrient pollution problems. The other four had moderately high levels of nutrient pollutions.

Rich Batiuk of the federal-state Chesapeake Bay Program, said the bay isn't "turning the corner" that's needed.

He said nutrient pollution is "what's causing the Chesapeake not to be the bay system we want it to be," with healthy fish, crabs and shellfish and clean water to swim in.

As for the future, the report predicts one-third of the bay's areas will improve, one-third will stay the same and one-third will worsen.

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