Thursday, October 14, 2010

Chesapeake Bay Cleanup




Summary

For 27 years, 5 states have done almost nothing to help stop phosphorus and nitrogen pollution in the Chesapeake Bay. In fact, they contributed for 70% of all the pollution in the Chesapeake Bay. Algae blooms are happening too, depriving fish and crabs of oxygen, which kills them. Of the 5 states that are polluting the Chesapeake Bay, one of them is our state, Pennsylvania. The other 4 states are Virginia, West Virginia, Delaware, and New York. EPA has given them until November 29th to fix their cleanup plans or else they will raise sewer taxes, causing more property taxes on consumers and businesses. States are complaining that they do not have enough time to change cleanup plans and prevent pollution, but then again, they have been doing almost nothing for the past 27 years but adding to the pollution.







President Barack Obama issued an order for EPA to have more authority with the Chesapeake Bay clean up in May 2009. Since then, EPA has been laying down rules and new target dates to reduce pollution in the Chesapeake Bay. The target date used to be 2000, and the states failed to meet the goals, and yet again in 2010 they did not meet the goals. EPA has set 2025 for the new target goal to meet the mandated pollution goals.






Reflection
I can't believe that this is happening. And it has been happening for the past 27 years. Hopefully, the states will change their plans for waste products and lower pollution in the Chesapeake Bay, or else they will get taxed for what they do, and we will be affected by those taxes too. There is a lot of pollution in the Chesapeake Bay already, and if we continue to contribute waste, think of what will happen to that area. It would probably have a different color and a lot of the trash in the above picture.


Questions

  • When should pollution be reduced to a set goal?
  • Which states were dumping waste into the Chesapeake Bay, contributing to about 70% of all the pollution?
  • How come algae blooms are happening?
  • What is it called when algae deprive fish and other sea life of oxygen, killing them?

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3 comments:

  1. BrianaOctober 15, 2010 at 10:41 AM

    I had no idea things were so dire in the Chesapeake Bay. It's shocking to know that Pennsylvania is harming something so harshly. I'm glad that hte Epa is laying down the law around there. This hopefully will be resolved soon.
    this website is all about Chesapeake Bay
    http://www.chesapeakebay.net/aboutbay.aspx?menuitem=13953

    ReplyDelete
  2. Dylan CallumOctober 18, 2010 at 4:25 PM

    I can't believe that this has been going on for so long. Also, I never heard of this before reading this blog. This is a shocking thing to me. There are two major sources for nitrogen and phosphorus in the bay, runoffs from farms and lawns. And most of this runoff comes from Pennsylvania. This puts pressure on farmers to be careful about fertilizers. There is also a culture barrier because of all the Amish farms in Lancaster. And, would your dad have a less green lawn to save the bay.
    1) November 29th
    2)Pennsylvania,Virginia, West Virginia, Delaware, and New York
    3)hight amounts of phosphorus and nitrogen were added
    4)redtide

    ReplyDelete
  3. laur.higgsOctober 19, 2010 at 2:31 PM

    This really is a big problem because they have such a big crab industry. If they do not get the water cleaned up this will really hurt their economy. I think that it is a god idea to raise the sewer taxes until they get the water cleaned up. People need to learn that they cant just leave the water the way that it is because if they just let it go, there will be nothing left and it will be just one big dead zone.

    Answers:
    1.November 29
    2.Pennsylvania, Virginia, West virginia, Delaware, and New York
    3. high amounts of nitrogen and phorphous were added
    4.redtide

    ReplyDelete

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