I was at one of the hearings for the current "Chesapeake Bay Plan" in Binghamton NY. God that must have been around. 2012. You should have seen the NYS DEC, we are not part of the compact and what law do you have to even enforce this on us. There were a bunch of us elected or appointed officials there that spoke after everyone else. (they offered to have us speak first, but all but one decided to let the people speak first) I can remember when the Baltimore Sun did an article on the Strict letter from the EPA 28 DEC 2009 and the first thing I thought of, this program will be a train wreck. The funny part was how the EPA is enforcing this is due to a settlement agreement for a court case, so that is shaky ground. Then there is how the reductions are documented. So much is on documentation and funds not being spent for simple fixes. I'm a chairman for a sewer system, and work as an environmental professional (def. 40 CFR). IF you look into the plans, reports from NYS they are all fashionably late. Still there are concerns for allotments of pollution to use for growth. We had a new soil conservation head for the county a few years ago and I told him, for the county it is just a paperwork shuffle, due to the programs already in place to meet our allotment of reductions. At the sewer plant the largest reduction in Phosphorus was when NYS changed the law for laundry detergents and since we are just south of Binghamton NY, most people shop there from PA. With testing at the sewer plants and spending well over a billion dollars of state money (not counting local money) they got major reductions from the sewer sector, but that is a small part. Now cross boarder testing from NY to PA there was an interesting Effect with solids, when gas drilling started in a water shed everything went up, TSS, TN and TP. That was never accounted for. I have gone to many meetings, had people call me up to go to them and the one thing, the farm bureau's just hate this. I can remember saying look at these questionares from the USDA, guess who is collecting data for farmers. They had no idea just how big this is. Then I had to listen to the farm bureau say, lets push this off to the boroughs and townships to make reductions. Go after the sewer plants. Then I mention, remember is program or that program for the farmers and then a light goes off and I said, now just put that to paper and magically there are the reductions. Then the data was collected and OMG we were way above the reductions needed for the county with only having meetings and doing paperwork. iT blew the farm bureau's mind; they were dreading this.

It's a farce. Bay health has barely budged in 30 years. Back River treatment plant leaks millions of gallons of untreated waste into the bay every year.

@@brett76544 Sounds like this farm Bureau need to be sacked on mass. Nutrient run of is not that hard to curb. I will cite the sugar cane Industry in Australia, there were significant problems with run of in the past Affecting onshore waterways and the Great Barrier Reef. Plans were enacted with the co operation of multiple parties. The entire industry changed method In how the crop is grown and harvested. On top of this waterways were revegetated with buffer vegetation, and bioactive run of pits are now also in use. Run of levels have gone from problematic to barely detectable in reef waters and damaged mangrove species are also on the comeback. The Industry is doing fine and nobody lost their farm. No excuse for this kind of run issue in this day and age. They aught to take a look at what has been happening in the Netherlands, and pull their fingers out as we say here in Aus.

Same with other such expensive projects around America

So basically the bay is just one crappy money pit and you expect the taxpayer to fix what you polluted.

Might as well be 1,000 years ago. 🟥

I experienced some of that amazing natural beauty and wildlife visiting there in the early 1970's. I hate to think what it would be like if I visited today.

@@someguy2135 The casual observer would probably think the estuary is in better shape today than it was in the 70’s. Most of the fish and oyster packing facilities have closed, so unless a die-off happens around the towns, there’s less stench.

@@johnhiggs325 Silver lining to a catastrophic storm brewing!

@@someguy2135 The packing plants have closed because stocks are unsustainable. I’m curious to know what the crabbers are going to do without menhaden to bait their pots.

Not only that but it’s been proven that when foreign ships come to port and release their ballast tanks to take on goods they drop off invasive species for which our local ecosystem has no predators allowing them to breed unchecked.

It happened to the small lake on my community college campus the lake is at the bottom of the campus hill all the landscaping fertilizers cause it. It’s completely unavoidable in any modern community

Such a waste in so many ways

⁠@@robertgiarrusso9118 idk if I am misunderstanding what you said but I refuse to accept that corrective measures cannot be implemented and policy can’t be enforced just because of modern society.

@@Heighdaro Test the soil, test the water runoff… if there’s fertilizer in the runoff then you are using too much fertilizer? The plant should be using it for food not turning its nose up at it, it would be cheaper and more environmentally sound to use less fertilizer.

I feel this, I worked in manufacturing and academia for statistical analysis of program success. If people overall knew how neglected *everything* in our society is everyone would freak out.

@@QuantumImperfections Most people would probably be mildly concerned for an hour or two and then go back to their day

and the stench during the summer is unberable.

And pig poop…

I'm all in favor of natural farming rather than all the synthetic products that pollute.

@@kellikelli4413 cannot feed the masses organically.

IT IS USED AS FERTILIZER ! and the state pays to truck it to you

It is used as fertilizer , that's how it ends up in the bay .

I fished there for years. I noticed a drastic reduction in the fish population over time.

and back river is still polluting the bay cause no one knows how to run the new plant the workers smoking weed all the time putting thre material on cement pad while belt press building get rebuilt

So…… get rid of the FARMS that feed the WORLD and build HOMES instead? These homes create POOP and hence wastewater

In scientific terms it is called Chemical and Biological Oxygen Demand (BOD). The test for this is called BOD5 which is a 5 day standard test at 20 degrees Celsius and then it is explapolated out.

This still happens…

I signed up for different Baltimore City Government alerts and it is terrifying how frequently they have alerts about sewer overflow. It’s gotta be at least once a month.

The only thing green about back river or Curtis bay is Synagro … process waste for the city of Baltimore and turn it into fertilizer for farmers. What the city of Baltimore does with the rest of waste who really knows .. we do know once a week their pumps are either broken or being replaced… they try to cover up their mistakes with just telling us their swapping tanks…

The majority of cities do the same and some towns. Especially during flooding which overwhelms the treatment plant capacity. All of the discharge from these plants ends up in streams and rivers and then the bay.

I think the issue is that there are so many chicken farms that they easily outweigh the impact of a single water treatment plant.

Just the smell in Dundalk and Essex will make you feel sick

Share. Raise awareness. Vote.Lead a volunteer group to clean up if you live nearby.....

The almighty dollar at work wonder what they will do when its all gone

Picture that scenario, across the board with every sector, profession, way of life in the US and that’s Capitalism at it’s near peak worst.

Lmao cope

Yeah I grew up on the patuxent. I think female crabs shouldn’t be allowed to be kept at all. Commercial or recreational. Virginia needs to get with the program. I’m not sure if there’s some data on females over a certain size not producing eggs anymore. If that were the case then that would be cool. But people don’t even value the females the same as male crabs. Better off just leaving them. Sure it’ll hurt the crabbers but I’d imagine after a few years the overall population would increase enough where it wouldn’t harm the fishermen as much. Maybe subsidize them for a couple years. I understand needing to feed your family. But the females are the future and your ability to feed your family long term. So it seems beneficial to just leave them.

Monsanto which Bayer bought is a terrible company but has many government connections to allow it to keep doing terrible things! Why are they not stopped? Why is our food sprayed with glyphosate???!! American food is poison and we are poisoning the land and water at the same time!

the seafood must be delicious.

Major contributor to the upticks in cancer, that RoundUp.

They should, but they won't. I'm from Delaware and our senators are completely brought out. Almost 90 percent of Delaware water sheds are polluted to the extent it's unsafe for wildlife to live in. Our reps at a federal level do nothing, they allow chicken farms to pollute, Dupont to pollute and large factories to get away dumping. The only change we will get if we upend the whole system replace all these corrupt assholes and crack down on companies.

The way we are going the human virus will kill the planet eventually if it doesn't kill us.

Best of luck to you and may you make a recovery my friend.

Guess what? It's still leaking millions of gallons of untreated sewerage into the bay.

I've been in Hawthorne for 8 years. Lockheed martin used to send our the toxic water report. I haven't seen one since the new name... living here is like HELL!

hello Mr Warren do you know the reason for killing the seaweed?

Absolutely, it is the best answer to both food and environmental issues caused by current agricultural practices.

@@stuarthirsch I am also in favor of converting the residual biomass produced by agriculture (corn stover, wheat straw, etc) into biofuels, biochemicals and biochar. The biochar will remove co2 from the atmosphere if used as a soil amendment. We need biofuels because the electric vehicles will increase wildfire risk by either requiring a increase in transmission line voltage or requiring new power lines, both of which will inevitably increase wildfire risk. Trucks, ships and aircraft should be powered by these residue derived biofuels. Light vehicles like cars can be powered by nuclear batteries. Nuclear batteries never need recharging because they convert beta radiation into electricity. The beta radiation is provided by a radioactive element, therefore the nuclear battery can supply electricity for hundreds or thousands of years. The radioactive elements can be sourced from spent nuclear fuel.

@@ericliu5491 Hu great to know, did not know bio char could do that.

@@stuarthirsch Current agriculture can an has addressed these issues in some cases. Its just plain lazy not to do so as most solutions are low cost.

@@raclark2730 Every country should make the use of biochar as a soil amendment mandatory for all farmers. That’s the easiest way to restore the climate to its pre industrial state once we have reached net zero emissions. The biofuel produced alongside biochar can get us to net zero emissions.

Main issue with water treatment is they are running full capacity all the time because so many people are moving here its insane how many people from the citys are moving here

That so much of our farmland is owned by very few people who lease it out to farmers means that the incentives are going to have to be pretty $$$. Most farmers are already dealing with a lot of challenges and have to do whatever they can as cheaply and quickly as they can to get any kind of a living out of the soil they are leasing for this season. There’s many alternative farming methods that the USDA has been promoting but they all take years to actually get profit out of them so while farmers have no idea of their long term ability to farm that land and are needing to survive in the short term, there’s plenty of disincentive for them to use those methods. Unless you can get the land out of those greedy few hands and give actual farmers some sense they will have a plot of land for a good amount of time incentives can only be helpful in a small percentage of cases.

These are the correct answers!

We could do that... Or we could build another jet GO VROOOOOM!

You need organization or nothing gets done

The video didn’t imply it was just climate change.

They addressed that in the video. Was there something specific about Baltimore you were thinking of?

@@DELLRS2012Maryland acts like it’s the most eco friendly state. It’s all smoke in mirrors, soon as you cross the MD line from Virginia all you see is trash and broken down vehicles. MD isn’t fooling anyone. Anything they do is for tax purposes.

Conowingo dam has on the Susquehanna since the 1920s, It is a major producer of hydroelectric power in our area. It however is now silting up and must be restored and upgraded, not demolished.

@Stuart Hirsch I disagree with you. They should be taken down that way, eels, American shad, Hickory shad. Will have their historic run without any obstacles. As far as the energy it provides to the area They can go solar and windmills.

@@bigjm3143 A rebuilt Comowingo would have a path for eels and fish, similar to dam bypasses for salmon in the pacific north west. I have seen these in marine life bypasses on dams on the Columbia river in Oregon and Washington. You can see the salmon migrating around the dam through Plexiglas windows.

@Stuart Hirsch they don't work ! That's another reason Washington and Oregon are taking them down

@@bigjm3143 What will replace them? They provide most of the electricity reliably and cheaply, in the most environmentally friendly renewable manner. Time we stopped worrying about snail darters and eels and worry more about people.

Why would they do anything intelligent at all?

The best way is actually run of trenches and biological filtration. Either through constructed wet lands or biological digestion pits ( or Both ). Lots of farmers around the world are doing this. Should be standard practice.

yes the west in general has done a much better job of restoring our natural spaces

@@rafangille The east is much more densely populated so I think that's a big part of why. Just way more pollution to manage and fewer natural resources to help uptake it.

I'm in Pennsylvania and a lot of our rivers and streams have improved drastically as well. When you get a body of water as large as the Chesapeake with a bunch of different states bordering it it's a lot harder to implement a solution. That's no excuse not to solve it, but the bureaucracy is a total nightmare.

It doesn’t matter how many stripped bass you keep. The commercial guys catch everything you throw back. I’ve been on the bay 8 years and have seen a dramatic decrease in baitfish (menhaden) just within those years. People think when omega pulls up a net there are only menhaden caught. What a joke! Take all the filter fish out of the bay and then you have a problem with algae, I highly doubt the biggest problems are the farms.

Its awesome that one persons experience is counter to all the data and facts. Self policing is definitely the answer we were all waiting for.

I'll back that up from a view further south. Crabs are back over the last decade or so, and water quality has improved over what it was 20 years ago. There's room to get better, for sure. But celebrating progress is a big part of continuing progress. Some folks just like to look at the down sides of everything. Ignore unhappy people. As for self-policing: it's a thing, and while it doesn't "fix the bay", it does instill within populations the ethos of conservation. That impacts votes, which impact policy, which impacts the Bay.

They were too busy harping on climate change..

I crab the patipsico river and its been so sakty there from drought that we uave moo. Jellys and black sea bass. Puffer fish and seahorses comming up in our gear all ovean critter ,well the lined seahore Se is mid lower bay but i dont think amoeba will live in that. Maybe the upper rivers tho

It would need to be at a massive scale to have impact, but this is a very good, proven solution in places like the Chicago river. We still need to deal with the source, as the absorption would only slow down the toxification, not reverse it by any means.

@@user-f5xt2op9t I appreciate your feedback. I grew up on the Chesapeake Bay in MD and definitely think absorption and addressing the source are two priorities worth digging into.

@@doubtingtom92 Look up algae turf scrubber baltimore harbor

Would have loved to see that!

To do that, there needs to be hard bottom, not mud, like the bottom now is. That means clean rubble is needed to rebuild the reefs of old to give the filter feeders something to cling to. The solution is there, but the money, and political will are not.

Actually not true, the water may at times look clean but it's not it is in fact heavily contaminated with chemicals, fish stock has decreased by 75% !!!!

But then part of me wonders if the EPA doesn't act because they are corrupted by corporate interest. They definitely don't need less power though. That is just blatant pandering to corporations.

No they don't.

The EPA is part of the problem. They don’t enforce regulations for their friends, only for the small guy

They absolutely do not

Yes, just watch that number triple as we let millions of poor people in every year that rely on feeding themselves through hunting and fishing. And I mean with no adherence to the rules that they don’t understand, or care about. Talk to any fish and game warden, every animal in the Forest is taken, every bit of marine life is harvested, regardless of size, or gender.