Has the Bay Lost Hope?

The article can be found at   http://www.cbf.org/how-we-save-the-bay/issues/dead-zones/nitrogen-phosphorus


The Chesapeake Bay. Was full of life now the question is how can we save the lives that are there and bring in new lives? The article was written by the Chesapeake Bay Foundation and says what is wrong with the bay and how it can be fixed.  There is too much phosphates and nitrogen in the water from pollution, from many different things about 300 million pounds of these polluting nitrogen go into the water each year. Which in turn is causes surplus of algae and is killing the animals and plants in the water. Also the bay is dangerous for humans or animals to be in because of all of the waste and toxins in it. This is causing a circle effect that needs to be fixed, fast.

The high levels of phosphates and nitrogen comes from the run offs of agriculture like fertilizer or manure (40% of nitrogen all of the nitrogen pollution in the bay and 50% of  all phosphorus pollution in the bay) . When these get into the water they give the algae food to bloom. With this excess amount of nitrogen and phosphates in the water it causes a blooming ground for a surplus of algae to bloom. The algae are very detrimental to this bay's habitat. The algae block the sunlight from making it to the sea floor which in turn cause the plants in the water to die from not getting enough sunlight. Then when the algae die and decompose they suck up oxygen from the water resulting in so called "Dead Zones". Dead Zones are areas in the water were there is little or no oxygen, this stresses the fish and shellfish in the water resulting in them dying. Plus there are strands of poisonous algae like blue algae that are very dangerous and detrimental to animals or humans. They can make humans sick but they are very dangerous to animals like dogs. The toxins attack the animal's liver and nervous system eventually causing the animal to die. Algae like this make the water's of the bay even more dangerous, disgusting, and inhabitable.

Agriculture isn't the only factor into the bay's issues. Storm water, Sewage/Industry, Septic, Air Pollution, and Storm Water are the other factors that are polluting the bay. These factors also effect the bay majorly. These combined make up the other 60% of the nitrogen pollution and 50% of the phosphorus pollution. These factors remind me of the Lorax.  In the Lorax the town was throwing all of the polluted water into the lake were all of the fish were and from this all of the fish died off. Thats almost like the Sewage/Industry water that they put in the bay or the run offs of fertilizer and manure that go into the bay because the cows poop close to or in the water causing it to contaminate. This also reminds me of the Lorax with the air pollution from the factories or the cars and machines that they used in the movie that contaminated the environment. The same thing is happening with the bay where the factories and cars around it contaminate the water.

There are ways to fix this disaster in the Chesapeake Bay. The agricultural pollution can be fixed by just farmers corroborating. The farmer's can fence in their cattle so that they won't get close to the bay and pollute it with their manure. The farmers can plant cover crops (plants that maintain the soil's fertility and quality. They also can also manage water from seeping into the soil so that that won't later contaminate the bay.), the farmers can plant buffer strips to keep the water runoffs from the fertilizer away from the bay, and they can limit the amount of fertilizer use so that not so much will run off and get into the bay. Just by doing this it can cut out 40% of the nitrogen in the water and 50% of the phosphates in the water. These measures can definitely help save the bay.

The other pollutants (Sewage/Industry, Septic, Air Pollution, and Storm water) can be reduced by doing these things. The factories around the bay can upgrade storm water systems and sewage treatment plants. The factories around the bay can also use nitrogen removal technologies on septic systems and reduce air pollution by reducing energy use from power plants and vehicle pollutions. By taking these measures and the agricultural measures the bay's pollutions can drop by a large margin.

By doing all of these things the bay can be saved. But there is some important numbers to think of 98% and 80%. These are the percentage of oysters and seagrass that have been killed since the pollution in the bay has started. This is very concerning numbers since we already know from class that if one species dies off in a food chain, everything can die off as well. This is already starting to happen in the bay. And if we don't manage to stop these pollutions soon the bay and all of it's inhabitants can die off and the entire bay can become one big dead zone of just death, sludge and pollution. But if we work together and try to fix the hole that has been dug in the pollution of the bay. Maybe someday people can go back swimming everywhere in the bay and life will flourish in the bay. Or it can stay the same as it is now staying on Environmental Protection Agency's list of dirty waters and eventually get worse and worse. But this can be stopped and fixed, if we just work hard to do so. The bay still has hope, let's fix it while it still has hope and an opportunity for to be fixed.