pollution

Pollution from rainwater flushing over streets, parking lots, and suburban lawns is growing in the Chesapeake Bay. Maryland lawmakers last year required the state's largest municipalities to create stormwater pollution control fees. But some local officials are rebelling. (Photo from Chesapeake Bay Program.)

Smallmouth bass are one of the most popular freshwater sport fish, worth about $150 million a year to Maryland's economy alone in sales of everything from boats to fishing rods. But die-offs and disease have hit smallmouth in five Chesapeake Bay tributaries in recent years. Scientists theorize that a "perfect storm" of pollutants, parasites, and rising temperatures may be to blame. Photo of bass with skin discoloration from Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission.

The Maryland General Assembly's 2013 session concluded last week with big news: approval of a bill that will help subsidize the construction of what could be America's first offshore wind farm, east of Ocean City. Lawmakers also voted down bills that would have delayed stormwater pollution control fees, encouraged recycling, and outlawed hydraulic fracturing for natural gas.

Many people know that forests are better at absorbing water pollution and carbon dioxide than corn fields, housing subdivisions or almost anything else.  But not all forests are created equal.  Smithsonian ecologist John Parker is trying to discover if diverse forests are better than monoculture forests at fostering networks of underground, thread-like mycorrhizal fungi that eat nitrogen pollution.

Should Maryland taxpayers foot the legal bills for a Perdue farmer who was sued for polluting the Chesapeake Bay? Apparently so. At the behest of the O’Malley administration, the House of Delegates approved up to $300,000 for an Eastern Shore farm that raised cornish hens for poultry giant Perdue. The Hudson family won a lawsuit brought by the New York Waterkeeper Alliance, litigated by the environmental law clinic at the University of Maryland and criticized by Gov. O’Malley.

Wetlands are supposed to be protected because of their value as pollution filters and habitat for fish and birds. But federal and state agencies routinely approve permits for developers to destroy wetlands under the condition that they pay for the construction of artificial wetlands as replacements. These replacements, however, are not as productive biologically as real wetlands.  (Originally aired 2/8/12.)

President Obama pledged to take action to reduce greenhouse gas pollution during his recent State of the Union address, and now is being pressured by protesters to deny approval for a tar sands oil pipeline from Canada to Texas. Meanwhile, in Maryland, Governor O'Malley is again arguing for state legislation to help subsidize the construction of what could be America's first offshore wind farm.

Tina Meyers, Baltimore Harbor Waterkeeper for an environmental group called Blue Water Baltimore, is among the clean water advocates asking Maryland to issue a stronger stormwater pollution control permit for Baltimore.  A coalition of waterfront businesses and residents have set a goal of making Baltimore Harbor swimmable and fishable within eight years. 

A growing number of religious organizations have been launching environmental advocacy campaigns. A recent example is the Evangelical Environmental Network's radio ads that criticize "pro-life" members of the U.S. House of Representatives for trying to derail EPA mercury pollution control regulations, which are meant to protect the unborn from brain damage caused by the toxic metal.

An air pollution control device called a scrubber rises at the Brandon Shores coal-fired power plant south of Baltimore, with plant chemical technician Melissa Sampson at left.