Chesapeake Bay Foundation Blog

Photo of the Week: Willoughby Spit

Photo by Randy Owen. 

"I actually took this photo in Oct. 2011. I grew up on this strip of sand, Willoughby Spit, in the lower Chesapeake Bay. This picture represents home to me. There is always something beautiful, every day, here to photograph."

—Randy Owen

Ensure that Randy and future generations continue to enjoy extraordinary sights like these in our watershed. Support the Chesapeake Clean Water Blueprint!

Do you have a favorite Bay photo you'd like to submit to the Chesapeake Bay Foundation's Photo of the Week contest? Send your digital images to CBF's E-Communications Manager, Emmy Nicklin, at enicklin [at sign] cbf.org, along with a brief description of where and when you took the photo, and what the Chesapeake Bay means to you. We look forward to seeing your photos!

New Rules for Stormwater Expected to Increase Reductions

The following originally appeared in Bay Journal earlier this month.

Photo by © Krista Schlyer/iLCP.

Most of us in the Bay community are celebrating this moment in time for the Chesapeake and its rivers and streams.

In 2010, the EPA established pollution limits—known legally in the Clean Water Act as a Total Maximum Daily Load or TMDL—for waters draining into the Chesapeake (after decades of monitoring, modeling and receiving thousands of comments). Concurrently, the Bay states and the District of Columbia began to refine their plans to meet those pollution targets with programs and funding in place by 2025.

Together, the pollution limits and the jurisdictions' plans to meet them constitute a Chesapeake Clean Water Blueprint. And, it is working. By some measures, we are halfway to meeting our pollution-reduction goals. The progress we are witnessing demonstrates what can happen when governments, businesses, and individuals work together.

And, the progress begets more progress.

Every pollution sector but one is marching toward success. The outlier is stormwater—that unfiltered stuff running off parking lots, rooftops, sidewalks and roads directly into waterways. It can contain motor oil, gasoline, fertilizers, pesticides, heavy metals and other pollutants we really do not want in our water.

While stormwater is not the biggest source of pollution by any stretch of the imagination, it does need to be addressed.

In fact, the Clean Water Act provides the authority to regulate stormwater under the National Pollution Discharge Elimination System, which requires permits for stormwater discharges in cities and counties of a certain size.

For the most part, the states have been left to address stormwater pollution with very little guidance. With varying degrees of success, the states address stormwater from new development. But stormwater from existing development remains unaddressed.

Until now. Because of the Chesapeake Bay Foundation's June 2010 legally binding settlement with the EPA (Fowler v. EPA), the EPA has to draft and release federal stormwater rules. A national performance standard will be set—likely to be based on controlling the runoff up to a certain-size storm—to manage this growing source of pollution to waters everywhere.

We think this rule cannot come too soon. And, we will look for it to include at least four specific areas of concern.

First, the rule should level the playing field for all of the states.

Second, the rule should treat new development and redevelopment differently. It is easier and less costly to prevent stormwater pollution in new development, where there is room for proper design, than it is to treat stormwater in tight urban spaces when redevelopment occurs, although redevelopment should be encouraged.

Third, existing urban areas should not be given a pass. There should be a provision in the rule for retrofitting in urban areas. Some of these strategies can be "green," and are actually less expensive than traditional "gray" infrastructure, as is being demonstrated right now in Lancaster, PA, Philadelphia and elsewhere.

And, fourth, the rule should expand the areas needing municipal permits to include certain existing impervious areas—for example, large suburban shopping malls—as well as those areas which are just now urbanizing, to prevent runoff pollution before it becomes a problem.

A draft of the EPA's national stormwater rule is expected this spring. We should look for it to ensure it does what it should do to reduce pollution and contribute to much healthier waterways. Clean water is the legacy we should be leaving to our children and grandchildren.

—Lee Epstein
Director of Lands Program, Chesapeake Bay Foundation
 

Learn more about stormwater on our website.

We're Halfway There: Morningside Farm Successes

This is one in a series of articles about farmers in the Chesapeake Bay Watershed who have implemented Best Management Practices (BMPs) to improve water quality and efficiency on their farm. As a result of these and other success stories, we're halfway to achieving the nutrient reductions needed to restore the Chesapeake Bay and its waters. View the rest of the series here.

 
Tom Eavers and his wife Kaye own and operate Morningside Farm. Photo by Bobby Whitescarver. 

“You won’t believe this, but ever since I put those waterers in I haven’t had a single case of pinkeye,” exclaimed Tom Eavers, beef cattle farmer in Mount Sidney, Va. He was referring to the freeze-proof livestock watering stations he installed after fencing his cows out of a wetland area and a stream.

Eavers and his wife, Kaye, own and operate Morningside Farm, a 120-acre beef cattle farm in the heart of the Shenandoah Valley in Augusta County. They run a cow-calf business and a grass-finished beef operation on land in the Middle River watershed, a tributary of the South Fork of the Shenandoah River.

To get the watering projects done, they utilized the expertise of the Natural Resource Conservation Service (NRCS) and funding from the Conservation Reserve Enhancement Program (CREP) and the Chesapeake Bay Watershed Improvement (CBWI) programs.

“We did it for the health of the cows and for our customers,” Eavers said. “It’s not good for business to see a bunch of cows up to their bellies in muck and mud, and it’s not good for the cows either. We no longer have pinkeye or foot problems since we fenced the cows out of the wet."

He continued, “People today are more health conscious and care about the environment. I guarantee, when people see my cows and clean water and the farmer next door has cows knee deep in muck and water, they are going to buy their beef from me."

Charlie Ivins, District Conservationist for the NRCS, worked with Mr. Eavers and called the projects "the perfect candidate for the CBWI program. These programs continue to become more flexible as we learn more about customer needs."

The CBWI program also had funds to reseed the Eavers’ pastures with clover and add some cross fencing and an additional watering trough to enhance the existing rotational grazing system. He’s happy with the projects and everyone who helped get them installed.

—Bobby Whitescarver  

 Whitescarver lives in Swoope, Va. For more information, visit his website.

Ensure that people like the Eavers are able to continue doing these innovative things on their farms. Tell Congress to protect conservation programs--that are critical to restoring the Bay--in the Farm Bill!

Photo of the Week: One Week Left!

Last year's second-place winner of the "Save the Bay" Photo Contest. Bushes line the beach at Cape Charles, Virginia, and are speckled with hundreds of monarch butterflies. Photo by Dianne Appell.

There's just five days left until the annual "Save the Bay" Photo Contest submission deadline! Have you submitted your photos yet? From Pennsylvania to Virginia, from the Shenandoah Mountains to the Eastern Shore, we want to see your vision of the Bay and its rivers and streams. Submit your photos today, and you can win not only bragging rights, but cash prizes!

—Emmy Nicklin

Local Governments Set Pollution-Busting Examples

The following originally appeared in Bay Journal News Service yesterday.

A community riparian park planting. Photo by CBF Staff. 

The Chesapeake Bay Foundation's 2012 State of the Bay Report tells us the health of the Chesapeake Bay has improved 14 percent since 2008. But that doesn't tell the whole story.

Throughout Pennsylvania, Maryland, and Virginia, we hear about local governments, businesses, and citizens rolling up their sleeves to reduce pollution from all sectors--agriculture, sewage treatment plants, and urban and suburban runoff. They are working to restore local rivers and streams. That is the goal of the federal/state Chesapeake Clean Water Blueprint (formally known as the TMDL and State Watershed Implementation Plans). The Blueprint, if fully implemented with programs in place by 2025, will restore clean water throughout the Chesapeake's 64,000 square mile watershed.

Examples abound.

In south-central Pennsylvania, Warwick Township's citizens—farmers,  school children, businessmen, civic groups, and the township board of supervisors—pitched in to implement a comprehensive watershed management plan for Lititz Run.

Building on stream restoration efforts started in the early 1990s, Girl Scouts turned old barrels into rain barrels, and in turn homeowners used the devices to reduce stormwater flow. Every industrial park in the township modified its stormwater system to reduce runoff. The township preserved 20 farms and 1,318 farm acres from future development using "Transferable Development Rights." Eagle Scouts placed "No Dumping, Drains to the Stream" signs on all the storm drains in the township.

The Result: Lititz Run has been re-designated by the State as a cold-water fishery and now supports a healthy brook trout population.

Just a little south of Lititz, the Lancaster City government is making significant investments in green infrastructure. The green roofs, porous pavers in alleyways, rain barrels, and other innovative technologies put in place there will absorb rainwater instead of allowing it to run off carrying pollution to the Conestoga River. Not only will water quality be improved, but these actions will improve the quality of life for all residents.

In Maryland, Harford, Somerset, and Wicomico counties decided to better manage sprawl to reduce associated water and air pollution and preserve their rural character.

In the small town of Forest Heights, Md., Mayor Jacqueline E. Goodall wants local government to lead by example. Town stormwater drains into Oxon Run, which in turn flows to the polluted Potomac River. So the town recently installed new bio-retention ponds, a cistern, and three 250-gallon rain barrels at the town administration building. Previously, the town had installed a vegetated green roof on the building, as well as solar panels, and energy-efficient interior features. Forest Heights actively sought grants for the latest project, reducing the overall cost 90 percent. Now, the town is encouraging its 2,400 residents to do their part: limit car washing and pesticide spraying, install rain barrels, and take other measures.

And Talbot County, Md., has undertaken an innovative pilot program to use existing farm and street ditches to purify runoff. County-wide, this strategy could save tens of millions of dollars.

In Virginia this year, the Governor and legislature allocated $216 million in new funds for local water improvement efforts, the largest investment in clean water in years. This investment will pay for upgrading wastewater treatment plants, improving stormwater runoff controls, and reducing combined sewer overflows. These actions will help produce healthier streams and rivers across the Commonwealth, stimulate local economies, and help Virginia meet its 2017 Chesapeake Bay cleanup goals.

Falls Church, Va., officials reduced the initial cost estimates for improving stormwater management by 60 percent through the use of "green infrastructure." And in Charlottesville, Va., city officials recognized the damage done by stormwater to the Rivanna River and passed a stormwater fee to aid in restoration.

We hope these actions and the many others like them inspire other local governments, businesses, and individuals to implement the Chesapeake Clean Water Blueprint. It is the right thing to do, and it is the legacy we want to leave for our children and grandchildren.

We're more than halfway to our goal of reducing water pollution. Much work remains, but momentum is building. And each person, business, and locality that takes action increases our ability to finish the job in our lifetime.

—Kim Coble
Vice President, Environmental Protection and Restoration, Chesapeake Bay Foundation

Photo of the Week: Tabbs Creek Picture-Perfect Sunset

A mid-March sunset along Tabbs Creek in Matthews, Virginia. Photo by Harold Crowder.

"The Bay is an open invitation to an endless variety of adventures. From the thrill of competition, crewing in sailing boat races out of Fishing Bay Yacht Club, Deltaville, to relaxing romantic getaways in quaint historical villages like Gloucester, Mathews, and Smithfield where you can absorb the natural beauty, habitat and wildlife, and charm, while amidst a calmer pace on backroads and taking in local epicurean delights.

The Bay, this invitation, is for all, but those of us who are Virginians, it is in our backyard! With every visit I feel the tide pulling stronger for my return and discovery of more of its majesty, a richness that needs to be preserved for future generations."

—Harold Crowder

We're looking for YOUR best shot! Submit to our annual "Save the Bay" photo contest and you could win cash prizes! Learn more here. Contest closes April 12!

Do you have a favorite Bay photo you'd like to submit to the Chesapeake Bay Foundation's Photo of the Week contest? Send your digital images to CBF's E-Communications Manager, Emmy Nicklin, at enicklin [at sign] cbf.org, along with a brief description of where and when you took the photo, and what the Chesapeake Bay means to you. We look forward to seeing your photos!

 

Volunteers "Liven-up" Pennsylvania Streams

Planting season is here, and for many CBF volunteers, that means helping to improve water quality in Pennsylvania and downstream by planting trees along streams. Volunteers recently helped to plant not trees, but "live stakes," along the Conewago Creek near Elizabethtown, in Lancaster County.

Live stakes are cuttings that are harvested from new growth branches of tree species like black willow and red osier dogwood. These native trees commonly grow along stream banks, at or below the water line, providing great soil stabilization of the banks with their root systems, as well as providing habitat for aquatic life. 

This spring CBF will be working with Penn State Extension’s Lower Susquehanna Initiative to plant trees throughout the Conewago Creek watershed, and on March 21 volunteers got started by harvesting willow, dogwood, and elderberry stakes.

Matt Royer, director of the Lower Susquehanna Initiative, taught volunteers the proper method to harvest  cuttings: pruning the young branch at a 45-degree angle at the base, trimming off the small shoots to a single, 18-24" live stake, with a straight cut across the top to encourage new growth. Royer says that it is important to harvest the live stakes while they are still dormant and have not begun to leaf out.  

Some of the cuttings were potted and sent to Davis Nursery, a partner of the Lower Susquehanna Initiative, for use in future streamside buffer plantings. Two days later, volunteers stepped into hip waders, got into the Little Conewago Creek at the Hanson Farm, and planted the remaining willow and dogwood live stakes. Using a piece of rebar to first drill a hole in the stream bank, they inserted the live stakes just above the surface of the water, spacing the stakes every two feet. Harvesting more live stakes from black willow and red osier dogwood stands along the creek as they went; the volunteers planted a considerable section of the creek.

Sherry McLain, a volunteer from Dauphin County said, "I had read about live staking before, but had never seen it done. I was excited to bring this new skill back to my local watershed group."

The relative ease and cost-effectiveness of live staking makes it an important tool for volunteer stream restoration projects.

The live staking workdays kicked off a busy season of spring volunteer restoration projects in south-central Pennsylvania. For a list of upcoming volunteer opportunities, check out our website. 

—Kate Austin
CBF's Pennsylvania Grassroots Field Organizer

Check out our Facebook Album for more pics from this fun and productive day out in the field!

CBF is proud to partner with Penn State Extension's Lower Susquehanna Initiative, Tri-County Conewago Creek Association, Lancaster County Watershed Manager, and other "Greening the Lower Susquehanna" partners in offering these opportunities to restore your local watersheds.

Photos by Kate Austin/CBF Staff and Kristen Kyler/Penn State Extension.

Photo of the Week: Saving the Bay One Trash Pick-Up at a Time!

Photo by Chris Carey.

"I walked a jetty in Chesapeake Beach and picked up all this in 10 minutes. If we all did this once a month imagine the difference we could make. SAVE THE BAY!"

—Chris Carey

Learn about more things you can do to help Save the Bay, and be sure to sign up for this year's 25th Annual Clean the Bay Day!

Do you have a favorite Bay photo you'd like to submit to the Chesapeake Bay Foundation's Photo of the Week contest? Send your digital images to CBF's E-Communications Manager, Emmy Nicklin, at enicklin [at sign] cbf.org, along with a brief description of where and when you took the photo, and what the Chesapeake Bay means to you. We look forward to seeing your photos!

A Wastewater All-Star, Part 3

The following is the third and final part in a series about recent upgrades to an Easton wastewater treatment plant, and how these improvements have helped support our clean water efforts. Read the first and second parts in the series.

A raw sewage, final effluent, and dried biosolids comparison. Photo by John Page Williams/CBF Staff.

It was clear in 2009 that the Easton plant was going to set a great example of enhanced nutrient removal sewage treatment, but we had an opportunity to stop by in May of 2012 to see how it was faring at the end of its fifth year of operation. "We learn every day," said Doug Abbott with a smile. "Enhanced nutrient removal is new. There isn't a lot of history yet. The challenge is still putting everything together to keep the processes consistent in spite of varying load and weather.

 

"There are many moving parts," he continued. "Every plant has its own characteristics. Our strong monitoring system allows us to tweak it, like fine-tuning a complex machine that also has living creatures that we must keep happy [the bugs]. We have to balance everything, resist the temptation to make changes too quickly when an alarm goes off, and build the history. We can't make a cookbook.

"We are, however, beginning to develop a computer model of the plant to use for predictions and as a 'flight simulator' for training new operators. MDE and the MD Center for Environmental Training (MCET) are supporting that project. And we're exchanging information and visits with other plant operators in both Maryland and Pennsylvania . . . the support we have received from the Town Council and the management of Easton Utilities has been very important. Because EU provides a wide range of services to the community in addition to sewage treatment—electricity, natural gas, drinking water, cable television, and internet connections, it can support our operation in many ways, especially in electrical work and information technology."

Eleven years into the project, Easton Utilities and its town appear to have used their Bay Restoration (AKA "flush fee") Funds well, to benefit the Choptank River and the Chesapeake as well as themselves. Planning ahead, piecing together the funding package, selecting capable engineering and construction firms, and then constantly striving to learn how to get the highest performance out of the plant's design, those elements together make for success. 

CBF's Eastern Shore Director Alan Girard commented further on "how progressive both Easton Utilities and the Town of Easton were in this project, from a process/adoption standpoint. The new treatment plant is a testament to how a few committed folks who want to do the right thing can build the momentum needed for success when they want to."     

It's no accident that both Doug Abbott and Geoff Oxnam bring special enthusiasm to their jobs in an area that many people would prefer not to think about. They are both confirmed water rats and racing sailors. Others on the staff are dedicated Bay anglers. All are proud that Easton's new plant is making a difference for clean water and a healthy Bay.

—John Page Williams
CBF's Senior Naturalist

Learn more about wastewater treatment plant issues here on our website.

A Wastewater All-Star, Part 2

The following is the second part in a series about recent upgrades to an Easton wastewater treatment plant, and how these improvements have helped support our clean water efforts. Read the first part in the series here.

Plant Manager Doug Abbott checks a gauge. "In champagne and sewage treatment," he says with a chuckle, "it's all about the size of the bubbles." Photo by John Page Williams/CBF Staff.

Because of Easton's foresight in planning for the new plant, it was at the top of the list when the Bay Restoration Fund process began. Despite the fact that the plant was the largest capital project Easton had ever undertaken, the town was able to finance it through a combination of BRF and federal grants (50 percent) and a revolving loan fund operated by the MDE (50 percent). Ratepayers are paying off the loan through their sewer fees, which remain low because of the BRF and federal grants. Easton Utilities and the Town Council planned for the plant to handle around 2.5 million gallons of wastewater per day (mgd) at first but for it to be able to expand to 4 mgd as the population grew.

Construction began in 2005, and the plant began operating on June 30, 2007, (the fifth and--at the time--largest BRF plant to go online). The design for the plant incorporates sophisticated new practices for removing phosphorus and nitrogen, the latter being especially difficult to catch because its waste compounds dissolve so easily in water. It includes advanced filter systems and twin five-stage bacteria-driven bioreactors, making Plant Manager Doug Abbott and his staff shepherds of livestock as surely as any dairy farmer.

Over the course of the 1.75 days (on average) that a batch of wastewater flows through the plant, the "bugs" process it in those five stages, gradually breaking down nitrogen compounds until the element vents off as a stable, odorless gas. In the bioreactor stages, the system alternately adds and takes away oxygen. Adding means spraying it in extremely fine bubbles, for more surface area to make it readily available to the bugs. "In champagne and sewage treatment," Doug Abbott remarked with a chuckle during the 2009 visit, "it's all about the size of the bubbles."  

Screens and filters remove solid material containing most of the phosphorus and some nitrogen. It goes through aerated holding tanks, de-watering centrifuges, and drying systems into a silo for storage for sale to local farmers, who use it as a soil conditioner.  Final disinfection comes from intense ultraviolet radiation. The plant is highly automated, with an alphabet soup of Supervisory Control sensors; Programmable Logic Controllers to optimize efficiency of valves, pumps, aerators, and chemical feeds; and alarm systems that allow the staff of six people to operate the plant on one shift, with members on call if an alarm goes off. Abbott noted that both monitors and sensors are rapidly becoming more sensitive and reliable. 

In just its second year of operation, the Easton plant won an award for operations and maintenance excellence from EPA's Region 3. By our 2009 visit, the plant was already running well below its permit loads of 4 milligrams per liter of nitrogen and 0.3 mg/l of phosphorus. "There's still a lot to learn about Enhanced Nutrient Removal," Doug Abbott said. He was referring to challenges like how to meet the discharge permit's goals on a daily basis, including how to adjust to varying inflow, fine-tuning for weather, and giving the bugs the consistent conditions they need to thrive.

—John Page Williams
CBF's Senior Naturalist

Stay tuned tomorrow for more on how this revolutionary new plant came to be, and what it means for our waters and Bay. In the meantime, learn more about wastewater treatment plant issues here on our website.