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Way DownstreamIn Annapolis, challenged with a lawsuit by Maryland League of Conservation Voters, the Ehrlich Administration has withdrawn its rewrite of a constitutional amendment question on your ballot this November [Way Downstream: Vol. xiv, No. 35: Aug. 31]. The question would prevent the governor from selling public lands without General Assembly approval. Just after the lawsuit was filed, the Secretary of State agreed to change the language back to what the General Assembly had passed … In the Bay, scientists at the University of Michigan are backing up what environmentalists have been saying for years: Nitrogen runoff is too high. A computer model that predicts the effects of runoff in the Bay — developed by Scavia School of Natural Resources and Environment — shows that reclaiming dead zones may take more work than we hoped. Currently, the Chesapeake 2000 Agreement goal is to slash nitrogen pollution into the water by 35 percent from mid-1980s levels. Michigan scientists report that this reduction will not be enough; nitrogen runoff must be cut by 53 percent … In rural Maryland, more farms survive as the Board of Public Works — Gov. Robert Ehrlich, Comptroller William Donald Schafer and Treasurer Nancy Kopp — approve $7.2 million to buy conservation easements preserving 1,533 acres from development. Conservation easements offer tax incentives to landowners in return for deeds that forever restrict development. Nearly 250,000 acres of farmland is protected under the Maryland Agricultural Land Preservation Foundation, which celebrates its 25th year of collecting easements worth $365 million in all 23 Maryland counties over the last quarter century … Around Maryland, the 2004 Bay Restoration Fund has funded rebuilding, redesign or construction in one-third of Maryland’s 66 largest wastewater treatment plants. Our Flush Tax, totaling some $23.3 million so far, should prevent four million pounds of nitrogen from polluting the Bay each year. Newest on the list of improved plants: Baltimore’s Back River Wastewater Treatment Plant ($5 million), and Patapsco Waste Treatment Plant ($10 million plus a $3.6 million Biological Nutrient Removal Fund grant); plus Frederick County’s Brunswick plant ($8.26 million) … In Potomac waters, swimmers and boaters beware. Blue-green algae is blooming from Piscataway Creek to Smith Point, producing a toxin that can trouble your liver. Microcystis looks like bright green paint collecting in a scum. These blooms are what we’re paying the Flush Tax to stop: www.dnr.state.md.us/ bay/hab/index.html … In D.C., you’d better take your dog and practice your karate kicks if you’re going to the National Mall, site of a spate of attacks this year. The number of U.S. Park Police officers has declined to its lowest level in more than a decade, according to internal documents made public last week by Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility. Huntingtown’s Teresa Chambers was fired two years ago as park police chief after speaking out in public about the administration’s ongoing cuts … Our Creature Feature comes from the French Atlantic port of Brezellec, where lurks a large dolphin who would never be mistaken for Flipper — unless Flipper had flipped out. The big fellow, named Jean Floch, is terrorizing the coast, destroying rowboats with Jaws-like head butts, unhinging moorings with brute strength and knocking any fishermen he can find into the drink, according to reports out of Europe. The French, being the French, want to analyze what drove Jean Floch crazy. One theory: He went nuts after being excluded from his family. Whatever the reason, French fishermen are fed up. “He’s like a mad dog,” said fisherman Henri le Lay. “I don’t want to see any widows or orphans.” |
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