A Brief Note On The Chesapeake Bay Watershed

It is their home, their thriving place. According to the National WIldlife Federation, ¨The Bay supports 3,600 species of plant and animal life, including more than 300 fish species and 2,700 plant types.”. Not only does the wildlife depend on the bay, but humans do as well. The Chesapeake Bay contains a 64,000-square-mile watershed, this watershed provides large amounts of drinking water for us in Maryland, along with several other states. Everyday, the condition of the water declines, meaning the home for wildlife and our drinking water does too. The Chesapeake Bay Foundation pointed out that, ¨Toxic chemicals are constantly entering the Chesapeake Bay and its rivers and streams via wastewater, agriculture, stormwater, and air pollution. These harmful chemicals, such as mercury, PCBs, and PAHs, do not break down easily and persist in the environment for many years, impacting not just fish and birds, but humans as well.¨. How important does the restoration of the bay sound

Scientists and researchers began giving a large volume of effort and look into the extremely complex problems that face the Chesapeake Bay. When research for the improving and saving of the Bay’s overall health began it seemed very simple and there were only a couple of problems. The problems included nutrients from agricultural runoff; these nutrients were phosphorus and nitrogen. The combination of the nutrients in the Bay caused a large volume of algae that choked some of the marine life. While bringing in algae the nutrients also killed grasses on the seafloor. These seafloor bed grasses that once covered more than half of the Chesapeake Bay’s floor now only covered a tenth of their original area. Though the estuary was having problems it did not receive the terrible pollution from industries that many large rivers and lakes do in other urban areas (Brown, p. 397).

Today, the Chesapeake Bay colony area is home to the United States capital, with the ma-

Eutrophication is a concern in the Chesapeake Bay. Eutrophication is caused by excessive amounts of nutrients. Excessive nutrients in the bay have negative effects on the bay's ecosystem. The extra nutrients make the environment unbalanced. The extra nutrients cause a chain reaction that eventually kills most of the organisms in that area. This is what is known as a dead zone.

Scene in Fig. 1.1., the Chesapeake Bay is substantial in size; at roughly 64,000 miles, it contains roughly fifty rivers and thousands of streams and creeks. It encompasses parts of 6 states, including all of Washington, DC. The Chesapeake Bay is what is known as a watershed, an area that contributes to the drainage to a water body, stream, river, lake or ocean. Rainwater that falls within the 64,000 square miles that is the Chesapeake Bay will subsequently travel through many streams and rivers, eventually making its way into the largest estuary system in the United States.

Even though, fertilizers are needed to supply essential nutrients to the growth of plants; an excess of them is one of the major issues contributing to pollution in the Chesapeake Bay Watershed. Fertilizers are mainly composed of two elements: nitrogen and phosphorus.(4) Throughout the years, millions of pounds of this nutrients are applied all around the Chesapeake Bay Watershed; everything not absorbed by the soil or taken up by plants eventually reaches the Chesapeake Bay through storm-water runoff. This nutrients end up creating algae blooms in the water, which reduce the amount of sunlight available to underwater grasses; not allowing plants to photosynthesize and produce the food they need to survive. Algae then decomposes creating dead zones killing fish and other species since oxygen is needed for any organism to live. (5)

Why is stormwater harmful to the Chesapeake Bay? Storm water is harmful because as it travels it picks up pollutants like fertilizers, sediments, and litter. All of this waste can end up going into streams and rivers. It is destructive for the ecosystems, but there are ways to help prevent this from happening.

To begin, there are many types of human activities affecting the health of Chesapeake Bay. Residential developments have replaced wetlands, forests and meadows, taking away habitats of the native wildlife. Overuse of natural resources has caused the degradation of foods necessary for wildlife in the ecosystem. Intensive hunting practices have caused the extinction of several species in the area. Soil damage as a result of fertilization has contaminated nearby water supplies, causing damage in the Bay. Point-source pollution as a result of industrial businesses has also

Our watershed, the chesapeake bay stretches more than 64,000 square miles and is home to about 18 million people.The bay provides us with a lot of things like fishes,salt and water for farming etc. But, the bay is starting to get polluted and many organisms in the bay are dying because of sediments, algae blooms etc.

Oysters filter water for the rest of the community. They can filter up to 2 gallons (8 liters) of water in an hour. They are the most effective filtration system in the Chesapeake Bay. Before Europeans/ Americans started to harvest the oysters in this region, the amount of oysters in the Bay could filter the 18 trillion gallons of water in the Chesapeake in a matter of days, while the current population takes over a year.

The Virginia General Assembly enacted the Chesapeake Bay Preservation Act in 1988 in an effort to promote “the general welfare of the people of the commonwealth.” The act is effective in 84 different localities throughout Virginia. This act was designed to have a positive impact on water quality of the bay itself, and also water throughout Virginia that feed into the bay. Along with improving water quality, it was designed to still allow reasonable development to continue taking place. The act is designed around the theory that land can be used and developed in a way that minimizes negative impacts on water quality. There is a balance between state and local economic interests and water quality that is implemented by a cooperative partnership between the state and Tidewater local government. This partnership helps reduce and prevent nonpoint source pollution.

The Chesapeake Bay is a large watershed and home to an ecosystem as well as residents that live by the estuary. However, because climate change is at times out of mind and out of sight those residents may or may not know about the pollution caused by farms that are run by industry such as, Perdue. Well, you may wonder by now

Today pollution is very high in both inland and marine waters. All different types of water pollution are contributing factors in this problem. Here are some things that are associated with pollution: Pathogens: Pathogens are disease causing bacteria, viruses, and protozoa. They usually come

In order to ethically evaluate the disaster of polluted runoff in The Chesapeake Bay, we would need to consider two different environmental ethical approaches in theory. The first approach to consider would be anthropocentrism. John Nolt (2013) referred anthropocentrism to “human-centeredness”, where he claimed it to mean “For any action A, if we ought to do A, then doing A is good for humans” (p. 442), meaning to do what is good for humans. He discusses environmental ethics to be considered “value anthropocentrism” were all values are “ultimately human values and only human values have intrinsic value” (p. 443). The anthropocentrism approach only gives instrumental value to non-human living things, as to what value they have for humans, because they are not “morally competent beings” (p. 444). With this approach in mind, this would mean that deforestation is good, because building houses and roadways in their place is good for humans, instead of having natural runoff absorbing areas. Or overharvesting of crabs and oyster are good because it is for the greater good of watermen and restaurateurs livelihood and culture, instead of habitat and filtration of the Bay.

Air pollution is caused by trucks, cars, bikes, and factories that release compounds into the atmosphere such as carbon monoxide and nitrogen oxide. Coal burning is also an factor of air pollution. A study done by union of concerned scientists talks about “coal plants are the nation's top