THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Tuesday, January 2, 1996 TAG: 9601020076
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B3 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS
LENGTH: Medium: 61 lines
A multimillion-dollar effort to clean up harmful nutrient pollution in the Chesapeake Bay is behind schedule, a Virginia Tech professor said.
Virginia, Maryland, Pennsylvania, the District of Columbia and the federal government set a goal in 1983 to reduce nutrient pollution entering the Bay by 40 percent by 2000.
But while the amount of phosphorus in the Bay has been greatly reduced since 1983, nitrogen levels have increased.
``The average person has to say is it worth it to me to reach this goal, and then they've got to make it known to the politicians that they are willing to spend this money,'' said Clifford W. Randall, an environmental engineer at Virginia Tech and chairman of a scientific advisory group for the federal-state Chesapeake Bay Program.
Nitrogen and phosphorous, which are found in sewage and in fertilizers, promote the growth of microscopic algae in the Bay. Large algae blooms die, creating red tides in the Bay that deplete the oxygen needed to sustain plant and animal aquatic life.
Scientists estimate that if nitrogen and phosphorous are cut 40 percent, huge areas of the Bay now devoid of oxygen would be able to support life again.
That would rekindle the estuary's sagging blue crab population, which is vital to commercial fishermen and bayside communities, and improve populations of game fish that make the Bay one of the premier fishing areas on the East Coast.
For the entire Bay, the cleanup effort has reduced phosphorous levels by 20 percent.
But the most recent analysis showed that between 1984 and 1994, nitrogen in the Bay increased by 10 percent.
Nitrogen ``is far harder to control than any of us ever realized,'' said Ann Swanson, executive director of the Chesapeake Bay Commission comprising legislators from the three states.
By contrast, the states cut deeply into phosphorous levels by simply banning the use of phosphate detergents.
Nitrogen levels, however, are more a function of the watershed's growing population. The Virginia, Maryland, Pennsylvania and District of Columbia population, which was 23.5 million in 1990, is expected to reach 27.5 million in 2020.
The fastest way to reduce nitrogen levels would be through improvements in the region's sewage plants, but those improvements would cost between $500 million and $1 billion, Randall said.
At least 65 treatment plants, including 30 in Virginia, need upgrades to control nitrogen releases, Randall said.
Farms and suburban development produce as much nitrogen as the treatment plants. But much of the chemical reaches the Bay through slow-moving ground waters, and researchers say it will take years to see the results of erosion-control work, new farming techniques and development controls.
KEYWORDS: CHESAPEAKE BAY POLLUTION by CNB