MooPig's Activism Channel :: "To Save Chesapeake Bay"

The Plan is to make Multistate effort to Restore one of the World's Biggest Estuaries
Retrieved for Ed Purposes by Pat Darnell using no Football Metaphors

Chesapeake Bay "remains overburdened by pollution despite a three-decade, multibillion-dollar effort to reverse the tide. (SOURCE)"

"The bay, as a system, is definitely improving," said Will Baker, the Chesapeake Bay Foundation's president. "The bad news is that, as a system, it's still dangerously out of balance."

How many organizations are "dedicated solely to restoring and protecting the Chesapeake Bay and its tributary rivers?" It seems the Chesapeake Bay Foundation, CBF, is along with the Sierra Club. "To achieve its mission, CBF seeks to reduce pollution, restore habitat and replenish fish stocks, and educate and engage constituents to take action for the Bay through blogs and other activism."

Note: MooPig wants to throw in its blogadacious self as a activist Chesapeake Saver Blog.... yeah!

The only problem is that it is not proceeding as quickly as it might. The CBF grades the estuary each year and this year it only gets a D+ grade. Oooops. "Activities such as agriculture and sprawl ... contribute to the bay's crippled environmental health. (AP . NOV 29, 2010 . SOURCE) "

"Virginia and the bay states can have clean water and a growing economy," Jennings said. "Overwhelming majorities of Virginia voters understand that investments in clean water are investments in our economic future and our children's future. (AP . NOV 29, 2010 . SOURCE)"

Virginia submitted its revised plan to do its part to restore the bay ... sent to the Environmental Protection Agency as part of its plan to put the estuary on a "pollution diet."

There has been improvement because last year's report card was a D- [D minus].

"The report [grade] compares the bay at its current state to the one encountered by John Smith in the early 1600s. It examines fisheries, habitat and pollution ...
" ... The foundation found improvements in ... most notably blue crabs, the bay's popular crustacean whose population has nearly tripled since tougher fishing laws were enacted in 2008.
" ... [S]ubgroups — wetlands protection, shad restoration, and reducing nitrogen and phosphorus discharges — declined or showed no improvement since the last report.

Unfortunately for cleanup efforts, legislation was not passed in the "lame duck session of Congress" just before Christmas. " ... [T]he Chesapeake Clean Water Act, failed to pass in the lame duck session of Congress. The act would have made law — not just an Obama administration priority — but also, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's accelerated bay cleanup plan. ... " Guess who the biggest opponent to this legislation was?

" ... [N]otably the American Farm Bureau Federation, mounted an effective opposition campaign. ... "

Conclusion:
"The Chesapeake Bay was once one of the most productive and profitable estuaries in the world, but pollution now threatens to kill the golden goose," Ann Jennings, the [Chesapeake Bay Foundation]'s executive director, said in a news release. "Dirty water is a job killer. Bay pollution is not only an ecological disaster; it's an economic one, too. (SOURCE)"