Environmental clean-up efforts in the Chesapeake Bay are making slow progress, concludes the Chesapeake Bay 2006 Health and Restoration Assessment, but improvements are coming slower than expected.
The encouraging news:
Nutrient discharge: Nitrogen discharges from wastewater treatment plants are at 72 percent of the reduction goal; phosphorous discharges from wastewater treatment plants have reached 87 percent of reduction goals.
Watershed protection: Since 1990, blockages to 2,144 miles of rivers and streams have been removed for migratory fish. Watershed land preservation has set aside 6.83 million acres of land, 99 percent of goals. A forest buffer restoration goal of 2,010 miles was reached well ahead of schedule; as of 2006 53 percent of the new 10,000-mile goal has been achieved.
The bad news: Population growth and development continues to pose a challenge. States the assessment:
It is estimated that increases in pollution due to development have surpassed the gains achieved to date from improved landscape design and stormwater management practices. The rapid rate of population growth and related residential and commercial development means that this is the only pollution sector in the Bay watershed that is still growing; thus, “progress” is negative.
The really bad news. Habitat, water quality and fishery indicators have been slow to respond to the incremental improvements in nutrient and pollution discharges.
The Bay’s habitats and lower food webs are at about one-third of desired levels. Improvement in bottom habitat was stagnant: only 41 percent of the Bay’s floor was considered healthy. Acreage of critical underwater grasses decreased by 25 percent, to the lowest level since 1989. Mid-channel water quality deteriorated slightly, while chemical contaminants in fish tissue remains unacceptably high. Oyster and shad populations remain at a fraction of restoration levels.
