[This is Part II of an earlier entry. Both have been front-paged at ePluribus Media, and I would really like input from the membership here about how to proceed. Comments are most welcome!]
When surveys in mid-July conducted by the Maryland Center for Environmental Science showed that fully one-third of the Chesapeake Bay was consumed by "dead zones," the Baltimore Sun immediately gave this chilling news the serious coverage it deserved.
According to the Sun:
A research cruise from the bottom of the bay in Virginia to its origin at the Susquehanna River in northern Maryland from July 11 to 15 found that about 36 percent of the bay's central stem had less than 5 milligrams per liter of dissolved oxygen - the level that rockfish and other aquatic life need.
In other words, in a "dead zone" aquatic life is really dead.
The news was covered far and wide in many local jurisdictions (see
google search), but the Washington Post was silent.
This is really curious, because on June 30, 2005, the Post's Fairfax Extra Section ran a Guest Column especially concerning the threat to the Chesapeake Bay posed by stripping environmental protection from its small tributary streams. Originally titled "As the Streams Go, So Goes the Bay" (subsequently changed by the Post), my co-author Dr. Firth in earlier drafts had included a lovely metaphor that unfortunately did not survive editing the article down to a length suitable for publication:
Like the Lilliputian strands that bound Gulliver, a multitude of clean small streams can achieve together what none can do alone. If we can protect the streams and their floodplains in the Chesapeake watershed, they will provide immense filtration and flood mitigation services, resulting in a cleaner, healthier Bay.
Each little stream
does make a difference.
This is in fact the genius of the Chesapeake Bay Agreement, which binds Virginia and Maryland and the District of Columbia to identify and project just such Lilliputian streams.
But the report just two weeks later of the death of all aquatic life in fully a third of the Bay went un-remarked by the Post. Also un-noticed by the press was the July 11th Fairfax County Board of Supervisors' unanimous vote approving the non-scientific measures used to strip environmental protection from the first little stream in Fairfax, even though the Guest Column explicitly noted the importance of this first precedential step. In my commentary here a few days ago, I made a pretty big stink about all the important scientists weighing in to criticize Fairfax County's policies in this matter (including the eminent Dr. Len Smock, President of the North American Benthological Society) and the fact that none of their input was considered by the Board or reported on by the press.
But today the Washington Post finally did cover the news that the Bay is in serious jeopardy. Their article was titled Bay Scientists Chagrined At Being Right. In addition to the strangely inappropriate title, I also find it strange that I can't find this article in my hard-copy of the newspaper. I found the article accidentally on-line today, searching for general references in the paper to the Chesapeake. The on-line version says that the article appears on page T03. But there is no "T" section in the hard copy.
Of course, I'm not silly enough to think that the Post is deliberately down-playing this news; it's pretty clear they just don't think it's very important. And if dead zones covering fully one-third of the Chesapeake Bay just aren't newsworthy to the Post, well, then I guess it's a little presumptuous of me to think that the death of one Lilliputian stream in Virginia would matter - even if it is the first Lilliputian strand to be severed - and even if we are now hearing reports of a second little Fairfax stream administratively declassified based on "eyeball evidence" and without public notice at the behest of a developer (more on that in days to come).
But I think its important. The Accotink watershed in Fairfax County is impaired. This means that it violates fecal coliform bacteria standards. Fecal coliform bacteria are an indicator organism showing the presence of fecal material, which can carry harmful pathogens. The State of Virginia and EPA have now established Total Maximum Daily Loads for fecal coliform in the Accotink. And leaving aside all the human health risks, the nitrogen load from all this contamination converging on the Bay is what is causing the bulk of the Bay's problems.
We're organizing in Fairfax now, to try to bring appropriate public and press attention to this issue. And we're additionally spreading the news that the public voice is also like a collection of Lilliputian strands. Together, we can, and will, be heard.