News

November 18, 2009

Officials: Chesapeake health costly

ASHLEY – Fixing the ailing Chesapeake Bay will cost everyone living in its watershed area, but it will also create local benefits, said federal officials who came to the area on Tuesday to outline their massive plan to put the bay on a “diet.”

“We probably have enough technologies to do what we need to do. It’s just expensive,” said Bob Koroncai, the Environmental Protection Agency’s manager for the bay’s “total maximum daily load” program. “The decisions have not been made on who will shoulder those costs.”

The program, in long form, is a structured plan to reduce the amount of nitrogen, phosphorus and sediments that are discharged throughout the bay’s watershed, which includes the Susquehanna River.

The pollutants cause unsightly algal blooms that steal nutrients from and block sunlight to other aquatic life, such as underwater grasses and fish. For long stretches of the year, according to Richard Batiuk, the sections of the bay’s floor are without oxygen.

“Right now, it’s just overloaded,” said Batiuk, the EPA’s associate director for science in the bay program’s office.

That said, the science indicates the bay will rebound if the discharges are curbed. “Mother Nature is very, very resilient,” said Batiuk, noting local examples of polluted streams that recovered once acid-mine drainage was alleviated. “The system will come back.”

The solution, however, will cost lots of people lots of money. Sewage plant operators have already started figuring out how they’ll pay for the infrastructure upgrades they’ll need to make to hit targets, and the construction industry will be forced to offset discharges it creates through development. Farmers, who contribute the most, will also need to make changes.

Cleaning the Susquehanna is a cornerstone in the entire effort because it alone contributes about half of the bay’s fresh water. Water monitoring picks up the river’s influence into Virginia, more than 150 miles away from its entry, Batiuk said.

The river is running cleaner, he said, but “not quite clean enough. … Unfortunately, it still brings a fair amount of sediment.”

Clearing up those problems, which include combined sewer overflows, specific discharge points like sewer authorities and agricultural runoff, will have an immediate local impact of creating better habitat for fish.

The Susquehanna is a well-known destination for small-mouth bass, and environmental officials hope to eventually reinstate the annual shad spawning runs that a century ago signaled spring.

But, Batiuk and Koroncai agreed, a growing issue is development in general. Of all the pollution sources in the bay, the only ones increasing are storm water discharges from urban and suburban areas and discharges from septic systems, Batiuk said, and air pollution that falls in rain accounts for much of the nitrogen.

And while discharges and water consumption from the burgeoning gas-drilling industry aren’t part of the TMDL – Koroncai didn’t know of the EPA ever taking action on water consumption to address quality issues – he noted that other TMDL programs would be created around it if it becomes a problem.

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