Bay cleanup lags

Aaron Bouchard, the Chesapeake Bay Foundation's James River captain/educator, left, and Ken Slazyk, the foundation's Virginia senior field manager for education, drag a trawl net through a tributary of the James River.

Albert Hill Middle School sixth-graders take a Chesapeake Bay Foundation educational boat trip on the James River

Four decades of state and federal efforts to restore the Chesapeake Bay have fallen short, and the scientific and technical experts who advise the effort say it is time for some radical changes in approach.

They say it may be time to rethink what a restored bay should look like.

"The Bay of the future will be different from the Bay of the past because of permanent and ongoing changes in land use, climate change, population growth and economy development," said the Scientific and Technical Advisory Committee of the Chesapeake Bay Program, the joint federal-state effort to clean up the bay, in a major new report.

Those changes will make future restoration efforts even more challenging than before, the committee said.

"The slow state of water quality change in the estuary suggests that achievement of (water quality standards) in the Bay is uncertain and remains in the distant future," the committee said.

Volunteers pick up litter at Ancarrow's Landing in Richmond, Va., during the Chesapeake Bay Foundation's Clean the Bay Day Saturday, June 4, 2022. Video by Alexa Welch Edlund

What is now a 13-year goal of cutting the flow of nitrogen and phosphorous into the Bay — nutrients that feed the algae blooms that create the Chesapeake's acres-wide dead zones in which there is not enough oxygen for fish and shellfish to survive — is well off the initial goals set for 2025. Last year's maximum was 2,562 billion gallons.

Nitrogen flows had declined from 370 million pounds a year to about 258 million as of 2021. Phosphorous flow has been roughly halved to about 15 million pounds a year, but there are still about 2 million more to go.

It is not clear that current efforts to reduce those flows can cut them enough, the committee said.

The current programs to cut nitrogen from farms and storm runoff from city and suburban paved areas has cut these flows by only 3 million pounds a year since 2010; those sources are currently the primary generator of that pollutant, after an intensive effort to clean up discharges from wastewater plants.

Throwing more money at the effort is not likely to work.

Instead, a new approach to dealing with nitrogen, rather than the no-till farming and stream buffers farmers are encouraged to adopt, may mean taking such steps as transporting animal waste out of the bay watershed and offering financial incentives tied to actual reductions in nitrogen and phosphorus pollution, the committee said.

Nitrogen and phosphorus flows come in large part from livestock operations and the use of animal wastes to manure fields, the committee noted.

Meanwhile, the water quality in much of the bay, measured by such factors as clarity, dissolved oxygen and acidity, has not responded the way scientific models had predicted.

And it is not clear what that really means for the bay's plants and animal life, the committee said.

"Improving water quality to meet the Bay (water quality standard) may not be sufficient to generate desired changes in the composition and abundance of Bay living resources," the committee said.

The hardening of shorelines — jargon for the construction of seawalls or dikes — to protect homes and commercial buildings in rapidly developing coastal areas cuts into the shallow water environments where key fish species breed.

Fishing, whether for recreation or for commercial use, and the harvest of the bay's oysters and crabs, are additional pressure points, the committee said.

"Some species (striped bass, bay anchovy, oysters) may be much less sensitive to changes in the volume of (dead zones) than bottom dwelling Atlantic sturgeon," said the committee, referring to a fish that was once a staple of early American diets but is now critically endangered.

Female blue crab numbers, vital to sustaining one of Virginia's most important fisheries, have been depressed for three decades, despite bay cleanup efforts, the committee's data show; there are similar patterns for a favorite of recreational fishermen, the total population of striped bass, as well the populations of summer flounder and the key food source for many species, bay anchovies.

A focus on improving the situation of the bay's plants and animals may mean targeting efforts to improve water quality — for instance, in shallower waters of the bay, where many species spawn and where their juveniles mature.

Rivanna Water and Sewer Authority partners with Virginia Oyster Shell Recycling and Restoration Program to bag up recycled oysters collected from restaurants and homes that will later be returned to the Chesapeake Bay.

"Opportunities exist to improve the effectiveness of pollution reduction efforts and accelerate improvements in living resources. Capitalizing on these opportunities will require adoption of new policies, procedures and programs," the committee said. "Achieving reductions in pollutants and realizing improvements in water quality and living resources in a system as large, diverse and complex as the Bay watershed and estuary calls for patience."

Chesapeake Bay Foundation President Hilary Harp Falk said that, while it is still possible to restore the bay, there is a long way to go.

"As we face a third missed deadline, it's time to take a hard look in the mirror and realize that we cannot rely on more money alone to meet the goals," she said.

"While additional investment is still needed, we must drastically change and accelerate our approach to reducing the pollution running off the land," she added.

03-24-1962: Dock St. Area

12-11-1963 (cutline): Dredging would open James River to bigger ships. View is downriver, past intermediate terminal.

10-04-1941: James River

07-25-1964 (cutline): The Virginia Power Boat Association Marina here is one of few on the Jmes River. The scenic, and historic, stream offers more for the spectator that for the participant

04-20-1965: James River

08-29-1969 From photographic assignment order: Place: James River Subject/Instructions: One week ago today the James River started to reach its crest (28.6 feet at 3 a.m. Firday) We need a scenic picture of the James for contrast. Perhaps someone (a kid) fishing along Riverside Drive. Any ideas you have would be gladly accepted.

08-14-1963 (cutline): Looking east from Bosher's Dam

07-07-1966 (cutline): More rocks than water are evident in the section of the James River here. View across river is from South Bank near the end of the Lee Bridge.

Dave Ress (804) 649-6948

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@DaveRess1 on Twitter

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