Chesapeake Bay health earns ‘D’

The D rating from the foundation came as the 2010 deadline looms to clean up the Bay.

“It?s on life support, fighting for survival,” Chesapeake Bay Foundation President William Baker said of the Bay.

Baker called on the executive council of the Chesapeake Bay Program, which sets policies for restoring the Bay and is scheduled to meet Wednesday, to lay out specific benchmarks for reducing nitrogen pollution by 110 million pounds by 2010.

“We think there are clear actions that can be taken to reduce nitrogen,” he said. “We?d like to see them implemented and plans laid out.”

So far, only 18 percent of the 2010 goal has been reached, Baker said.

In the annual State of the Bay report, the Bay?s health index dropped one point to 28. The report assesses 13 indicators with the goal of reaching a score of 40 by 2010.

Nature played a part in the dip from last year?s score, Baker said.

Phosphorus pollution increased dramatically, due to heavy rains in the early spring washing runoff into the Bay, the report states. The six-point drop in the phosphorus index was the main contributor to the overall drop in the score.

Water clarity dipped one point, due to “excessive algal blooms,” which can block sunlight and damage underwater plants, the report states.

The blue crab population, for which the score dipped two points, is still declining, likely because much of the habitat, eelgrass, died out two years ago, according to the report.

“We need to get better, not worse,” said Brad Heavner, state director for Environment Maryland, an environmental activist group.

“It would take everyone getting together and working together on a lot of solutions.”

Gov. Martin O?Malley, who chairs the executive council, said, “We cannot let this honestthough bleak snapshot of the Bay?s current health discourage us from making a better, healthier future for the Bay.”

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