Академический Документы
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11/14/18
Manoli Cardona
Agustin Cortes
Alejandra Lopez
Pollution in the Chesapeake Bay:
The Chesapeake Bay is home to over 2,700 species. It draws water from over 150 rivers, streams, creaks receiving
roughly 70,000 cubic feet of water every second. That water reflects surrounding land use activities from the District
of Columbia, parts of New York, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, and West Virginia. A total of about
15 million people reside in the Chesapeake Bay watershed. This means that the Bay must process more land-based
pollution than most bodies of water. According to Submersed Aquatic Vegetation in Chesapeake Bay Sentinel
Species in a Changing World by Robert J. Orth “The Chesapeake Bay is America’s largest sanctuary and one of the
world’s most productive.” J.Orth also states that, “The Chesapeake Bay’s decline was evident as early as the 1950s.
In the late 1970s, state and federal scientists began an extensive study to determine the reasons for the Bay’s decline.
According to the Chesapeake Bay website people had not been concerned with water pollution and have been
ignoring the fact that it is causing danger to the earth’s ecosystem and people’s health. People started being
informed, that the earth heat levels were rising and the one place we call our home/planet will soon not be there for
future generations.
So what are the problems?, The three major problems were identified as; excess nutrients from wastewater,
agricultural lands, and developed land; sediment in runoff from farms, construction sites, and eroding lands; possible
elevated levels of toxic chemicals in the water. According to the Chesapeake Bay website “Wastewater refers to
liquid waste or sewage from homes, businesses, schools, industrial facilities and other institutions that flows into
rivers, streams and into the Chesapeake Bay. It can also refer to runoff’s from stormwater, agriculture and other
sources. Essentially, wastewater is all the used water that originates from households—toilets and bathroom fixtures,
kitchens, laundry, lawn and garden irrigation, swimming pools—as well as from industrial, commercial and
agricultural activities and polluted runoff. Depending on the source, some wastewater can contain nutrient or
sediment pollution, or dissolved chemical contaminants.” The Chesapeake Bay region is home to 472 municipal and
industrial wastewater treatment plants, which leads to higher amount of wastewater pollution. It makes it an obstacle
for the restoration of the Chesapeake Bay to happen. Moreover, some of the land is private owned land which
makes it harder to implement the rules and regulations in each piece of land surrounded the Chesapeake Bay,
therefore, “faulty seals and improper connections can receive large amounts of infiltration and inflow during wet
weather.” While this may seem like a small problem it leads to bigger environmental issue due to “large volumes of
sanitary sewer overflows and operational problems at the wastewater treatment facility serving the collection system
in addition sewage overflows can be caused by other problems such as blockages, equipment failure, broken pipes,
or vandalism” (epa.gov).
Second problem is, humans are the main problem for the Bays pollution. They are responsible for the
excess nutrients that enter and hurt the ecosystem of the Chesapeake Bay. According to the the Department of the
Environment in the Maryland website “This nutrient pollution come from fertilizing lawns, gardens, and farms.
Nutrient pollution also come from urban sources, including exhaust automobiles, wastewater, septic systems and
stormwater runoff. These nutrients are overwhelming to the Chesapeake Bay that it has weakened natural filters
and have resulted in a significant loss of wildlife.” The Chesapeake Bay being the largest estuary in the United
States and the third largest in the world, the Bay watershed encompasses the entire District of Columbia, as well as
parts of six states: Delaware, Maryland, New York, Pennsylvania, Virginia, and West Virginia.” Making a very
vulnerable body of water and to accept an excessive amount of nutrient pollution, as well as, nitrogen and
phosphorus loads to the Chesapeake Bay is a regional water quality concern. Nitrogen and phosphorus have always
been a part of the Chesapeake Bay ecosystem, but have increased to excessive levels over the last few decades. Prior
to substantial human activity in the region, most nitrogen and phosphorus was absorbed or retained by natural forest
and wetland vegetation. However, the activities of over 13.6 million people in the watershed have overwhelmed the
Chesapeake Bay with excess amounts of nutrients. Nitrogen and phosphorus come from a wide range of point and
nonpoint sources, including sewage treatment plants, industrial facilities, agricultural fields, lawns, and the
atmosphere. As forests and wetlands have been replaced by farms, cities, and suburbs to accommodate a growing
population, nitrogen and phosphorus pollution to the Chesapeake Bay have greatly increased. Nitrogen and
phosphorus are considered good things because they support the bottom of the food chain. But in recent years the
Chesapeake Bay has been receiving too much of these nutrients. The excess nutrients have created large blooms of
microscopic plants called phytoplankton. The growth of phytoplankton has cut off the supply of light to underwater
grasses. The underwater grasses are essential part of the Bays ecosystem because they provide a habitat for many
species and help filter the water. Pollution has reduced the grasses to only 10% of their historic levels, from 600,000
acres to around 65,000 acres today. Another problem occurs when algae dies and begins to decompose. The process
of decomposition removes dissolved oxygen from the water and turns large section into non habitable area when fish
and or wildlife can thrive from. Moreover, whenever it rains or snow falls on the ground and picks up contaminants
and carry them into streams and rivers that will eventually flow into the Chesapeake Bay. Polluted stormwater
runoff has become an increasing problem because much land around the bay has changed from the natural filters of
forests and wetlands to poorly managed farmland, construction sites, city streets, and suburban communities.
Construction sites and farmland severely erode, sending tons of soil into the water. A well-managed farms sends ten
times the amount of sediment into the Bay as a forest. A construction site can send a thousand times as much
sediment as a forest. Farms are a significant source of nutrient, bacterial and toxic pollution when storm-water runs
off farmland saturated with animal wastes and other fertilizers. One of the largest contributors of farm runoff is the
Eastern Shore s chicken industry, which produces around 400,000 tons of chicken manure. When rain falls on the
roadways in urban and suburban areas, it washes harmful gasoline and oil from the roads into the Bay. In addition,
Industrial facilities, and food production and processing facilities. They discharge nutrient and toxic-laden wastes,
often through pipes, directly into the water. Some facilities carry their wastes off site and spread them across the
land, where they eventually flow into the water. Many point source discharges have made progress in reducing the
amounts of pollution they dump into the water, but far too many nutrients and toxins still enter the Bay. As long as
discharging is permitted to use lakes, oceans and bays as dumping grounds waste and point source pollution will
Third problem, Toxins, such as the heavy metals mercury, cadmium, copper, lead, zinc; and pesticides,
dioxins, polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), polynuclear aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), and many other chemicals
have been identified as a potential threat to the Bay. Toxic substances are poisonous to humans and other living
things and have been known to cause a wide range of negative health effects. There are over 70,000 chemicals
currently in use. Less that 2% of these chemicals have been adequately tested for their impact on human health and
the environment. The testing, monitoring, and controlling of toxic substances is very complex and expensive. As a
result, not enough is known about the kinds and amounts of toxic chemicals entering the Bay or the effects they have
on the living things in the Bayswater. What are the effects of toxins and what kind of danger are we putting on
humans and or wildlife. “According to a diagram from the Maryland Pesticide Network, waterborne pesticides can
go from aquatic animals to wildlife that eats those animals to drinking water that can then enter the breast milk of
pregnant women. They reported that these toxic chemicals found in the Chesapeake Bay have been linked to low
birth weights (Munger et al., 1997) and immune dysfunctions. These findings were also similar to a study done
across the Pacific ocean.” in another study conducted in France, scientists “Tested how the pesticide chlorpyrifos
affected juvenile and adult rats. They used three groups of pregnant rats and gave one group rapeseed oil (control
group) and the second and third group were given dissolved chlorpyrifos once a day. This was given to the pregnant
rats from ‘gestational day 1 until their pups were weaned.’ They then took some of the newborn rats from each
group to euthanize them. They did this to take the diaphragms and test how well the contracted after being given
either the rapeseed or the pesticide. The rest of the pup rats were given either rapeseed oil or the dissolved
chlorpyrifos. They then conducted a series of tests to see the difference in weight, diaphragm contractility, and sleep
apnea. These tests showed that when it came to weight, the control group of rats always weighed more when the
became adults. Both groups that were given the pesticide never weighed more than 250g while the control group got
up to 300g. Diaphragm showed that both tests groups had a much higher twitch tension that the control group
meaning that the muscles of the test groups took much longer to react to stimulation. Finally, apnea was described as
a rat missing at least two breaths. The results of this specific test showed that the test groups had about twice as
many missed breaths in an hour than the control group. “The sleep apnea index, TE and VT were higher in adult
animals exposed. Mercury is part of the water pollution problem, According to Chesapeake Bay Foundation: Saving
a National Treasure reports, “Mercury… is highly toxic chemical, especially to developing nervous system and can
cause IQ deficits in children… mercury increases in concentration as it moves up the food chain and wildlife, fish
and people consume contaminated food... It is mostly floats out of out of the smokestacks of power plants and
factories and is washed up by rain into the chesapeake bay and other waterways… according to the EPA, coal-fired
electricity generators are the largest single source of mercury air emissions in the U.S accounting for more than 40
percent of the pollution. The fisherman animals impact on the chesapeake bay. the report team used peer-reviewed
literature (journal articles and other scientific publications) to describe the potential connections between
contaminants and their health effects on fish and wildlife. The team found that the health of fish continues to be
degraded by: increased infectious diseases and parasites that cause fish kills, feminization (intersex conditions) of
largemouth and smallmouth bass, reduced reproductive success of yellow perch, and tumors in bottom-dwelling
fish. All these effects are likely related to toxic contaminants. In a few locations, contaminants adversely affect the
health of wildlife, primarily birds, as evidenced by: eggshell thinning, death of embryos, and failure of eggs to hatch.
1. Seabin
● What is a Seabin?
The Seabin is a floating rubbish bin that is located in the water at marinas, docks, yacht clubs, and commercial ports.
The Seabin moves up and down with the range of tide collecting all floating rubbish. Water is sucked in from the
surface and passes through a catch bag inside the Seabin, with a submersible water pump capable of displacing
25.000 LPH (liters per hour), plugged directly into 110/220 V outlet. The water is then pumped back into the marina
leaving litter and debris trapped in the catch bag to be disposed of properly.Info was taken from
(https://www.seabinproject.com)
Improves Water Condition:yes, it will improve water conditions because water will be clean and will keep
ecosystem alive, and also have clean drinking water for people.
1. Seabin
- As stated in our evaluation seabin would be the one making the greatest effect on changing water
pollution. People around the world have started to implement seabins around their docks and sea water. It
filters and it helps reduce the amount of trash that the ocean/ bay carries around all day. It makes it easy to
use so anyone is able to learn how to use it. It helps to clean up the water pollution. If this is implemented
then not one city or state has the excuse not to follow the rules and regulations for the clean up process.
Conclusion:
In conclusion efforts must be taken by the government and individuals to help reduce the amount of pollution
deposited in the bay. Restrictions need to be made on the amount of pesticides used in the Bay’s watershed. Erosion
must be decreased through more responsible planting, and construction site layout. Air pollution needs to be
combated through the use of technology to make cleaner burning engines, power plants, and factories. Cleanup and
preservation efforts must continue to work hard at restoring the Chesapeake Bay ecosystem. The Chesapeake Bay is
a unique environment that supports a great number of species. Work must continue to prevent the destruction and
pollution of their natural habitat. The marine life of the Bay is essential not only to the health of the Bay ecosystem,
but it is a mainstay of the economy in the surrounding areas. The threat of polluted aquatic life also poses a potential
threat to the humans that consume the seafood from the Bay. If the Bay continues to be polluted the tourist and
Reference:
Bad Water 2009: The Impact on Human Health in the Chesapeake Bay Region
http://www.cbf.org/document-library/cbf-reports/57298_final008c.pdf
Day, C. (2017). Down by the Chesapeake Bay: Cooperative Federalism, Judicial Intervention, and the Boundary
between State Land Use and Federal Environmental Law. Energy Law Journal, 38( 1), 253–267. Retrieved
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Acknowledgement Page: