From the Chickens to the Crabs - The Ripple Effect: The Fate of Freshwater in the Twenty-First Century - page 72

deregulation and a massive reduction in funding for the EPA. Under Reagan's Secret-
ary of the Interior, James Watt, and his EPA administrator, Anne Gorsuch, regulatory
oversight was sharply curtailed, and the EPA relied on industry to voluntarily police it-
self—in what has been called a “grand experiment.” It was a miserable failure. Around
Chesapeake Bay it led to confusion, inaction, and countless missed deadlines.
Today, the loty goals of the 1972 Clean Water Act—to clean up all water pollution by
1985—remain unattained, even in the waters at the feet of the nation's capital. Groups
such as the Chesapeake Bay Foundation hold fund-raisers to “Save the Bay” and urge
lawmakers to craft meaningful environmental laws. But up to half the pollution flowing
into the bay remains essentially unregulated, and the effects on aquatic life have been
devastating.
“WELCOME TO THE DEAD ZONE”
The day in 2008 when we sailed across the bay, from Rock Creek to the Delmarva Pen-
insula, both in Maryland, it was bright and hot, and the Chesapeake's water looked
syrupy. We were aboard AdventureBound,a thirty-six-foot sloop, captained by Earl
Greene, a cheerful mustachioed raconteur who has sailed all over the world. At the
USGS, he works on groundwater hydrology. There was not a whisper of wind, so Cap-
tain Greene didn't bother to hoist the sails. It took AdventureBounda couple of hours
to motor across the bay.
It had recently rained, and we sliced through a patch of brownish water—“probably
caused by storm-water runoff from construction sites,” said Captain Greene. Bob
Hirsch and I sat in the cockpit with a group of scientists, eating blueberry bagels and
sipping orange juice.
As the Chesapeake widened before us, the water turned from brown to gray-green.
Captain Greene pointed to a patch of reddish algae, called Mahogany Stain, which is
the result of overnitrification. The stain kills rockfish (striped bass), often carries co-
liform bacteria that cause painful sores known as fisherman's disease, and has led to
beach closures. “We're seeing more and more suspended solids in the water, which block
sunlight,” said Greene. “Sea grasses need clear water to photosynthesize in sunlight. But
now a lot of those grasses, which provide oxygen and hiding places for little fish, are dy-
ing.”
Scott Phillips, a USGS hydrologist, added, “The bay is a pretty tough place, but it's up
against a big enemy. It's like a fighter that keeps getting knocked down and standing up.
But by the seventh knockdown, it might not be able to stand up and recover to the way
it was in the 1950s.”