Federation Blog

The South River Federation's Riverkeeper Tidal Water Quality montoring is in mid-season currently.  Some of you may have see us out there sampling the water quality.  I have been ask many questions about when and where we sample.  I have provided a GIS map of our current tidal stations.  I have 7 main stem stations, then 14 stations in each of the tidal creeks.  

The following is our own "Eyes Under the South River".  This comes from my weekly water quality monitoring program, therefore this is REAL data and not a model.  The graphs and interpretations are performed  by Andrew Muller, PhD USNA-Oceanography and Diana Muller, South RIVERKEERER.

 

 

 

EPA Unveils Chesapeake Bay Restoration Strategy

 The Chesapeake Bay Restoration Strategy is now out as presented by Lisa Jackson (EPA administrator) yesterday.  She stated that only thing needed is money and resources.

I would like to include Three more things:

1)  The absolute old fashion American CAN DO.  With out the can do/will do we will not have anything.

2 ) Much better enforcement,  marinas have put large piers/bulkhead/and pilings into the South River and have only received a 43,000.00 fine, and they did not have to take out the structures that were installed.  So, in reality the company folded the fine into the cost of doing the construction.  The State and Federal agencies need to not only have greater fines but mandate that these structures be removed! 

3)  I would also like to include more education on the true causes of the destruction of the Chesapeake Bay and the South River.  I speak beyond the choir quite often and have learned that most adults really do not know what stormwater runoff it,  they do not know how fertilizer can harm the Bay/River,  they do not realize how poor the infrastructure of our septic and sewer systems is.  I see very well educated folks over-fertilize their lawns in order to get the Crayola crayon green color, instead of managing their lawns in a River-friendly way.

http://wjz.com/local/Bay.foundation.epa.2.1689773.html

 

In late December,  after having walked the site of the County's Riva 400 outfall restoration project several times, I became concerned about a possible sewage problem in the area based on a persistent foul odor.

In early January, Diana went to the site and took bacteria and nitrogen samples in the area of the suspicious smell and found very elevated levels of both (Total nitrogen, 0.93 mg/l; total coliform 2490 cfu/ml).  

Shortly thereafter, we contacted the Anne Arundel County Department of Public Works (DPW) and notified them that, given the absence of septic systems in the area, and the apparent location of the source, they might have some sewer line issues in the vicinity.  Within a couple of weeks, the County had scoped the nearby sewer line and found a significant crack in the pipe (see below).

Late last month, DPW re-lined the pipe, repairing the crack, and so Diana went down to take another sample earlier this week.  The results?  Total nitrogen, 0.01 mg/l and a total coliform of 16 cfu/ml).  Apparent success (we will continue to monitor through the spring).

The situation played out very similarly to our bacteria issue last year on Almshouse Creek and is absolutely a reminder that just because a community or development is on sewer is no assurance that it isn't contributing both nutrients and bacteria to our waterways.  If you suspect there may be a sewer or septic leak in your area, please contact the Anne Arundel County Department of Public Works or the South River Federation office.

 

Have you heard about the General Assembly's recent attempt to punish the University of Maryland's Law Clinic for working on behalf of enforcing the state's environmental laws? It's true. The Legislature is attempting to withhold hundreds of thousands of dollars in funding for the Clinic unless it produces cumbersome reports detailing its past clients and cases.

Please contact your local representatives and tell them you oppose any funding cuts to the Maryland Environmental Law Clinic as they provide much-needed legal assistance to non-profit groups, like the Federation, who are working to uphold the Clean Water Act and protect the public health.

They should not subjected to intimidation attempts by the legislature and their funding should not be contingent upon providing politicians with information about who they represent or what cases they are working on.

Contact:

Speaker Michael Busch
(410) 841-3800
michael.busch@house.state.md.us

President Michael Miller
(410) 841-3700
thomas.v.mike.miller@senate.state.md.us

More:

•  Baltimore Sun coverage of the lawsuit that precipitated this action - Perdue, Md. chicken farm sued.
• A great Sun editorial on the legislature's action - Poultry power play
• Finally, MDE gets around to fining the farmer - Sludge by drainage ditch brings $4,000 fine

Former West/Rhode Riverkeeper Bob Gallagher recently had a great letter to the editor published in the Capital.  Several Waterkeeper groups, including the Federation, have signed on in support of the Attorney General's bills that he references below.  Please contact your legislators and ask them to support the bills as well:

Federal regulations regarding vessels with installed toilets have been in effect since 1980. At that time, it became a crime to dump untreated sewage from a boat to the water. The concern then was bacteria pollution. The law eliminated discharge of a dangerous pollutant from an easily controllable source.

The law has an exception for boats that have toilet systems that grind up the waste and kill the bacteria before the waste is pumped overboard. These systems remain legal except in a few designated "no discharge zones."

The 1987 Chesapeake Bay Agreement called for the elimination of "pollutant discharges from recreational boats." We now understand that pollution from nutrients like nitrogen is the biggest problem facing our rivers and the bay. Sewage from boats, whether treated or untreated, is a highly concentrated form of nitrogen pollution. Pumping even treated boat waste overboard is like dumping fertilizer in the bay.

Attorney General Doug Gansler has recently caused the introduction of legislation that would expand no discharge zones to include all Maryland waters (SB 513/HB 1257). Gansler's bill would require that boats that have these currently exempt "treatment systems" have them pumped out just like the great majority of other boats that store waste in holding tanks.

Less responsible elements of the maritime industry oppose the bill for the reason that boats affected by the legislation contribute only a very small amount to the nitrogen pollution that is suffocating the bay.

With the current state of water quality in the Bay, we need to stop nitrogen pollution from every controllable source. Moreover, why should any of us have to swim or crab near a boat that is discharging "treated" sewage? I support the Attorney General's bill.

Bob Gallagher

 

On Tuesday evening, the environmental community gathered in Annapolis to discuss our legislative agenda.  In the clip below, I discuss the reasons we need a state requirement for local stormwater utilities.   Video courtesy West/Rhode Riverkeeper, Chris Trumbauer.

 

Yesterday, at the Maryland State House, a coalition of scientists, former policymakers, and environmental advocates, including representatives from the South River Federation, presented the EPA with a 24-point plan to restore the health of the Chesapeake Bay, and a declaration that the voluntary, collaborative approach to pollution reduction taken over the past several decades has failed.

You can read the group's plan and position paper in support of S. 1816/HR 3852, The Chesapeake Clean Water and Ecosystem Restoration Act of 2009  below:

• Comments on EPA strategy for restoring the Chesapeake Bay
• Comments in support of the Chesapeake Clean Water and Ecosystem Restoration Act of 2009

 WMAR-TV and WJZ also covered the event.  The newsclips can be viewed at the links below:

• Bay Advocates Send Obama Restoration Strategy - WMAR 2
• Bay Advocates Send Obama Restoration Strategy - WJZ 13
• Capital coverage:  Experts: Stronger bay action needed

This morning as I was on my way into the office and dropped my son off at his school, I quickly noticed something horrible.  The school is undergoing expansion and the rain this morning quickly showed how poor the contractor was at proper sediment and erosion control.  All of this sediment will quickly make it's way into Glebe Creek.--Diana

Second Part of the story;  I took samples as the water was freely flowing into the stormdrain by inserting my hand with a bottle to obtain a proper sample, I then processed then in a laboratory and the following in the results I obtained:

Turbidity:  437  NTU (nephlometric turbidity units),  Orthophosphate: 0.29mg/l, Nitrate: 0.21 mg/l, Nitrite, 0.083mg/l.  The maximum turbidity that should be coming off of construction site is 40, this is about 9 times higher.

 

  Today I had the pleasure to work with US Fish and Wildlife Service in their lab while they performed necropsies and obtained samples from the catfish pulled from the South River on September 30, 2009.  The lesion on the right side of this catfish measured one inch long by 0.5 inches thick.  While this fish was swimming, the lesions were so big they bounced around.  The fish will be tested for liver cancer and skin tumors.  The area these fish were taken from was directly across from the ski zone in the northern part of the South River.  Again, as I have said before; the South River has no industry- but we have such toxic sediments and water quality that they produce catfish with major health problems.  On weekends I see people fishing off of Rt 50 bridge catching these catfish to eat.  What has the world come to when we allow ourselves to eat lesionous catfish.  No studies have been performed on the effect of human health and eating cancerous fish, but maybe it is time such a study is done.  There are no regulations or health advisories on this topic either, maybe it is time we do so.  I can not image feeding this to my children, in my opinion, this would be child abuse.  We have abused the South River enough- how much more can this poor ecosystem take?

Diana