Chesapeake Bay Journal

Pennsylvania is setting the groundwork for farmers to sell a new commodity at the market: nutrient reductions. The state Department of Environmental Protection has released a draft nutrient trading policy that would let wastewater treatment plants and industries meet their Bay-related pollution control obligations by purchasing “credits” from other facilities or farmers who have done more than is required.

While nutrient trading programs have been gaining interest across the watershed and the nation, Pennsylvania’s— by clearly encouraging trades involving farmers—could be the most sweeping to be proposed in the United States. Proponents are banking on it as a way to shave the cost of a the state’s multibillion Bay cleanup effort.

Shoring up coasts against erosion: Some ideas get tested by fire, but a new idea about how to protect Bay shorelines with more natural buffering systems has been tested by water and hurricane-force winds and is helping to stem erosion and preserve nearby habitats.

Chesapeake Bay region leads nation in dam removals: For more than a century, the Octoraro Creek dam had stretched across 100-foot-wide stretch of the Maryland river; a pile of rocks and boulders above wooden cribbing that was just enough of an obstruction to block fish from moving upstream.

Bay oyster seasons off to early start because of hurricanes: The effects of Gulf Coast hurricanes reached the Chesapeake Bay as Virginia and Maryland management agencies both acted to expand their oyster harvest seasons because oyster production in the Gulf Coast was crippled by the storms.

Supreme Court will take up wetlands cases: The Supreme Court set the stage in October for what could be a landmark ruling on government authority to regulate wetlands and control pollution, giving new Chief Justice John Roberts his first chance to limit the federal regulation of property rights.

4 VA environmental groups unite efforts to seek funds for waterways: Four Virginia environmental groups plan to band together to urge the General Assembly to establish a long-term source of funding to help clean up the state’s degraded waterways.

International team seeks ancient fiery origins of Chesapeake Bay: Amid fields of soybeans just outside Eyreville on Virginia’s Eastern Shore, geologists are closing in on an ancient cataclysm.

Executive Council annual meeting set for Nov. 29: The Chesapeake Executive Council’s annual meeting will take place Nov. 29 at the National Geographic Society’s headquarters in Washington, D.C.

Coalition pulls out all the stops to restore Corsica's water quality: Launching what Maryland Gov. Robert Ehrlich called a “grand experiment,” a coalition of state and federal agencies is teaming with nonprofit organizations and local landowners to make a tangible water quality difference in one small watershed.

Now you can drink to the health of the Bay: Maryland Gov. Robert Ehrlich recently announced the formation the Chesapeake Bay Recovery Partnership, a new public-private partnership between the Oyster Recovery Partnership and the state of Maryland.

It's clear that controlling sediment is critical to Bay's water clarity: Since the glaciers of the last ice age began retreating more than 10,000 years ago—flooding part of the ancient Susquehanna River valley and creating the Chesapeake—water has been slowly eating away the edges of the Bay.

Alliance names 6 to board: The Alliance for the Chesapeake Bay elected six new members to its board at its Oct. 14 annual membership meeting. They will begin their terms Jan. 1, 2006.