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93-706 PS 2004

THE CHESAPEAKE BAY IN YOUR 

COMMUNITY: A RESTORATION 

PLAN

OVERSIGHT HEARING

BEFORE THE

SUBCOMMITTEE ON FISHERIES CONSERVATION, 

WILDLIFE AND OCEANS

OF THE

COMMITTEE ON RESOURCES 

U.S. HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

ONE HUNDRED EIGHTH CONGRESS

SECOND SESSION

Tuesday, May 18, 2004

Serial No. 108-95

Printed for the use of the Committee on Resources

(

Available via the World Wide Web: http://www.access.gpo.gov/congress/house 

or 

Committee address: http://resourcescommittee.house.gov 

(II)

COMMITTEE ON RESOURCES 

RICHARD W. POMBO, California, Chairman 

NICK J. RAHALL II, West Virginia, Ranking Democrat Member

Don Young, Alaska 

W.J. ‘‘Billy’’ Tauzin, Louisiana 

Jim Saxton, New Jersey 

Elton Gallegly, California 

John J. Duncan, Jr., Tennessee 

Wayne T. Gilchrest, Maryland 

Ken Calvert, California 

Scott McInnis, Colorado 

Barbara Cubin, Wyoming 

George Radanovich, California 

Walter B. Jones, Jr., North Carolina 

Chris Cannon, Utah 

John E. Peterson, Pennsylvania 

Jim Gibbons, Nevada, 

Vice Chairman 

Mark E. Souder, Indiana 

Greg Walden, Oregon 

Thomas G. Tancredo, Colorado 

J.D. Hayworth, Arizona 

Tom Osborne, Nebraska 

Jeff Flake, Arizona 

Dennis R. Rehberg, Montana 

Rick Renzi, Arizona 

Tom Cole, Oklahoma 

Stevan Pearce, New Mexico 

Rob Bishop, Utah 

Devin Nunes, California 

Randy Neugebauer, Texas 

Dale E. Kildee, Michigan 

Eni F.H. Faleomavaega, American Samoa 

Neil Abercrombie, Hawaii 

Solomon P. Ortiz, Texas 

Frank Pallone, Jr., New Jersey 

Calvin M. Dooley, California 

Donna M. Christensen, Virgin Islands 

Ron Kind, Wisconsin 

Jay Inslee, Washington 

Grace F. Napolitano, California 

Tom Udall, New Mexico 

Mark Udall, Colorado 

Anı ́bal Acevedo-Vila ́, Puerto Rico 

Brad Carson, Oklahoma 

Rau ́l M. Grijalva, Arizona 

Dennis A. Cardoza, California 

Madeleine Z. Bordallo, Guam 

George Miller, California 

Edward J. Markey, Massachusetts 

Rube ́n Hinojosa, Texas 

Ciro D. Rodriguez, Texas 

Joe Baca, California 

Betty McCollum, Minnesota

Steven J. Ding, Chief of Staff 

Lisa Pittman, Chief Counsel 

James H. Zoia, Democrat Staff Director 

Jeffrey P. Petrich, Democrat Chief Counsel 

SUBCOMMITTEE ON FISHERIES CONSERVATION, WILDLIFE AND OCEANS 

WAYNE T. GILCHREST, Maryland, Chairman 

FRANK PALLONE, JR., New Jersey, Ranking Democrat Member

Don Young, Alaska 

W.J. ‘‘Billy’’ Tauzin, Louisiana 

Jim Saxton, New Jersey 

Mark E. Souder, Indiana 

Walter B. Jones, Jr., North Carolina 

Randy Neugebauer, Texas 

Richard W. Pombo, California, ex officio 

Eni F.H. Faleomavaega, American Samoa 

Neil Abercrombie, Hawaii 

Solomon P. Ortiz, Texas 

Ron Kind, Wisconsin 

Madeleine Z. Bordallo, Guam 

Nick J. Rahall II, West Virginia, ex officio 

(III)

C O N T E N T S 

Page

Hearing held on Tuesday, May 18, 2004 ............................................................... 1

Statement of Members: 

Cardin, Hon. Benjamin L., a Representative in Congress from the State 

of Maryland ................................................................................................... 22

Gilchrest, Hon. Wayne T., a Representative in Congress from the State 

of Maryland ................................................................................................... 1

Prepared statement of ............................................................................... 2 

Pallone, Hon. Frank, Jr., a Representative in Congress from the State 

of New Jersey ................................................................................................ 3

Prepared statement of ............................................................................... 4

Statement of Witnesses: 

Bohemia Manor High School, represented by Sarah Lucs-Haji and 

Charlotte Sanford-Crane, Chesapeake City, Maryland ............................. 30

Prepared statement of ............................................................................... 33

Broadneck High School, represented by Christian Melendez and Jamie 

Morganstern, Annapolis, Maryland ............................................................. 5

Prepared statement of ............................................................................... 8

Pocomoke High School, represented by Leslie Levin and Kenneth Nugent, 

Pocomoke, Maryland ..................................................................................... 34

Prepared statement of ............................................................................... 38 

South River High School, represented by Olivia Logan and Bryan James, 

Edgewater, Maryland ................................................................................... 12

Prepared statement of ............................................................................... 15

(1)

OVERSIGHT HEARING ON THE CHESAPEAKE 

BAY IN YOUR COMMUNITY: A RESTORATION 

PLAN 

Tuesday, May 18, 2004

U.S. House of Representatives 

Subcommittee on Fisheries Conservation, Wildlife and Oceans 

Committee on Resources 

Washington, D.C. 

The Subcommittee met, pursuant to call, at 10:00 a.m., in Room 

1324, Longworth House Office Building, Hon. Wayne T. Gilchrest 

[Chairman of the Subcommittee] presiding. 

Present: Representatives Gilchrest, Pallone and Kind. 

Also Present: Representative Cardin. 

STATEMENT OF THE HON. WAYNE T. GILCHREST, A REPRESENTATIVE IN CONGRESS FROM THE STATE OF 

MARYLAND 

Mr. GILCHREST. Good morning, everyone. 

What we are going to attempt to do this morning—this is the 

Subcommittee on Fisheries Conservation, Wildlife and Oceans of 

the full Committee on Resources, and this is our hearing room. 

The gentleman to my left is Congressman Frank Pallone. He is 

from New Jersey. Congressman Pallone, for the most part, is a cochair on this subcommittee. We call him the Ranking Member of 

this Fisheries Subcommittee. 

We have hearings generally twice a month throughout the year 

on various issues dealing with the oceans, the fisheries, with 

invasive species and, certainly periodically, with the Chesapeake 

Bay. 

This morning, we are going to, for the most part, conduct our 

hearing in the same way that it would normally be conducted, with 

witnesses that come from as far away as Iceland or Australia, New 

Zealand, California, Alaska, Montana, and sometimes even from 

New Jersey. But we want to thank all of you for making the effort 

to come here this morning to give your testimony. 

There will be lights on the table that will be turned on just the 

way they are turned on at a normal hearing. Generally, witnesses 

are given about 5 minutes to give their testimony. The testimony 

is always submitted for the record. The full text of the testimony 

and much of the information is gathered by the Members of 

2

Congress from the witnesses as a result of the questioning that 

takes place after the witnesses give their testimony. 

The reporter here this morning is from Centreville, and Miss 

Julie is most often on the House Floor taking down what Members 

say there. And it goes into the Congressional Record. We appreciate her coming here this morning and fighting the traffic on 

Route 50. 

Bo Dame, to my right, is a fellow working with the Subcommittee, getting his Ph.D. in coastal resource management, 

which is very appropriate for this. 

So I also want to thank the students for participating, and the 

teachers for helping them through this process, for all of the family 

members that have been very helpful. 

Reading through your testimony last night, you touched upon 

just about everything that is wrong and right with human activity 

about the Chesapeake Bay. You have touched upon sewage waste, 

air deposition, septic tanks, power plants, transportation, storm 

water runoff, agriculture runoff, deforestation, turbidity from 

power boats, overfishing, disease—all of the human activity that 

has fragmented and degraded nature’s bounty in the Chesapeake 

Bay. 

But you also went through a variety of ways that we could resolve and solve those problems, which I will just briefly summarize 

from your reports. And they are: Human infrastructure needs to be 

compatible with nature’s infrastructure. And you have done some 

extra work. Just two quick quotes here. George Percy, 1607—and 

this was in the Bay Journal, so if you get a chance to get a copy 

of the Bay Journal for the month of May, this quote is in there: 

‘‘we are set down 80 miles within a river so stored with sturgeon 

and other sweets, fish, as no man’s fortune has ever passed the 

like. And as we think, if more may be wished in a river, it will be 

found.’’ so the next time you are out on the Bay in a boat or a 

canoe or a kayak, I think that vision can come to mind. And if we 

work hard enough, it can become a reality. 

I guess if we talk about the Chesapeake Bay, we have to mention 

Captain John Smith: ‘‘heaven and earth never agreed better to 

frame a place for man’s habitation.’’

So you are moving into the arena where you are the next generation responsible for that restoration. And we wanted to all work to 

help that transition, so that when you are sitting up here—and I 

encourage all of you to run for public office some time during your 

journey of life, to make a contribution—when you are sitting up 

here behind the dais as a staffer or a Member or as a reporter, reporting all of this down, you will remember this day. 

So thank you all very much for coming. 

[The prepared statement of Mr. Gilchrest follows:]

Statement by The Honorable Wayne T. Gilchrest, Chairman,

Subcommittee on Fisheries Conservation, Wildlife and Oceans 

Good morning, I would like to welcome everyone to what I believe will be an exciting, educational and important hearing on the future of the Chesapeake Bay. 

Earlier this year, I wrote to every high school in my Congressional District, and 

I challenged students at those fine institutions to identify the problems facing the 

Chesapeake Bay, the human activities that should be changed to help reduce those 

negative impacts, and to suggest ways that we can lessen those impacts in the future. I am not sure there has ever been a Congressional Hearing like this before 

3

but I am anxious to hear the testimony of students from Bohemia Manor High 

School, Broadneck High School, Pocomoke High School and South River High 

School. 

These young men and women have dedicated themselves to this project and, as 

the future leaders of their communities, it is their restoration plans that can serve 

as a model for the future. 

In 1612, Captain John Smith looked upon the Chesapeake Bay and proclaimed 

that ‘‘heaven and earth never agreed better to frame a place for man’s habitation.’’ 

For those of us, who have the privilege of living along the Chesapeake Bay or one 

of its tributaries, we are proud that this majestic body of water is the largest estuary in North America. The watershed includes all or portions of 6 states; it holds 

more than 18 trillion gallons of water; it supports more than 3,600 species of plants 

and wildlife; and it produces of some of the finest seafood in the world. 

It is, therefore, not surprising that President Ronald Reagan once declared that: 

‘‘The Chesapeake Bay is a national treasure that is worth preserving for its own 

sake’’. In recent years, this 15,000-year-old treasure has suffered from the effects 

of growing human population, over-harvesting of its resources, and water-quality 

degradation. While millions have been spent and restoration plans, like the Chesapeake 2000 Agreement, have been implemented, the job of restoring the Bay is far 

from completed. 

In the final analysis, for us to reach our goal of restoring the Bay, it is essential 

to have local citizen involvement and that includes the students, and their parents, 

teachers, families, and friends, that are with us today. The shores of the Chesapeake Bay cradled our first settlements in America and together, with the vision 

of tomorrow’s community leaders, we can restore this magnificent ecosystem. 

Again, I want to welcome those who have traveled to our nation’s capital to participate in this most important hearing. I am now pleased to recognize the gentleman from New Jersey, the Ranking Democratic Member of the Subcommittee, 

Congressman Frank Pallone. 

Mr. GILCHREST. I want to yield now to the gentleman from New 

Jersey, Mr. Pallone. 

STATEMENT OF THE HON. FRANK PALLONE, JR., A 

REPRESENTATIVE IN CONGRESS FROM THE STATE OF NEW 

JERSEY 

Mr. PALLONE. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. 

I had a written statement, but I would like to submit that for 

the record, if I could. 

I just wanted to say briefly that it is nice to see so many young 

people here today. As Congressman Gilchrest or the Chairman 

said, we get people from all over the world testifying before the 

committee, but we do not usually have as many younger people like 

yourself. It is kind of refreshing, frankly. 

The other thing I was going to say is, whether you know it or 

not, Congressman Gilchrest is a great guy. He really is a true environmentalist. And as you can hear from what he has already said 

today, he is almost philosophical about the environment because he 

thinks it is so important to protect it. And he looks at things from 

the whole ecological perspective. 

In addition to that, he is also very bipartisan. He neglected to 

mention that I am the Democrat. The Ranking Member is the most 

senior Democrat, if you will, on the committee. And he is always 

very gracious in having the Democrats not only have an opportunity to speak but also to bring up legislation that is important 

to them, which is the true test, I think, of being bipartisan. 

The only other thing I wanted to mention is that, as Congressman Gilchrest mentioned, I am from New Jersey, but I also am 

from a district in New Jersey that is along the coast. My district 

is either along the Atlantic Ocean or along the Raritan Bay or 

4

Raritan River or actually also the South River. I noticed some of 

you are from South River High School. I actually have a town 

called South River in my district that has a South River High 

School. 

So we are very much similar in some ways to Congressman 

Gilchrest’s area, because water, both the ocean and the rivers and 

the bays, are so important. We probably have a lot more pollution 

than you do, because New Jersey has so much more of a history 

of industrialization, so the pollution, in some sense, is even more 

of a problem. But in terms of our dependence on the water and our 

relationship to the water and the ocean, it is just as important, I 

think, as it is to all of you. 

So I tell you that only because I want you to know that I can 

relate to your concerns. 

In addition, I actually used to spend some time in the Annapolis 

area. My father-in-law, my in-laws, lived in Riva, which I guess is 

right across from Annapolis, so I used to go down there quite a bit. 

I notice that some of you are from Annapolis and nearby areas, so 

I am familiar with the area, too. Thank you. Thank you for doing 

this today. 

[The prepared statement of Mr. Pallone follows:]

Statement of The Honorable Frank Pallone, Jr., a Representative in 

Congress from the State of New Jersey 

Thank you and good morning. For early Native Americans the Chesapeake Bay 

was known as ‘‘Great Shellfish Bay’’ for the Bay=s natural abundance. 

Later on, the famed Baltimore journalist and author H. L. Mencken described the 

Bay as a ‘‘great protein factory’’ because of the vast numbers of crabs, oysters, 

clams, and fin fish harvested. 

History has shown that during the twentieth century, dramatic changes occurred 

on and around the Chesapeake Bay, often not for the benefit of the Bay itself. 

Shores once covered with farms and seafood packing houses now sport sprawling 

subdivisions, traffic, golf courses and marinas which drain and funnel excessive nutrients into the Bay=s ecosystem. Today, a visitor to the Bay is more likely to rub 

elbows alongside other vacationers and retirees than with a waterman plying for 

oysters. 

This morning we will hear from several students who will report on how far the 

Bay has fallen from a condition of almost unlimited abundance and productivity. We 

also will learn about the challenges to restoring a healthy Chesapeake Bay. 

Yet I view this hearing as a source of great optimism for the future. The Bay will 

only be restored if the next generation of residents rises to meet that challenge. I 

commend Chairman Gilchrest for giving these students that opportunity, and I look 

forward to hearing your recommendations. Thank you. 

Mr. GILCHREST. Thank you, Congressman Pallone. 

Mr. GILCHREST. Our first panel is made up of students from 

Broadneck High School and South River High in Edgewater. And 

from Broadneck High School, our two witnesses will be Christian 

Melendez and Jamie Morganstern. And from South River High, we 

have Olivia Logan and Bryan James. If you four would please come 

up to the table. 

As you are coming up, as we go through, the first panel will give 

their testimony. And if you go over—if you see the light turn red 

and you are not done, just keep talking. It is OK. We do not cut 

you off at 5 minutes and 2 seconds. 

When we begin the questioning, we would like to open it up for 

your other fellow students in the audience to answer if they would 

5

like to. So we will start with Christian Melendez and Jamie 

Morganstern. You may begin. 

STATEMENT OF CHRISTIAN MELENDEZ AND JAMIE 

MORGANSTERN, BROADNECK HIGH SCHOOL, ANNAPOLIS, 

MARYLAND 

Mr. MORGANSTERN. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. 

Thank you, congressmen, for having us here today. My name is 

Jamie Morganstern. 

We are going to begin by looking at a couple of satellite images 

of where Broadneck High School is located. This first image is of 

Anne Arundel County. It is located in central Maryland on the 

Chesapeake Bay. 

This next image is of the Broadneck peninsula, which is surrounded by two rivers that are tributaries to the Chesapeake Bay, 

the Severn River and the Magothy River. 

The issues that we targeted during our research included air pollution, solid waste, toxins and oil, sediment, and nutrient loading. 

Air pollution in Anne Arundel County is a large concern for 

much of the population. Through wetland, dry deposition, acid rain, 

and erosion and runoff, we receive much of the air pollution in the 

Chesapeake Bay. The air shed that is in the Chesapeake Bay is 6.5 

times larger than that of the watershed, and it covers approximately 418,000 square miles from regions as far away as Canada 

and Kentucky. 

The air deposition of the Chesapeake Bay contributes to approximately a third of the nitrogen load to the Chesapeake. And Anne 

Arundel County, where Broadneck High School is located, in the 

last State of the Air Report from the American Lung Association, 

dropped from 18th place to 17th place as the 17th worst county air 

quality in the country. Last year, we had 47 code orange days, 

which is a code for air quality that says that the air is bad for people with sensitive lungs, and 17 code red days, which is just bad 

quality for everyone. 

Marylanders drive about 135 million miles a day, and 40 percent 

of Maryland air problems is from vehicle exhaust. Some solutions 

that we have thought up were things like car pooling to prevent 

this vehicle exhaust. Also, some kind of, maybe, tax-incentives to 

provide to these commuters. In Maryland, we have the commuter 

tax credit, which gives a tax credit to those who car pool. And we 

could also set new emissions standards and reduce polluting 

vehicles. 

Solid waste is also a significant problem. This consists of municipal solid waste, which is generated by residents and businesses. 

The trash on the roadways can be washed into the Bay as well as 

dumping litter off of boats, which can destroy habitat and kill wildlife. 

One specific example of Anne Arundel County’s problem with the 

contamination is the 1983 incident with the Patapsco Aquifer, 

which runs below the landfill, one of the landfills which was closed 

in Anne Arundel County. And the water that ran below it leaked 

into the Furnace Creek and into the Bay and had several chemicals 

that were harmful. 

6

Some solutions to the solid waste program could be better recycling programs, make them more successful. Although, we have 

had a lot of success with that. Also, waste facilities need to be properly managed. And a major problem that contributes to the solid 

waste is that 37 percent of all solid waste is paper. Thank you. 

Mr. GILCHREST. Thank you very much, James. Very nice job. 

Mr. MORGANSTERN. This is just a statistic that we found of 2001 

total waste generation, and it just also shows that 36 percent of all 

solid waste is paper. And it breaks it down for the others. 

Mr. GILCHREST. Why don’t you read through those. 

Mr. MORGANSTERN. OK. Paper, 35.7 percent; yard trimmings, 

12.2 percent; food scraps, 11.4 percent; plastics, 11.1 percent; metals, 7.9 percent; rubber, leather, and textiles, 7.1 percent; glass, 5.5 

percent; wood, 5.7 percent; and other, 3.4 percent. 

Mr. GILCHREST. Thank you. 

Mr. MELENDEZ. Thank you for having me here. I am going to go 

over toxins and oil right now. 

As far as what humans do to contribute to the problem, we have 

leaking oil. A prime example is automobiles and boats that are not 

properly maintained by us. Obviously, the worst condition is the 

higher probability it is going to leak oil along with other toxins and 

coolants. 

There is illegal disposal. This problem actually has been improving over the past few years, but we have had countries, especially 

Russia and the United States, illegally dumping oil and other toxins and hazardous waste off the coasts into the oceans. Then we 

have accidents. There is obviously the big one, the Exxon Valdez 

that we all know about. 

Some solutions include recycling oil. That one is something actually that our county already promotes, but I think that we need to 

expand more upon it. Many people, I found, did not know that we 

have programs to recycle oil. I think about 42 gallons of oil, crude 

oil, is needed to refine 2 quarts of lubricating oil. But if we use 2 

gallons, I believe, of recycled oil, that equals the same amount of 

lubricating oil that we can produce. So we would not need as much. 

And we would also be using what we already have produced. 

Community action: We should just promote more awareness 

throughout the community and have people work more toward educating others about the problem at hand. 

Next is sediment. Agriculture, development, and erosion all pretty much go together, hand-in-hand. Basically, through runoff, we 

have sediment moving into storm drains and other modes of transportation which ultimately lead into the Bay. Sediment basically 

reduces the clarity in the water and also smothers aquatic vegetation living at the bottom of the Bay. So this causes them to have 

a higher chance of dying, higher death rates. 

Regulations: Basically to improve buffer zones is what we were 

aiming at for the sediment problem. 

Here is a satellite image of the Chesapeake Bay watershed. It is 

not our tributary, but it is a good example of after a rain storm. 

We have the Potomac and Patuxant Rivers, and you can see much 

of the runoff that is coming off the coasts of these rivers, and 

ultimately, they will go into the Bay. 

7

Our final problem is nutrient loading. Most of this comes out of 

nitrogen. We have an excessive amount of nitrogen in the Chesapeake Bay. It comes from fertilizer which runs off into the Bay. 

There are domestic pets in which their, basically, feces is hazardous to the Bay and will eventually make their way into the Bay. 

There is waste water discharge from the sewage treatment plants. 

The biggest solution we thought would be more buffer zones. But 

a prime example would be, the Maryland legislature recently 

passed a flush tax, which is basically designed to bring in more 

revenue that would be used to upgrade the sewage treatment 

plants in the hope of reducing the amount of waste water that is 

discharged into the Bay. 

And then our final few slides basically have to do with student 

activism. Things that the students in the community have done include organized tree planting. In the past 5 years, I believe that 

the Broadneck community has planted over 1,000 trees in the area. 

One of the big events was a 9-11 memorial. We dedicated around 

100 or so trees to all of the countries of which people from those 

countries that died in the World Trade Center attacks. They each 

had their own tree to be commemorated. 

There are environmental projects. The big one is Bay Day, in 

which students through the high school basically participate in all 

of these events that have to do with the Chesapeake Bay in order 

to promote awareness, education, and to educate basically on the 

significance of the Chesapeake Bay, to not only the watershed but 

to the rest of the country and the world and what they can do to 

preserve it and improve the situation. 

These pictures basically give a look at the Broadneck peninsula, 

the students studying local streams. There have been some publications by the Broadneck students. As you can see, there was a 

Shoes, Ships, and Sealing Wax publication, which basically was an 

oral history of all of the local watermen and people associated with 

the Bay that basically gave their account of what the Bay meant 

to them, the significance they believe that the Bay played in their 

lives, and why we as a community should be concerned. 

And then you can see students studying aquatic vegetation, bay 

grasses, which promote more oxygen in the Bay and increase water 

clarity. We have more students taking more of a hands-on approach. 

Then, these are 2 articles. One is about Bay Day, and the other 

is about Broadneck students who visited Smith Island, which is an 

island located in the Chesapeake Bay. Basically, you can get a feel 

of what the community has been doing, mainly the students, of 

how to educate themselves better about the Chesapeake Bay. 

Thank you. 

[The prepared statement of Mr. Melendez and Mr. Morganstern 

follows:]

8

Statement of Christian Melendez and Jamie Morganstern on behalf of

Broadneck High School, Annapolis, Maryland 

CONTRIBUTORS TO THE REPORT:

Teachers: 

George Bell 

Nancy Bourgeois 

Dennis Mekic 

Patricia Neidhardt 

Paul Sabota 

Students 

Daniel Brittain 

Julia Elkin 

Ben Fleming 

Jay Fleming 

Christopher Mentzer 

Candace Volke 

Leif Whitman 

Geoff Gillikin 

INTRODUCTION

Our high school and community are located on the Broadneck Peninsula in Anne 

Arundel County. We are situated on the western shore of the Chesapeake Bay near 

the Chesapeake Bay Bridge. The Broadneck peninsula watersheds into the Magothy, Severn and Little Magothy Rivers that empty into the Chesapeake Bay. 

We have identified these problems in our community that potentially have a deleterious effect on the Bay: • air pollution • solid waste • toxins and oil • sediment • nutrient loading 

Human activities on the Broadneck Peninsula that are associated with these Bay 

problems include: • development • transportation • habitat destruction 

We have investigated some solutions that include 

• green technology • habitat restoration • conservation • education and awareness 

Nutrient Loading 

Each year roughly 300 million pounds of nitrogen overload the Chesapeake waterways. 

1. A certain amount of nitrogen is healthy for the Chesapeake Bay: however, the 

nitrogen concentration in the Chesapeake Bay is six times the amount that is 

healthy for the Bay. 

a. Most of the nitrogen comes from the nine major tributaries. 97% of the 

nitrogen entered the Bay through the James, Potomac and the Susquehanna rivers, the three largest tributaries. The Susquehanna contributes the most out of all of the Bay’s tributaries, mostly because the 

river drains some of the most productive farmlands in the nation. 

b. The effects are poor water quality caused by excessive algae growth, 

low dissolved oxygen (dead zones during summers result in fish kills), 

reduced water clarity (underwater grasses are deprived of light and 

die). 

c. The causes and sources of the problem include, fertilizer in runoff from 

agriculture and lawns, wastewater discharge from sewage treatment 

plants, pet feces, boats that illegally dump sewage, and urban and suburban runoff from nonpoint sources. 

d. Human activities that contribute to nutrient loading include development, lawn care, urban and suburban runoff, mismanagement of land, 

air pollution, fossil fuel emissions, poor soil conservation techniques in 

agriculture, wastewater discharge containing nitrogen from septic systems, and with increase in population sewage plants releasing untreated sewage. 

e. Solutions include providing forest buffer zones along waterways, tree 

and native grasses planning that would prevent erosion, habitat restoration, and reduction of air pollution by carpooling and purchase of 

9

more hybrid cars, solar power, energy conservation, and improved 

wastewater treatment. The proposed Flush Tax could be used to upgrade sewage plants. 

Air pollution 

Air pollution is more than just smog floating in the air. Through wet and dry deposition, the pollutants in the air fall to the ground and can eventually be carried 

into the Bay through erosion and runoff, becoming three problems, rather than just 

one. 

Problems and sources: 

1. The massive size of the Chesapeake Air Shed. 

a. Compared to the watershed, the Air shed is six and a half times larger, 

having an approximate area of 418,000 sq. miles, being influenced by 

locations as far away as Canada, Kentucky, and South Carolina. 

b. Air deposition contributes to about 1/3 of the total nitrogen load of the 

Chesapeake Bay (around 97.5 million pounds). It’s estimated that 75 

percent of the load will be distributed to the land, while the rest will 

flow directly into the water. 

c. Nationwide, 474 counties are failing to meet standards for ground level 

ozone or for causing a downwind county to fail. 

d. In the most recent ‘‘State of the Air’’ report released by the American 

Lung Association, Anne Arundel County fell from its 18th position to 

that of the 17th worse county in the nation. 

2. Baltimore-Washington metropolitan area 

a. Baltimore and Washington areas (Anne Arundel, Baltimore, Baltimore 

City, Carroll, Harford, Howard, Calvert, Charles, Frederick, Montgomery, and Prince Georges counties) have been deemed nonattainment 

by the EPA for failure to meet the federal standard for ground level 

ozone pollution. 

b. Last year in Anne Arundel County, there were 47 Code Orange days 

(unhealthy air for sensitive groups) and 17 Code Red days (unhealthy 

air for everyone). That’s 64 days with unhealthy air during the summer. 

c. Marylanders drive more than 135 million miles each day. These miles 

are responsible for up to 40 percent of Maryland’s air problems. The nitrogen from the exhaust will eventually finds its way into the Bay, 

cause up to 40 million in crop damage, and cause many health problems 

to the citizens living in the area. 

d. Anne Arundel County is no exception with many of its drivers commuting to the Washington and Baltimore area for work. Our county 

lacks a strong public transportation program. 

3. Population of the water shed 

a. There are nearly 16 million people living in the water shed today, by 

2010, at least another 3 million people will be added. The Baltimore 

Washington Metropolitan Region is one of the fastest growing areas in 

the country. This means more vehicles and more demands for power. 

These two sources, vehicle exhaust and smoke stacks, contribute the 

most to nitrogen levels in the air. 

b. Other sources include agriculture, which emits particulate matter, 

chemical compounds, and gasses such as ammonia. 

c. These sources of pollution, stationary (factories), mobile (car), and agricultural cause acid rain, smog, and eutrophication. 

d. Eutrophication creates dead zones, areas of water with out oxygen. 

Forty percent of the water in the Bay suffered from low dissolved oxygen levels. Accumulated nitrates can eventually creep into sources of 

drinking water. 

e. In 2003, one of the largest dead zones ever recorded in the Bay’s history 

was observed. 

Solutions: 

1. Offer more incentives towards alternative transportation to the work place. 

Through tax savings or allocated funds, employers/employees should be motivated to find different and more efficient methods to get to work. In Maryland 

there exists the Commuter Tax Credit, and since its introduction in 2000, more 

than 200 employers and 10,000 employees have joined. 

2. Change patterns of land use to remove the component of driving to reduce 

emissions. 

10

3. Push towards more environmental friendly methods of production of goods. Recently, there was the Clean Air Excellence Awards, which recognized 13 new, 

innovative environmental techniques. 

4. Tax incentives may be a means of compensation for those who use environmentally friendly products, whether it is solar panels on the roof of one’s house 

or purchase of a hydrogen car. 

5. Follow in the footstep of California and set a standard of 0 emissions to be 

reached by a certain year. An optimistic goal can stimulate greatness in results. 

Toxins & Oil in the Chesapeake Bay 

1. Oil released in the Chesapeake Bay Watershed can cause widespread contamination. The gradual breakdown of oil releases carcinogenic toxins into the Bay, 

harming marine life. One quart of oil can pollute up to two million gallons of 

drinking water. Four quarts of oil (the amount needed for a typical car) can 

create an oil slick as large as eight acres. 

2. Some of the organisms at risk are: 

a. Fish in the Bay will take oil into their gills. 

b. Oysters, clams, submerged aquatic vegetation will suffer from reduced 

oxygen because of the layer of oil on the surface. 

3. Human Activities that result in the release of oil include negligent dumping 

of motor oil into landfills, sewers/storm drains, and directly onto the ground. 

This can result in contamination of groundwater and much of the oil reaches 

the Chesapeake Bay. 

4. Solutions include: 

a. Recycling Oil because 42 gallons of crude oil is needed to refine two 

quarts of lubricating oil; only one gallon of recycled oil is needed to 

produce the same two quarts of lubricating oil. 

b. Community action providing education for citizens through scheduled 

community meetings or signs on disposal of used oil. 

c. Local, countywide, and/or statewide programs to collect recycled oil. 

5. Support groups for implementation of the above solutions could include private 

organizations such as the Chesapeake Bay Foundation or county and state government. 

Solid Waste 

1. Solid waste includes municipal solid waste (generated by residents and businesses) and roadside litter. Trash is washed from roadways into waters that 

flow into the Chesapeake. Dumping litter overboard is illegal and can destroy 

habitat and kill wildlife. 

a. Landfills, if not designed and operated properly, can result in ground 

water contamination from volatile organic compounds (VOCs), cyanide, 

and heavy metals including lead. 

b. One such incident was the contamination of the Patapsco Aquifer (the 

most productive water source in the county). Such chemicals from the 

80-acre Smuck dump contaminated it in 1983. Contamination was also 

found in sediments of Furnace Creek that borders the site and connects 

to the Chesapeake Bay. 

c. To fight contamination, in 1997, the State amended the Consent Agreement requiring the County to cap the landfill with clean soil, install a 

landfill gas management system and a leachate collection system, collect sediment samples, and perform air monitoring. 

2. Solutions include: 

a. Increase of recycling programs. Paper contributes to 37 percent of all 

solid waste in landfills. 

b. Toxic waste should be disposed of in appropriately designed facilities 

only (i.e., oil). 

Sediments 

1. Sources 

a. Sediments are the lose particles of soil, clay, and other substances that 

are suspended in the water. 

b. The main sources of sediments are agriculture, high way construction, 

building sites, forest clearing, and shoreline erosion. The sediments 

from these sites may contain nutrients, oils, pesticides, and other pollutants. 

2. Problems 

a. Suspended sediment clouds the water that reduces access of underwater vegetation to sunlight inhibiting growth. Loss of growth reduces 

11

dissolved oxygen levels and depletes habitat for other organisms such 

as crabs and fish. 

b. Sediments smother bottom dwelling plants and animals (i.e., SAV, oysters, and clams). 

c. Loose sediments fill in ports and waterways, and block the passages of 

streams. 

3. Solutions 

a. Planting and protection of shoreline vegetation. Stricter regulations can 

help in creating stronger buffer zones composed of cord grass, 

phragmites, and stream bank fencing to keep domestic animals from 

eroding shorelines. 

b. Planting of underwater grasses to help trap sediment and reduce wave 

action that causes shoreline erosion. Broadneck High School participates in ‘‘Grasses for Classes,’’ a project in which students grow grasses 

in their classrooms and plant them in their bay. 

c. Storm water management plans include rain barrels and rain gardens. 

d. Reducing the amount of impervious surfaces (i.e., turf roofs). 

BIBLIOGRAPHY

www.chesapeakebay.net/info/sediment.cfm 

www.uswaternews.com/archives/arcpolicy/3newgoa5.html 

www.cheapeakebay.net/info/baygras.cfm 

www.fws.gov/r5cbfo/CBSAV.htm 

http://www.epa.gov/reg3hwmd/super/MD/anne-arundel/pad.htm 

www.chesapeakebay.net/info/air—pollution.cfm 

www.mde.state.md.us/air/air—information/sixcommon.asp 

www.mde.state.md.us/Programs/AirPrograms/Mobile—sources/veip/index.asp 

www.cbf.org/site/PageServer?pagename=ccwc—air 

www.cbf.org/action 

Bay Related Activities at Broadneck High School: 

• Broadneck High School was selected as a Bay School by the Chesapeake Bay 

Foundation and was a part of the Bay School Project from 2000—2003. The purpose of the program was to utilize the Chesapeake Bay as an integrating context to deliver curriculum. This project was based on studies indicating that 

when the environment is used as an integrating context, scores on standardized 

tests improve, disciplinary referrals decrease, and a heightened sense of community develops in the school. We continue to work with the Chesapeake Bay 

Foundation through their Chesapeake Classrooms program. • Bay Days occur each fall during which the entire freshman class participates 

in interdisciplinary Chesapeake Bay related activities including a service-learning project. • Students in a number of science and social studies classrooms are growing and 

studying underwater Bay grasses. In June the students will plant the grasses 

in local waterways. This is the 3rd year we have participated in this program. • Over the last 5 years Broadneck students have planted over 1,000 trees on our 

campus. The year following 9-11 we planted 83 commemorative trees in memory 

of all countries that lost citizens that day. This year we planted 30 trees at 

Sandy Point State Park. The source of funding for these plantings came from 

grants from the Chesapeake Bay Trust and the State Department of Natural 

Resources. • This spring the Outdoor Science Club led by an Eagle Scout applicant will install rain barrels on the campus field house and will plant native plants in a 

memorial garden to be watered by the rainwater collected in the barrels. 

• Several school clubs are dedicated to environmental improvement. These clubs 

are Recycling Club, the Outdoor Science Club, and the Broadneck Beautification 

Club. 

• Three years ago Broadneck speech students collected oral histories from 

watermen and others who are intimately connected with the Bay and published 

a book entitled, Shoes, Ships, and Sealing Wax. This book heightened awareness in our community of the importance of the Bay and its plight. 

• English students continue to write children’s books that are Bay related and to 

share them with local elementary students. 

• Advanced Placement Environmental Science (a college level course) enrollment 

has grown to 150 students for the 2004—05 school year and 50 students have 

enrolled in environmental science (a high school level course). 

• Students plan to share this report with the county council, the Chesapeake Bay 

Foundation, the Magothy River Association, and the Severn River Association. 

12

Mr. GILCHREST. Very well done. 

We are joined by Congressman Ron Kind from Wisconsin. 

Ron, thanks for coming. Did you want to make a statement? 

Mr. KIND. I would be happy to. I thank my good friend and colleague from Maryland for hosting this hearing. 

And I wanted to especially welcome the high school students in 

attendance today and hearing your testimony. I am very excited to 

see, Mr. Gilchrest, this panel of high school students and others in 

attendance showing some interest in what I think and what I believe you think is one of the great challenges we face in this Nation. And that is habitat protection, quality water supplies, what 

we can do, working together at all levels, from the Federal Government, State, local, and private entities and individual citizens like 

yourselves to improve the environment in which we live and in 

which we grow up in. 

Just to make the connection, as far as the Chesapeake Bay area 

and in the western part of Wisconsin, the district that I represent—I am right along the Mississippi River, and it is one of 

North America’s largest migratory routes. Every fall, we have a 

large population of tundra swans that are flying down from Canada, flights in western Wisconsin in some of our back bays and 

wetlands areas as they continue their trip to the Chesapeake Bay 

area. So even though you may think the Chesapeake is a relatively 

distinct geographic area, it has a huge impact on all of us in North 

America and my constituents, too, in western Wisconsin. 

So I am glad to see this interest at this level. We have some high 

school students and middle school students in western Wisconsin 

who also have these days-on-the-river type of excursions and field 

trips where they work with some of the scientists at the USGS 

Upper Mississippi Science Lab. And they do all kinds of student 

projects too. So it is really good to see the youth of our country getting involved in such an important issue that we are going to be 

dealing with for many decades to come in this century. 

So I welcome you all, and I thank my good friend for holding this 

hearing today. Thank you very much. 

Mr. GILCHREST. Thank you, Mr. Kind. 

Chris and Jamie, you did a magnificent job. 

We will go to Olivia and Bryan for the next two. Is Bryan or 

Olivia going to go first? 

STATEMENT OF OLIVIA LOGAN AND BRYAN JAMES,

SOUTH RIVER HIGH SCHOOL, EDGEWATER, MARYLAND 

Mr. JAMES. I will.

First, I would like to say, thank you very much, Mr. Chairman 

and Congressmen, for having us here today. We are from South 

River High School, which is located in Edgewater, Maryland. 

Mainly what we focused on were the tributaries around us. We 

focused on the Rhode River, the Severn River and the South River, 

which is where we are from. A lot of the problems facing us, a lot 

of the things are centralized in our area and have a huge impact. 

And it has been in the papers and everything. Lots of stuff going 

on, so that is mainly what we focused on in our presentation. 

Ms. LOGAN. We focused on three different problems. We focused 

on boating, erosion, and nutrients. 

13

First, about boating, we discovered that maintaining and operating a boat, its engine, and the marine sanitation devices on board 

are factors that can have severe negative impacts on water quality, 

shoreline stability, and bay life. Marine sanitation devices, which 

are the heads/toilets on board, they contain human waste which 

contains nitrogen and phosphates that contribute to water pollution, such as algal blooms and oxygen depletion. 

Other problems associated with boats is littering and the dumping of any material in any inland watery, such as rivers, lakes, 

bays, and sounds, which is actually illegal, but that does not necessarily stop people from doing it. 

Boat wakes also contribute to shoreline erosion, especially in 

smaller coves and creeks. And wakes tend to stir up bottom sediments which reduces sunlight essential to underwater grasses. 

Regarding appearance and maintenance of one’s boat, a single 

quart of spilled oil can pollute up to 2 acres, which is the equivalent to nearly 3 football fields of water surface. 

Regarding nutrient pollution, due to pollution from excess nitrogen and phosphorus, the Chesapeake Bay remains on the Clean 

Water Act list of impaired waters. Currently, waste water treatment plants contribute 61 million pounds of nitrogen per year. Nitrogen pollution causes algae blooms that consume oxygen which 

lowers dissolved oxygen levels so that fish and shellfish die. Overabundance of nitrogen contributes to the Bay’s dead zone and creates algae blooms that block sunlight to underwater grasses and 

prevents their growth. 

The majority of nitrogen pollution comes from human impacts, 

such as sewage treatment plants, large-scale animal operations, agriculture, air pollution, and smokestacks. 

Erosion is a problem on the Chesapeake Bay because of, like I 

said before, the boat wakes. During periods of rain or melting 

snow, soil and other particles are carried off the land and into the 

waterways. Sediments make the water cloudy so less light is available for underwater bay grasses to grow and then support the 

water life that are surrounding it. Also, sediments can carry high 

concentrations of certain toxic materials that contaminate waterways. 

We discovered that a way to deal with erosion is to do different 

landscaping. And we discovered that you can cover the soil by 

choosing grasses, perennials, shrubs and trees that fit your landscape. You can use mulch and straw to cover the soil, or you can 

direct downspouts on to grass or mulched planting beds using 

splash boxes to reduce impact. 

You can also improve the soil by adding organic matter or using 

compost yard waste and using planting beds as a place to recycle 

fallen leaves. You also can stabilize slopes and gardening on slopes 

by using native grasses, ground covers or shrubs, rather than using 

grass clippings, as mulch. A way to implement such a plan would 

be to use local business support or have local lawn services offer 

a discount on the landscaping. 

Also, landscapes that help the Chesapeake Bay are things like 

having paved areas at a minimum or rethinking your lawn, such 

as considering making it smaller or planting wild flowers. Another 

idea is to leave buffer strips which are 25 foot wider strips of 

14

unmowed grass or woodland along the water. And a way to implement this plan would be to have a tax conventional insecticide, herbicide plan or have a public works group construct drains leading 

to the ground in hard surfaces or remove hard surfaces entirely. 

Mr. JAMES. Landscapes that help the Chesapeake Bay: Keeping 

paved areas to a minimum. That way, when the construction is 

going on to pave the areas, it really degrades the sediment and the 

structure of the sediment so much that it makes it much easier for 

runoff to happen. Like she said, buffer strips and dealing with a 

lot of pests sensibly. We have all kinds of pests affecting the lawns. 

Boating erosion solutions: Boating is a huge problem. It is causing most of the erosion along the Bay. The South River just recently in the past few years implemented a 35-mile-per-hour speed 

limit on the river. That way, it keeps it down. I know for a fact 

that Turkey Point Beach has lost over 20 feet in the past 10 years 

due to boating erosion from the wakes. It has been put on one of 

the critical beach lists, Turkey Point Beach and Turkey Point Island. 

Another thing, disallowing boats with horsepower over 7 miles 

an hour in narrow waterways, or keep a uniform speed limit. Deep 

Creek Lake has the same model. And what that keeps it from is 

those really narrow waterways from just pretty much sinking right 

into the water. Since I have lived there, I have seen a few islands 

turn into just about shrubs now sitting out in the water. 

Uniform bulkhead along the shorelines. Most houses do have 

bulkheads to keep their property from fading away, but a lot of 

them do not. A uniform bulkhead policy would be the best thing 

to do, because the soil running off is a huge problem. 

Of course, the easiest part, funding, coming up with the money 

for it. Possible solutions would be charitable donations. You could 

run dinners sponsored by the local businesses, things like that. You 

can also do tax implementation. What we can do with that is put 

a State tax on fertilizer, and you can discourage overuse for commercial companies, government-approved fertilizer, things like 

that. Local agriculture businesses can be charged with taxes that 

support their preservation causes, and also waterway fund tax 

writeoff. You can include a form to contribute to problems of erosion, and that way, you can write it off on your taxes. 

Private fees: We really need to raise the fees for dealing with the 

Bay, because a lot of the penalties are not strong enough right now. 

And I feel that DNR, they try their best, but they are really understaffed. And they cannot keep a really good handle on it. So a tax 

deduction for ecological improvements or donations from individuals is another good thing. 

So this is just basically an overview of what we were talking 

about, penny drives, holding dinners supported by local businesses. 

It is just an overview. Thank you very much. 

Ms. LOGAN. Thank you. 

[The prepared statement of Ms. Logan and Mr. James follows:]

15

Statement submitted by South River High School,

Edgewater, Maryland 

BOATING, EROSION, AND NUTRIENTS: PROBLEMS AND SOLUTIONS FOR THE SOUTH

RIVER, RHODE RIVER, AND SEVERN RIVER TRIBUTARIES OF THE CHESAPEAKE BAY

WRITTEN BY: 

BRYAN JAMES

KIMBERLY KONTSON

MARIA LEMMEN

OLIVIA LOGAN

KATHERINE NORTON

PHILLIP RUANE

I. Tributaries In Consideration 

A. Rhode River 

B. Severn River 

C. South River 

II. Boating 

A. Background Information 

1. The effects of a single boat may seem insignificant, but when multiplied by the tens of thousands, the effects are dramatic. 

2. Maintaining/operating a boat, its engine, and marine sanitation devices are factors that can have severe negative impacts on water quality, shoreline stability, and Bay life. 

B. Marine Sanitation Devices (MSD’s) 

1. Human waste contains nitrogen and phosphates that contribute to 

water pollution, such algal blooms and oxygen depletion. 

2. Human waste contains bacteria that can transmit diseases to swimmers and can close shellfish beds. 

3. Preventable problems 

a. sewage discharge. 

b. failure to meet EPA standards (heads/toilets). 

c. Lack of on-shore pump-out stations. 

d. Failure to maintain/rinse the MSD. 

C. Littering 

1. Plastic and litter ruin the natural beauty of the Bay and injure/kill 

aquatic life. 

2. The dumping of any material in any in-land waterway (rivers, lakes, 

bays, and sounds) is illegal. 

3. Plastics are prohibited from being thrown overboard worldwide. 

4. Preventable problems include illegal dumping of wastes. 

D. Boat Wakes 

1. Wakes contribute to shoreline erosion, especially in smaller coves and 

creeks. 

2. Wakes stir up bottom sediments, which reduces sunlight essential to 

underwater grasses. 

3. Preventable problems include violators of speed limit. 

E. Boat Appearance and Maintenance 

1. Scrapings from sanding/scraping are hazardous waste. 

2. Due to its toxicity, it is illegal to use an anti-fouling coating on your 

boat to prevent growth on the bottom. 

3. A single quart of spilled oil can pollute up to two acres, the equivalent 

to nearly three football fields of water surface. 

4. The alcohol content of unleaded fuels has a tendency to deteriorate 

fuel line hoses. 

5. It is illegal to dump antifreeze into the Bay and its tributaries. 

6. Oil in bilge water can be pumped overboard by the bilge pump. 

7. Preventable problems: 

a. Failure to report oil spills or toxic products spills in general 

b. Using toxic boat cleaners 

III. Nutrient Pollution 

A. Wastewater Treatment Plants 

1. Maryland has 62 major wastewater treatment plants. 

16

2. Due to pollution from excess nitrogen and phosphorus, the Chesapeake Bay remains on the Clean Water Act list of impaired waters. 

3. The Chesapeake 2000 Agreement, signed by Maryland, Virginia, the 

District of Columbia and the Environmental Protection Agency, commits to taking actions necessary to removing the Bay and its tidal 

tributaries from the list by 2010. 

4. Currently, wastewater treatment plants contribute 61 million pounds 

of nitrogen per year. 

5. Upgrading the major wastewater treatment plants to achieve nitrogen 

reductions of 3 mg/liter would remove 42 million pounds of nitrogen 

in the Bay each year or 31 percent of total nitrogen reductions needed 

to meet 2010 goals. 

6. To meet 2010 goals, annual nitrogen discharges into the Bay must be 

reduced by at least 150 million pounds from the current 300 million 

pounds. 

B. Nitrogen and Phosphorus 

1. Nitrogen pollution causes algae blooms that consume oxygen, which 

lowers dissolved oxygen levels so that fish and shellfish die. 

2. Overabundance of nitrogen contributes to the Bay’s ‘‘Dead Zone’’ and 

creates algae blooms that block sunlight to underwater grasses and 

prevents their growth. 

3. As land use patterns change and the watershed’s population grows, 

the amount of nitrogen entering the Bay’s waters increases tremendously. 

4. The majority of nitrogen pollution comes from human impacts such as 

sewage treatment plants, large-scale animal operations, agriculture, 

air pollution, and smoke stacks. 

5. Agricultural runoff contributes 40% of the nitrogen and 50% of the 

phosphorus entering the Bay. 

6. Nutrients come from natural sources such as decaying organic matter 

in forests and wetlands. 

7. Other sources include septic systems, runoff from roadways, development, residential and commercial lawn fertilizers, and air deposition 

from factories. 

8. Too many nutrients pose the threat of Pfiesteria piscicida, a microscopic organism that has been linked to people having difficulties 

learning and concentrating. 

IV. Erosion 

A. During periods of rain or melting snow, soil and other particles are carried off 

the land and into waterways. 

B. Sediments can smother bottom-dwelling plants and animals, such as oysters 

and clams. 

C. Suspended sediments make the water cloudy so less light is available for underwater Bay grasses. 

D. Sediments can carry high concentrations of certain toxic materials that contaminate waterways. 

E. Sediments also carry nutrients, particularly phosphorus, which increases nutrient pollution in the Bay. 

F. Other natural processes that contribute to sediments in the Bay are wind, iceflows and water currents. 

G. Sediments are loose particles of clay, silt, sand and other substances that are 

suspended in the water and settle to the bottom of a water body. 

V. Landscaping to Deal With Erosion: 

A. Cover the soil 

1. Choose grasses, perennials, shrubs, and trees that fit your landscape. 

2. Use mulch and straw to cover the soil. 

3. Direct downspouts onto grass or mulched planting beds (use splash 

blocks to reduce impact). 

B. Improve the soil 

1. Add organic matter. 

2. Compost yard wastes and use planting beds as a place to recycle fallen 

leaves. 

3. Use raised beds with framed solid sides (will keep soil in place). 

4. Plant cover crops in the garden (a.k.a. green manures). 

C. Stabilizing slopes and gardening on slopes 

17

1. Use native grasses, groundcovers, or shrubs (do not use grass clippings as mulch). 

2. Plant along the contour. 

3. Construct terraces. 

D. Implementation 

1. Local business support. Selected lawn suppliers will offer discount 

prices on mulch, grasses, and shrubs. 

2. Local lawn services will offer a discount on landscaping. The citizen 

may landscape his own yard if he/she prefers. 

VI. Landscapes That Help the Chesapeake Bay: The following landscaping 

recommendations will be beneficial to the environment around the 

Chesapeake Bay. 

A. Keep paved areas to a minimum 

1. Hard surfaces do not allow water to soak into the ground. 

2. Instead use gravel, wood chips, stepping stones, or bricks on sand. 

B. Rethink the lawn 

1. Consider making it smaller. 

2. Plant wildflowers. 

C. Conserve water 

1. Use plants adapted to this region. 

2. Use plants that are extremely drought tolerant. 

3. Group plants that require regular watering to minimize waste. 

4. Use soaker hoses or drip-irrigation. 

5. Water lawn only when grass shows signs of needing water. 

D. Leave buffer strips 

1. 25-foot wider strip of unmowed grass or woodland along the water. 

2. Will slow runoff, filter water pollutants, and provide food and shelter 

for wildlife. 

E. Deal with pests sensibly 

1. Integrated Pest Management (IPM). 

2. Plant a variety of species to avoid widespread damage. 

3. Use disease and insect-resistant plants. 

4. Monitor your landscape. 

F. Conserve energy 

1. Leave trees standing around building. 

2. This will reduce energy consumed by heating and air conditioning 

units. 

G. Implementation 

1. Tax conventional insecticides/herbicides. 

2. A Public works group should construct drains leading to the ground 

in hard surfaces, or remove hard surface entirely. 

3. See Section V for landscaping plan. 

VII. Solutions to Prevent Erosion From Boating 

A. Implementation—develop a uniform rip rap and bulkhead policy along protected shorelines. 

1. This has proven to reduce erosion by more than 80% in some areas. 

2. The cost of this implementation is considerably small when you consider how expensive it will be 20 years from now to recover. 

3. Bulkheads not only prevent erosion but also protect all wildlife that 

exists around it and helps prevent flooding. 

B. Reduce speed rates on the rivers in all areas as they have done on the South 

River 

1. Since the speed limit has been reduced to 35 mph, Turkey Point Beach 

has been taken off the Critical Beach list for the Chesapeake Bay. 

2. If all areas where residential housing has already made to sediment 

subject to erosion had the speed limit reduced, similar success could 

be expected. 

C. Do not allow boats with a horsepower of over 7 mph in some narrow coves and 

stream since these places are much more susceptible to erosion. 

1. This plan has been put into place in areas such as Deep Creek Lake 

with great success. 

2. This also prevents boaters from running their vessels aground because 

of the legal ramifications that will be put into place 

3. Boat wakes contribute to shoreline erosion, especially in smaller coves 

and creeks. Stir up bottom sediments, which reduces sunlight essential to underwater grasses. 

18

VIII. Nutrient runoff 

A. The problems of nutrient runoff can be solved by 

1. Sparing use of fertilizer or use of fertilizer alternatives encouraged by 

federally supported regional government taxes. 

2. Set yearly goals for reducing nutrient runoff in industry. Upgrade 

wastewater treatment facilities and tax facilities that do not meet industry goals by the quantity over the goal. 

3. Teaching practices that prevent erosion and runoff, and assistance 

from public works/municipalities/local businesses to implement them. 

B. Fertilizer Use and Alternatives—Educate persons about alternatives and about 

proper, effective fertilizer uses, and put a heavy tax on fertilizer. 

1. Education for the proper use 

a. Use fertilizer from September to November. 

i. This allows grass to recover from summer stresses. 

ii. It also may reduce the amount of runoff. 

iii. Maximizes nitrogen uptake. 

b. Keep fertilizer off of pavement. 

c. Use a drop spreader in restricted spaces. 

d. Fix your spreader to prevent over-application. 

e. Avoid Natural drainage areas. 

f. Do not use on dormant or icy lawns. 

g. See attached sheet for proper amount. Try to keep in minimum. 

h. Water only when absolutely necessary. 

i. Maximum amount of fertilizer for each lawn should not exceed two 

pounds for any lawn. 

2. The tax on fertilizer should encourage new alternatives. 

a. Corn Gluten—not harmful—biodegrades to a natural nitrogen 

fertilizer. 

b. Compost pile—use organic soil parts such as peat moss, bone/blood/

horn/hoof meal, fish, manure. Biodegrades into soil nutrients. 

c. Milorganite—Frederick County uses this organic fertilizer as a 

substitute. 

C. Implementation of Proper Land 

1. Farmers and civilians will be required to administer a soil quality test 

and make evaluations of a their lawn. 

2. They will then report their results to the state government, and then 

determine what materials are needed to make the resident more environmentally safe. These materials will be offered to the resident at a 

reduced price. Some changes: 

a. Topsoil must be covered with shrubs, grasses, etc to keep runoff to a 

minimum. 

b. Mulching is an effective way to reduce topsoil runoff. 

c. Garden on level ground. If you must garden on a hill, reduce runoff 

by creating terraces. 

d. Public Works programs could assist in building upon request. 

e. Shrubs and other grasses also reduce erosion and runoff (See sections 

V and VI). 

3. Citizens who fail to send in results or reform their lawn will be punished with a fine. 

IX. Solutions to Prevent Pollution From Boating on the Chesapeake 

A. Government public works will inspect marine gas stations to encourage improvement of conditions. 

1. Too many marinas in and around our area do not practice safe policies 

when pumping gas. 

2. Over the past year the DNR has issued over 120 citations to marinas 

for thing, such as gas spillage and improper disposal of toxic chemicals. 

3. These facts should also be made more accessible to the public to create 

a pressure on the marinas. 

B. Crack down harder on shipping freights that are on their way into the Inner 

Harbor 

1. Often times these ships pump bilge and release their waste tanks into 

the Bay, which in turn drifts into our rivers and does considerable 

damage. 

2. If we make pump stations for this waste more accessible then maybe 

these ships would be encouraged to dispose of their waste properly. 

19

X. Funding 

A. Charitable Donations—Post donation tabs at local businesses that will call on 

residents to donate 

1. Hold charitable dinners with goods donated by local businesses. 

2. Hold penny drives during environmental education weeks in schools. 

B. Taxes 

1. A state tax on fertilizer to provide funds and discourage overuse. 

2. Local at risk businesses can be charged with taxes that support preservation causes 

3. Companies requesting construction in at risk areas would be charged 

a fee to protect those areas 

4. Waterway Fund Tax check off 

C. Private Fees 

1. Individuals that participate in hazardous activities toward the 

waterways could be charged addition fees. 

2. Design and market license plates and other commodities. 

3. Tax deduction for ecological improvements or donations from 

individuals. 

Works Cited 

‘‘Alternatives—Pesticides—Herbicides—Fertilizer’’ Klickitat County 4/25/04

<http://www.klickitatcounty.org/SolidWaste/

ContentROne.asp?fContentIdSelected=562190018&fCategoryIdSelected=-

1671944469>

Chesapeake 2000 Agreement. Annapolis, MD. March 31, 2000

‘‘General Information About Chesapeake Bay’’ Chesapeake Bay Foundation. 4/24/04 

<http://www.cbf.org/site/PageServer?pagename=resources—facts—general>

Gill, Stanton with Ray Bosmans and Wanda MacLachlan. ‘‘Fertilizer Recommendations for Landscape Trees & Shrubs.’’ Maryland Cooperative Extension. 4/24/04 

<http://www.agnr.umd.edu/MCE/Publications/Publication.cfm?ID=544>

Helsel, ZR. ‘‘Energy and alternatives for fertilizer and pesticide use’’ University of 

California. 4/24/04 <http://www.sarep.ucdavis.edu/NEWSLTR/v5n5/sa-12.htm>

Minner, David D. ‘‘Nonchemical Alternatives for the Home Lawn’’ Iowa State University. September 1996

‘‘Reducing Nitrogen and Phosphorus Pollution from Wastewater Treatment Facilities’’ Chesapeake Bay Foundation. 4/25/04 <www.cbf.org/site/

PageServer?pagename=resources—facts—nutrient—red—ww>

Ricciuti, Peter J. and Wanda MacLachlan ‘‘Saving Your Soil and the Chesapeake 

Bay’’ Maryland Cooperative Extension. 4/24/04 <http://www.agnr.umd.edu/MCE/

Publications/Publication.cfm?ID=64>

‘‘Sediment Problems’’ Chesapeake Bay Program. 4/23/04 <http://

www.chesapeakebay.net/stressor1.htm>

Support. Chesapeake Bay Fund. 24 April, 2004. <http://www.cbf.org/site/

PageServer?pagename=support—index>

Turner, Thomas and Peter J. Ricciuti ‘‘Lawns and the Chesapeake Bay’’ Maryland 

Cooperative Extension. 4/24/04 <http://www.agnr.umd.edu/MCE/Publications/

Publication.cfm?ID=48>

‘‘Water Pollution in the Chesapeake Bay’’ Chesapeake Bay Foundation. 4/25/04 

<www.cbf.org/site/PageServer?pagename=resources—facts—water—pollution>

Year in Review: Funds. Chesapeake Bay Trust. 23 April, 2004. <http://

www.chesapeakebaytrust.org/yearinreview.html>

Mr. GILCHREST. Bryan and Olivia, excellent, excellent job. 

I have a few questions that I can ask the witnesses, but if there 

is anyone from your school who wants to participate in that answer, you are welcome to do that. 

I want to tell all of you that I do not know how many of you are 

seniors, who will be graduating and moving on to college, but we 

are going to make an annual event out of this. 

To the schoolteachers, we will let you know sometime in September instead of February, and we would like to do it maybe 

sometime in April to give you a longer time to get prepared for it, 

although I do not know if you could do a better job than what we 

have seen here this morning. 

20

But we really want to tap into your enthusiasm and passion for 

this issue on an ongoing basis, not for the purpose of this one particular hearing. But we would like to help you get organized and 

pursue the dissemination of this kind of information to many other 

key people around, basically around the watershed. 

That is why I am glad that—Mr. Pallone had to go to the Floor, 

but he will be coming back, and I am glad that Mr. Kind was able 

to join us here this morning. 

Some questions first to, I guess to Christian and Jamie. Do you 

have any idea of the condition of the Patapsco Aquifer contamination that you mentioned, where that is right now? 

Mr. MORGANSTERN. I do not have any specific details, no. 

Mr. GILCHREST. Maybe we can look into that for you and pass 

that along to you and see what the status of that is. But that was 

an excellent statement that you made in that area, so that gives 

us a little information that we really did not have before to make 

a concerted effort. 

Mr. MORGANSTERN. I do know that the landfill that was on top 

of that has been shut down since then. 

Mr. GILCHREST. OK. Well, it would be good to find out if it is still 

leaching into the aquifer and certainly let the people of the community know. 

You mentioned the Grasses For Classes program in your school. 

Can you give us some more detail on that? Grasses for Classes, I 

like that. 

Mr. MECKIC. My name is Dennis Meckic from Broadneck High 

School. I can give you some information about that. 

Mr. GILCHREST. And you are a teacher? 

Mr. MECKIC. Yes. We have a project in the school where we have 

teachers growing the grasses in the classroom for a period of about 

9 weeks. And we have a respiration site in our community on the 

Little Magothy where we are trying to restore bay grasses at that 

site. And that is an ongoing project from last year and this year 

and hopefully into the future. 

We also have students who are growing bay grasses at their 

homes that will also be planted at that site, and that will happen 

the first week of June. 

Mr. GILCHREST. That is fabulous. That is wonderful. You also 

mentioned the storm water management as being a problem, and 

that is clearly an issue all over the State. But you said something 

about rain barrel and rain garden. Could you tell us a little bit 

more about that, how that works? 

Mr. MORGANSTERN. Basically what a rain barrel and a rain garden does is it collects water that runs off of a building, perhaps a 

house or, as we are planning to do at our school, running off the 

field house from the football field, and having a rain garden that 

distributes the water that we collect to a garden through barrels. 

Mr. GILCHREST. So you have that set up now? 

Mr. MORGANSTERN. Not yet. 

Mr. GILCHREST. I see. 

Mr. MORGANSTERN. We have the materials. We need to put it together, though. 

Mr. GILCHREST. At the field house? 

Mr. MORGANSTERN. Correct. 

21

Mr. GILCHREST. That would be great. I think that would be a 

really fabulous example, not only for the school but for the community. Just those little pieces of recognition of the problems that can 

be resolved with simple individual solutions. And I think people 

want to help the Bay clean-up; they just do not know how. You are 

going to go a long way in showing them how. 

The key to some of the things that you have recommended have 

been education. I think the classes that we see here today have 

been engrossed in understanding the issues in their part of the 

Chesapeake Bay. So the kind of information that you have gathered here with your school and with the curriculum is extraordinary, something that I think would benefit all of the schools in 

the Chesapeake Bay watershed. 

Can you give me your opinion on the schools in the Chesapeake 

Bay watershed tapping into the Bay program to actually create a 

curriculum? 

I am not trying to tell you how to run your school. I actually 

voted against No Child Left Behind, the Federal bill, better on the 

local level, and I did not like MSPAP. I was not a teacher during 

that period of time, but I did teach in Kent County High School, 

and my classroom was my creative arena. I think that has been reduced to some extent now. 

But we learn how to read, write, and do arithmetic. And those 

things are standard in all schools. And they help you for decades 

and decades. That is the structure of how you go about your dayto-day life in this civilization: reading, writing—well, maybe people 

do not write any more with computers, but reading, writing, and 

arithmetic. 

I think a part of that, and I want to get your comments on this, 

would be the biosphere, just to know about the place where you 

live called planet earth and what it takes on the planet in a natural way to keep the biosphere alive. 

So could you see some day in your school system having an ecological study similar to reading and writing from K through 12? 

Mr. MELENDEZ. You mean more of as a program, like maybe developing a new class that would be incorporated into the county 

curriculum that has to do with, like, the local watershed? 

Mr. GILCHREST. I think so. I am sort of asking you the question 

to see if I can fine-tune my proposal, but something like that. 

Mr. MELENDEZ. Well, something like that we somewhat do have. 

We have a class called environmental science, which basically deals 

with that, but it is more of an entire planet earth kind of thing. 

I think if we could make it more limited, more narrow in the field 

that it covers, more as the Chesapeake Bay watershed, maybe if we 

could develop a class that could be a supplement. 

Mr. GILCHREST. Sure. 

Mr. MELENDEZ. To environmental science, or it could just be separate on its own, but something that all of the students could take 

to further their understanding of the environment. 

Because environmental science deals with a number of topics 

which all have to do with the Chesapeake Bay watershed, but I 

think the watershed has its own problems as opposed to maybe 

other areas of the world. So if we could get a more in-depth look 

22

at the Bay, not through a program such as Bay Day, which is good, 

but that is more of a one-time, annual thing. 

I think, if we could have something throughout the entire school 

where kids constantly, every day, would be learning about and 

then there would be projects associated with that throughout the 

year. 

Mr. GILCHREST. That sounds right on the mark. 

Ms. NIEDHARDT. I am Pat Niedhardt from Broadneck High 

School. The Chesapeake Bay Foundation has had a marvelous program over the last few years called the Chesapeake Bay Project. 

Broadneck High School was one of 9 schools that was participating 

in that. And the idea behind this was to have the environment, the 

Bay, be an integrating context for delivering our curriculum. So not 

adding on to our curriculum—as you know, that is always a 

problem—but using this as a way to deliver our curriculum. 

So the book that you saw up there, one of our speech teachers 

had always had her students do oral histories. And often students 

had interviewed their grandparents, which is great. But she had 

them interview watermen. And they went out on to Smith Island, 

and they spoke to the local watermen, et cetera. 

So the whole idea behind this, and there have been national 

studies on this, when you use the environment as an integrating 

context and you give students the opportunity to have real experiences, like you are providing them with today, this makes a huge 

impact on their life. Not only does it do that, but their grades are 

better, there are less disciplinary referrals, and everyone learns 

more. 

Mr. GILCHREST. Well, thank you very much. 

I have some other questions for South River High School, but I 

will yield now to my colleagues. We are now joined—and I have to 

ask unanimous consent for Mr. Cardin to sit on the dais. 

Mr. Cardin is on a number of committees here in Washington, 

but he is not on this committee, but I want to thank him for coming and sitting with us this morning. 

Thanks for coming, Ben. I appreciate it. Ben represents, Congressman Cardin represents much of Anne Arundel County, including Annapolis, which actually covers both the watersheds of the 

two high schools that are here. So Ben will have some questions. 

Do you want to have a quick statement, Ben, before I yield to the 

other colleagues? 

STATEMENT OF THE HON. BENJAMIN L. CARDIN, A 

REPRESENTATIVE IN CONGRESS FROM THE STATE OF 

MARYLAND 

Mr. CARDIN. Let me thank Chairman Gilchrest for inviting me 

to attend. I really wanted to thank the students for being here and 

participating in our hearing. 

Mr. Chairman, we have spent in Congress a great deal of energy 

on the Chesapeake Bay and the role the Federal Government plays 

in it. It has been now 25 years in which we have been paying attention to the Chesapeake Bay. It is one of the most interesting 

bodies of water in the world and one of the efforts that have been 

made that really paid off. 

23

The frustrating part is that we have done a lot of work with Government, with the private sector, with different States, and we 

have done miraculous things in improving the quality of the water 

of the Chesapeake Bay. That is the good news. The bad news is 

that we have a long way to go. There is still a lot more work to 

be done. It is really going to be up to the next generation, your generation, leadership in your generation, whether you will be able to 

continue the interest in preserving and protecting the Chesapeake 

Bay and other bodies of water around our Nation. Whether the 

tradeoffs will be development or the tradeoffs will be cost, whether 

you will make this a priority in your generation. 

I had the chance, I guess a week ago, to be with Germantown 

Elementary students in Annapolis as we did a wade-in at the Bay 

and discovered some of the wildlife and some of the pollution problems. And we really have a real responsibility to continue this effort, which is going to cost resources, money, as well as attention. 

It really is your generation who I hope will provide leadership in 

the future. 

So, Mr. Chairman, I am pleased to be here. I want to make it 

clear that we want the Federal Government to be a partner, but 

a partner with the private community, with our schools, with our 

local communities. 

There have been a lot of programs that you, Mr. Chairman, have 

been very instrumental in helping create and fund, to provide a 

very small amount of Federal funds that leverage local activities, 

including by our students, that have tremendous impacts on the future of the Bay. And it is these types of programs that I think will 

pay off the biggest dividends in the future. 

Mr. GILCHREST. Thank you, Mr. Cardin. 

I yield now to the gentleman from New Jersey, Mr. Pallone, for 

any questions he may have. 

Mr. PALLONE. Well, I just want to apologize. I had to leave after 

making my opening statement to go down to the Floor and make 

a speech, but I know, generally, what you are talking about. And 

I have read some of the testimony. 

If you remember, earlier, I mentioned about my own district in 

New Jersey. If I could just make some analogies and then maybe 

ask one question. 

Where I live in New Jersey, we are along the Atlantic Ocean, but 

then we also go into the Raritan Bay and into the rivers, the Raritan River, the Shrewsbury and the Navisink Rivers, so there are 

some similarities. As I mentioned, we have a long history of industrial pollution, which is far greater, I think, than what you face in 

the Chesapeake. 

What we did is—I have been around for 16 years—and for the 

first 10 years or so that I was here, we tried to stop all of the point 

source pollution, because people used to dump off the coast of my 

district sewage sludge, toxic dredge materials, everything, acid 

waste, the whole thing, and that was a big source of the contamination. We gradually closed, through Federal action and State action, every one of those point sources. 

But now the big problem is of course non-point-source pollution, 

and this Subcommittee and of course our Chairman, Congressman 

24

Gilchrest, has spent a lot of time having various hearings that relate to non-point pollution. 

The problem we have, and I know that Congressman Cardin was 

alluding to this, in as much as we have made great progress in 

cleaning up the water from the point sources, because there is so 

much more development, even in a State like New Jersey that is 

so over developed already, there has been so much more development in the last 10 years or 15 years since I have been in office 

that we are still not keeping up with it. In other words, we have 

all this pollution that comes from runoff, from lawns and you name 

it, whether it is commercial, industrial, or residential, that continues to cause problems. 

So I really think that the future is dealing with the non-point 

source pollution, and a lot of it has to do with smart growth and 

being able to make sure that development does not impact the 

coastal areas as much as possible. That is not an easy task, though, 

because as you know, there is a constant pressure to build more 

and to have more high density development. 

So I do not know if any of you wanted to comment on that, 

whether or not—I know the Chesapeake is facing this same problem and whether you see, maybe amongst younger people like yourself, an understanding of the fact that we just maybe cannot have 

as much growth, we have to slow the growth, if anybody wanted 

to comment on that. 

Mr. JAMES. Yes, I agree with that. I do not think people really 

see the tradeoffs, the benefits of that that you are making. Right 

now, you cannot put certain kinds of fertilizer in your yard. You 

have to put a certain kind of bulkhead up. And they say, ‘‘It is 

going to make my yard look bad, but in the future, I will have a 

yard in 10 years or 15 years if I put this up.’’ I just do not think 

that people really see the benefits of doing things now. I think they 

are kind of set in their ways, and I think that is the main problem. 

Mr. PALLONE. Thanks. 

Anybody else? 

I find that younger people like my own children tend to be a lot 

more conscious of these things, but it is still hard to relate it down 

on an individual level. I agree with you. 

Thanks, Mr. Chairman. 

Mr. GILCHREST. Another responder in the back. 

Mr. WHITMAN. My name is Leif Whitman. 

Mr. GILCHREST. You are from which high school? 

Mr. WHITMAN. Broadneck High School. 

I think it is maybe not even so much as stopping the growth, 

which is something that is pretty unrealistic, because that would 

of course be a much larger contribution from, like, the Governments and more control. But maybe just encouraging and enforcing 

smarter growth. All across, like, the known world and everything, 

it is just Americans seem to have a very strong sense of wanting 

larger yards and everything that is not necessary. 

I think what would be more important is discouraging that, but 

still allowing growth, as we have to in a free society, but just limiting it and making it smarter. There are many small things we 

could do to improve it, and they even save money, such as, of 

course, the driving factor and all of this other stuff. It is just igVerDate 0ct 09 2002 08:28 Oct 08, 2004 Jkt 088533 PO 00000 Frm 00028 Fmt 6633 Sfmt 6602 J:\DOCS\93706.TXT HRESOUR1 PsN: KATHY
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nored from being different or just not known about. So not so much 

stopping growth. I would just support smarter growth. 

Mr. PALLONE. OK. Thanks. I agree. 

Mr. GILCHREST. Thank you, Mr. Pallone. 

Mr. Kind, any questions? 

Mr. KIND. Chairman Gilchrest, again, I just want to say how impressed I am with the presentation that we heard here from the 

high school students. It really is encouraging. I commend you and 

your leadership as well as Mr. Cardin and Mr. Pallone in the efforts that have been taken in regard to the enhanced protection 

and preservation of the Chesapeake Bay area. It is an incredibly 

valuable natural resources that not only effects the inhabitants and 

the wildlife in this area, but across the country. We are going to 

continue in our efforts working together to try to increase sound 

public policy in this field. 

You and I have teamed up just a few years ago in regards to the 

farm bill, trying to increase resources under the conservation title, 

which is an important part of watershed management and private 

landowners’ stewardship of their private lands, which also affects 

the runoff and the nutrients flowing into these water systems. 

So it is encouraging to see the interest at this level, and hopefully, those of you going on to school, whether it is technical school 

or a college or university, may have a future career path in the 

science and water management area. Lord knows, we need a lot of 

help, as Mr. Cardin indicated, in the years to come from your generation to step up and assume the leadership of this vitally important issue. 

So, Mr. Chairman, thanks again for holding this hearing, and I 

am happy to participate. 

Mr. GILCHREST. Thank you, Mr. Kind. 

Mr. Cardin? 

Mr. CARDIN. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I am reading the background document from the—is it South River—from South River 

High School, talking about the nutrient issue, which is very well 

done. The nutrient problem is a very serious problem in the Bay. 

It is getting worse, not better. It is one of the issues where we have 

not made the type of improvement that we would have hoped when 

we started this effort, again, 25 years ago. 

You know that nutrient runoff acts basically to suffocate and 

does not allow the Bay to completely develop the way it needs to, 

whether it is the aquatic life or the vegetation. But to solve that 

problem requires a major investment. Waste water treatment facilities, which is one of the major ways that you can stop nutrient 

content in the Bay, requires a significant investment of public 

funds in order to modernize our waste water treatment facilities. 

Governor Ehrlich and the General Assembly came up with what 

we call affectionately a flush tax, but it is a tax on the users of 

waste water treatment facilities in an effort to get more money to 

modernize those facilities. 

I guess my question to you is, taxes have gotten to be such a terrible word in our vocabulary here in Government, but sometimes 

we need additional revenues. I am a Democrat, and Governor Ehrlich in a Republican. I supported his efforts to try to find more creVerDate 0ct 09 2002 08:28 Oct 08, 2004 Jkt 088533 PO 00000 Frm 00029 Fmt 6633 Sfmt 6602 J:\DOCS\93706.TXT HRESOUR1 PsN: KATHY
26

ative ways to get money into the improvement of our waste water 

treatment facilities. 

I think we need to talk about that directly. Money just does not 

automatically come into Government. You have to find ways to get 

it into government. Waste water treatment facility plants are 

owned privately and by governments. But to make that investment 

to upgrade the facilities will cost money. Someone is going to have 

to pay for it. 

So I would just like to know your attitude as to whether you 

think, as a society, we have an obligation to collect enough revenues in order to make a dent in the problems that are really out 

there with the Bay. 

Ms. LOGAN. Actually, I think that if you want Americans to give 

you money, you have to supply them with something that they like. 

And something that is associated with the Chesapeake Bay is the 

crabs. I mean, who doesn’t like eating crabs, unless, in the case if 

seafood makes you sick or you don’t like seafood. But if you enjoy 

eating crabs, if you implement, maybe, a tax on crabs or maybe you 

have a program that incorporates crabs or seafood in general with 

the tax, it would help bring in money for the Chesapeake Bay to 

help that. 

Mr. CARDIN. That is a good suggestion. 

One side of the South River is in my district. The other side is 

in Congressman Gilchrest’s district. I have offered Congressman 

Gilchrest to join me on a kayak as I went last year and looked at 

some of the oyster beds and saw the condition of some of the oyster 

beds. They are trying to plant seeds for oyster in the South River. 

You have to plant about 100,000 to get one or two to take, but it 

is so important for filtering the Bay. 

I just invite you all to get hands-on as to what is happening in 

the Bay itself, and I think it will show you just the damage that 

is done by nutrients. There are a lot of causes for the nutrients. 

Some of it is farming practices. Some of it is industrial pollution. 

Some of it is the way we treat our runoff from storms. And some 

of it is the way we treat our waste. Some are easier to deal with 

than others. We know that, if we make an investment in waste 

water, what exactly we can obtain in getting nutrient levels reduced. 

So I would just encourage you, as you are doing, to get more 

hands-on. I think you are exactly right. If you make the case, the 

people in our community are willing to make the investment if they 

think they will get a good return for that investment. But I do not 

think they really see the problems in the Bay like you have seen 

them. So I just would encourage you to continue your efforts to do 

hands-on and get more and more people in the community to understand the damage that is being done by the failure to address 

modernization of our waste water treatment facilities or by irresponsible use of fertilizers or the runoff issues by development and 

not being sensitive. Things you can do in development to minimize 

the damage caused by runoff. 

Mr. Chairman, just for the record, we have a school in Annapolis 

in which we give a very small Federal grant that they are using 

to replace concrete with gardens which run into Weems Creek. 

That is having here a major impact in trying to reduce the amount 

27

of runoff. These are the types of projects that make a difference, 

but it requires investment. 

Yes, the private sector is willing to come up with money, willing 

to give charitable contributions, but it also requires Government to 

be an active partner. And this money just does not automatically 

appear. It requires us to make tough choices here in Washington. 

And we need your help and your understanding on those choices. 

Thank you. 

Mr. GILCHREST. There is a young lady in the back of the room 

that wanted to make a comment. 

UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER. One of the major things with taxes is 

people want the problems to be solved, but they do not want to pay 

for it. Sooner or later, especially in our area—we are right on the 

water—they are going to have their waterfront property but not be 

able to use the Bay because it is so polluted. And they just will not 

pay for it. People do not realize the changes going on, and that is 

the major problem that has to get out there for them. 

Ms. ELKIN. My name is Julie Elkin from Broadneck High School. 

Regarding costs and taxes, I understand it is not generally popular 

to support, but I think the question is not necessarily people unwilling to pay as much as being unaware of how critical it is. I 

mean, the majority, I think, here come from waterfront communities. And they know. In my own community, there are river associations that keep citizens informed. And those have been really 

helpful in getting out the word to citizens further inland regarding 

the problems. 

But if the funding is not available necessarily from taxes, putting 

it into education, that really helps if we can get out and spread the 

word. Because an aware community is one that is more willing to 

make the investment. 

Mr. GILCHREST. Thank you. Thank you very much. 

At 11:15, and unfortunately, this is the way it happens up here, 

we are going to have votes for about a half an hour or so. So we 

will, I am not sure—we have this room until 5:00, but we have to 

deal with the votes. We have lunch for everybody. So when the 

bells ring, if I could just speak to a couple of the teachers, especially those from Bohemia Manor and Pocomoke, we will try to adjust your testimony in and around the time we eat lunch. If you 

could stay—I am not sure when you have to leave to go back to the 

Eastern Shore, but as soon as the bells ring, we will have a quick 

discussion about how long you can stay. And we will come back 

here and either have your testimony before we eat lunch or have 

it right after we eat lunch. 

But I just had a couple of quick questions for the people from 

South River, Olivia and Bryan. 

You talked about a crackdown on marina operations for just a 

whole range of issues, whether it is pump-out stations, whether it 

is the speed in which the motor boats pass through or those kinds 

of things. Could you elaborate or give some of your recommendations on how you would crack down on marina operations? 

Ms. LOGAN. It was actually marine sanitation devices, which is 

kind of like that. We said some of the preventable problems were 

sewage discharge, failure to meet EPA standards which would be 

the heads and the toilets which people get away with because they 

28

do not have their boat inspected. Also, the lack of on-shore pumpout stations or the failure to maintain or rinse the MSD. 

Mr. GILCHREST. Where would you require more pump-out stations? At private marinas, public docks? Where do you think they 

should be? 

Ms. LOGAN. Public would probably be better because everyone 

can use it. Now, with private, only a limited amount, but with public everyone will be able to utilize it, and there will not be any distinction or who is better, ‘‘You cannot go to the private one.’’

Mr. GILCHREST. Are you aware of any pump-out stations at all 

on any public docks? 

Ms. LOGAN. Well, I do not have a boat, so I do not know. 

Mr. GILCHREST. Do you have a recommendation on who would 

operate that pump-out station on a public dock? 

Ms. LOGAN. DNR, or, you know, it would even be a great summer 

job, get a nice tan, you know. I would do it. 

Mr. GILCHREST. You wouldn’t want to overdo it. Make sure you 

use that sunscreen. 

A question about the bulkheads, uniform bulkhead policy. I think 

that is an excellent recommendation, but the creation of the uniform bulkhead policy, I think the kind of bulkhead would be pretty 

important as well. Mr. Cardin mentioned something about natural, 

creating a natural bulkhead to reduce sediment being washed in. 

And those 4-by-4s or 6-by-6s that a lot of people use may stop some 

erosion, but they are also wood that is treated with creosote. Sometimes, if it is a rock bulkhead, that would eliminate the possibility 

for a full range of species from moving, marine species from moving 

on that shoreline. 

Do you have any recommendations for the kink of bulkhead that 

would be used? 

Mr. JAMES. Well, I do know that the bulkhead we have in most 

houses around our community, they have a special kind of treated 

wood that is conducive to the environment of the Bay. It is not 

going to contaminate it. Capitol Marine is the one that does that. 

I do not know about the others. 

A big problem is people without permits putting their own bulkheads in and things like that. It is really unregulated, and people 

just do it. 

Mr. GILCHREST. So do you see that as a State issue or a county 

issue? 

Mr. JAMES. I think it is more of a county issue. One of the problems is DNR does as much as they can, but if you only have one 

guy on a Boston whaler patrolling three rivers and pulling the guy 

over on a jet ski while someone is building a dock 200 feet out into 

the water—

Mr. GILCHREST. Anne Arundel County right now does not have 

a uniform bulkhead policy? 

Mr. JAMES. Correct. Also, you can see when bulkheads are put 

up by the people themselves, and they do nothing. 

Mr. GILCHREST. Would this be a recommendation that you and 

your fellow students could make at a county council meeting in Annapolis for Anne Arundel County? 

Mr. JAMES. It could be. 

29

Mr. GILCHREST. I would also encourage, and maybe I will write 

a letter to the county executive and the county council for each of 

the areas that all of the students here represent to have you go in 

and talk to the county council or the county commissioners or the 

town council or whatever, because the kind of information that you 

have here is not broadly understood among a lot of elected officials 

or the general public. 

One final question that any one of the panelists can answer, has 

there been any thought in your discussions about the Chesapeake 

Bay concerning invasive species? On the Eastern Shore we have 

this little critter known as nutria. All over the Bay, we have 

phragmites, and now we are hearing about snakeheads. 

Do you want to make a comment about anything related to 

invasive species and the health of the Chesapeake Bay? 

Mr. JAMES. I do know in our area, the mute swans, they are not 

native to the area, what they do a lot of times—

Mr. GILCHREST. Can you speak up for the gentleman from New 

Jersey? We discuss that issue sometimes. 

Mr. JAMES. They are eating the aquatic vegetation. That is not 

leaving enough food for all of the native species. That is wiping 

them out. 

Plus, it is also contributing to erosion, because when those things 

are being ripped out by roots, it just damages all the soil around 

it, and it makes it a lot softer, a lot less solid, and it roots it out. 

We have about six of them coming out. They come around and eat 

everything, so that is the biggest. 

Mr. GILCHREST. What do you do to those mute swans? 

Mr. JAMES. Basically, I let the dog out the backyard, and he 

chases them off. 

Mr. GILCHREST. What a good idea. We had a hearing last week 

on the Migratory Bird Treaty Act which, based on a court decision, 

protects mute swans and other native migratory birds that might 

come here from Canada or even Alaska. 

Mr. JAMES. The problem with the mute swans is they are not native at all, and they destroy other habitats. I have seen them go 

and turn over duck nests and things like that and destroy them. 

We have muskrat nests along the waterway. They go and destroy 

those, looking for food. They are basically just a destructive force. 

Mr. GILCHREST. Do you have a recommendation, anyone in the 

audience, about what to do with invasive species like mute swans? 

Well, anyway, you have all done a fabulous job here this morning. As usual, the hearings take a little while. We have more questions than we have time for. 

But if anybody—Mr. Pallone, Mr. Cardin—any further questions 

for the students? 

Thank you very much. You have done an excellent job here this 

morning. 

Any further recommendation for us before this panel concludes? 

All right. Well, thank you very much. I think we will have time 

to introduce the next panel, and we will go as far as we can before 

the bells ring, and then we will sort of discuss how we will proceed 

the rest of the day. 

Christian, Jamie, Olivia, and Bryan, thank you very much. 

Mr. JAMES. Thank you. 

30

Ms. LOGAN. Thank you. 

Mr. GILCHREST. Our next panel will be Sarah Lucs-Haji and 

Charlotte Sanford-Crane, welcome, and Leslie Levin and Kenneth 

Nugent. Sarah and Charlotte are from Chesapeake City, a wonderful little spot on the Eastern Shore, and Leslie and Kenneth are 

from Pocomoke High School, Pocomoke, Maryland. Thank you very 

much, and welcome. 

We can begin with Sarah and Charlotte. 

STATEMENT OF SARAH LUCS-HAJI AND CHARLOTTE 

SANFORD-CRANE, BOHEMIA MANOR HIGH SCHOOL, 

CHESAPEAKE CITY, MARYLAND 

Ms. LUCS-HAJI. Thank you. 

Ms. SANFORD-CRANE. I am Charlotte. Thank you very much for 

having us here. 

We would like to talk to you today about our watershed at the 

Bohemia Manor High School community. 

The picture you can see there of the bridge, that is about half 

a mile from our high school. It is right there. We could probably 

walk. 

Ms. LUCS-HAJI. Our tributaries that surround our school, there 

are four main ones. The first one is the C&D Canal, which you saw 

on the first slide, and that is located right at the intersection. The 

second one is the Bohemia Manor River, and this is another major 

tributary that boats go down. But the major commerce is through 

the C&D Canal. The third is the Elk River, and the fourth is the 

Sassafras River. They are all four major tributaries of the Chesapeake Bay. 

Ms. SANFORD-CRANE. We have three main problems that we 

found with our area. The first is water pollution, and this is of the 

surface and ground water. This includes runoff, nitrogen, phosphorus, Mercury, other organic material, and also bacteria. There 

has been E. coli found on some of our beaches, such as Crystal 

Beach and Grove Neck, which are all places around our school. And 

that is not a good thing for swimmers and people who actually live 

on those beaches all year-round. 

The second main problem were invasive species, such as 

phragmites and cattails that have kind of taken over everything 

that is trying to grow native. And there is nutria, too. That is the 

rodent-like thing on the bottom. They were brought over for fur, 

but nobody actually likes their fur, so they let them go. And they 

are kind of everywhere. 

The third problem is loss of habitat, and this is bad because, 

well, we need habitat for the animals to live and for the oysters to 

clean the Bay and for everything. 

Ms. LUCS-HAJI. Our human causes are the population, urban 

sprawl. Cecil County is the fifth on the State’s top 10 list for 

growth. It has doubled in the past year. 

Sewage treatment causes lacks in this, too. There are so many 

houses that are being built, and there is not enough septic treatment plants to take all the sewage. So many people have illegal 

septic systems that are aging or overcapacity. 

The Elkton plant that is located 15 miles from our high school 

has been marked unacceptable a couple of times where it disVerDate 0ct 09 2002 08:28 Oct 08, 2004 Jkt 088533 PO 00000 Frm 00034 Fmt 6633 Sfmt 6602 J:\DOCS\93706.TXT HRESOUR1 PsN: KATHY
31

charges more—it discharges 8.1 million grams per liter of nitrogen 

into the water. And 3 milligrams are acceptable. 

The septic systems are not maintained, and that is a major problem, because it adds nitrogen and phosphorus into our bay. 

The commercial shipping and recreational boating is another 

problem. The C&D Canal has many boats that come through, and 

they bring ballast water and have invasive species that fall off with 

it. Litter, oil and sewage also come into our bay from the C&D 

Canal. 

Dredging. This was another topic. Maybe 3 years ago when I 

moved into the area, the C&D Canal was dredged, and many animals were displaced. And the ecosystem has thus recovered, but 

not quickly. 

The fourth one is farming. We have farmers that live around our 

area, but they are more aware of the nitrogen that they put on 

their fields and the chicken waste. So I don’t think they are the 

main culprits. I think that the sewage treatment plants are the 

main culprits in our area. 

Ms. SANFORD-CRANE. Solutions. We came up with some solutions 

to help with these problems. In order to help the habitat destruction, we thought that we should help with the smart growth, which 

is what we were talking about before here with the houses and less 

yard and all of that, and also land conservation. 

There is a big program where we live where people try to buy 

the farmland. They do not buy the land, just the rights. So the 

farmers still live there, but they can’t subdivide it and make it into 

lots of little houses. It has to stay as a farm. 

Also, there is down-zoning, which is a big buzzword around our 

area now. And the other thing is sewage pollution. To help with 

that, the big thing is, we really need to update the sewage plants, 

which is pretty spendy, but that is really the only answer to help, 

is build new ones and fix the ones we have. There is new technology that can really help with the nutrients, but it has just been 

implemented. 

Also, we should raise the perk test standards. Right now, they 

are really low, probably because our area has very clay-like soil 

and in other areas, very sandy soil. And right now, the current 

standards say that is OK. And the sandy soil, when they do the 

perk tests, the water just runs right through. So our standards say, 

‘‘Well, that is fine, it went through.’’ but they do not realize that 

it has not had time to get filtered. 

The farmers, as we said before, they are already pretty well controlled. They have best management practices. We are in a very 

rural area, so the great majority of our 150 watershed school area 

is farmland, but they all use best management practices, or at least 

quite a few of them do, where they try to plan out how much fertilizer they actually need and how much it is going to cost them. 

And they really do a good job of rotating crops and all of those good 

things. 

For the boating and shipping, what we need are stricter boating 

regulations and a clean list of species. What that is is—right now, 

there is a dirty list, as in well, we know nutria are bad now, so 

we won’t bring anymore in. But what we should have is a clean list 

where we only let things in that we know are good. Because how 

32

do we know the next animal that someone decides to bring over is 

going to be good or bad? And we do not know. So we let it over 

until we realize, oh, no, it got away, and it ruined everything, 

better not let that happen again. So that would really help stop 

anymore invasive species from coming over. 

We also believe the educational programs are very important. 

These can be things like bay schools, which we discussed earlier. 

Our middle school is a bay school, and we do projects like going to 

Smith Island and also community environmental clubs, just to get 

the community involved and aware. We don’t have anything like 

that in our area, where everyone can come together and talk about 

what they can do to help. So that would be nice to have. 

And the last solution would be legislation, such as the Clean 

Water Act, which was just passed. And that would help control all 

of the pollution happening. 

Ms. LUCS-HAJI. Funding. Well, on the State tax level, the flush 

tax has already been implemented. And that is on average $2.5 a 

month for the average homeowner. 

The septic pumping service, this is still under Tax and Licenses. 

The septic tax service should be passed on to the actual homeowners, not the county. So it is equally divided into the actual people that live in the area, because they do not pay anything. The 

Federal income tax credit should be applied to taxes on the 

licensings, boating, fishing, and hunting. 

A tax break should be used for upgrading septic systems. Maybe 

people that feel the need to upgrade their septic system and selling 

their land rights, maybe for more environmentally safe areas and 

an energy tax cut credit, just to make our area environmentally 

friendly. 

Grants, the school community and educational programs have 

been given grants in the past, but I think there should be more 

that should be implemented. Through our local government, we 

need help with our septic systems. 

So much urban sprawl and our septic systems are aging, and the 

Chesapeake Bay grants to aid—the Chesapeake Bay Agreement 

that was funded by Congress in 2000—critical areas in our area 

that developers are trying to harm with urban sprawl. And they 

are going to do this because there is no one stopping them, and the 

land has not been set aside. 

Ms. SANFORD-CRANE. OK. Are there any questions? 

[The prepared statement of Ms. Lucs-Haji and Ms. SanfordCrane follows:]

33

Statement submitted by Bohemia Manor High School,

Chesapeake City, Maryland 

Contact/Advisor: Cheryl Lee, Lead Science Teacher;

e–mail address: clee@ccps.org 

Students: Sarah Lucas-Haji, Presenter

Peter Carrion

Brandon Husfelt

Charlotte Sanford-Crane

Julia Stone

Ashley Subolefsky 

THE CHESAPEAKE BAY IN THE BOHEMIA MANOR HIGH SCHOOL COMMUNITY: 

A RESTORATION PLAN

1) Our Tributaries—watershed area of high school community is over 150 square 

miles 

a) C&D Canal 

b) Bohemia River 

c) Elk River 

d) Sassafras River 

2) Problems 

a) Water Pollution—Surface and Groundwater 

i) Run-off 

• Sediment 

ii) Nitrogen 

iii) Phosphorous 

iv) Mercury 

v) Other Inorganic Material 

vi) Bacteria 

• E-coli 

b) Invasive Species 

i) Fragmites 

ii) Cattails 

iii) Other exotic organisms, e.g., Snakeheads 

c) Loss Of Habitat 

i) SAV 

3) Human Causes of these Problems 

a) Population/urban sprawl 

i) Increase in Impervious surfaces 

ii) Loss of farmland, forests and wildlife habitats 

iii) More pollution 

b) Sewage Treatment 

i) Sewage Treatment Plants 

• Aging 

• Over Capacity 

ii) Septic Systems 

• Not maintained 

c) Commercial Shipping and Recreational Boating 

i) Dredging 

• Canal 

• Elk River 

ii) Pollution 

• Ballast Dumping 

• Litter 

• Oil 

• Sewage 

d) Farming 

i) Fertilizers 

ii) Animal Waste 

4) Solutions 

34

a) Habitat Destruction 

i) Smart Growth 

• Down-zoning 

ii) Land Conservation 

• Buy land rights 

b) Sewage Pollution 

i) Updated Sewage Plants 

• Improve Technology 

• Expand citizens covered by current plants 

ii) Raise Perk test standards 

• Sandy Soil not ok 

c) Farmers 

i) Best Management Practices 

• Already implemented 

• Soil Conservation Districts 

d) Boating/shipping 

i) Stricter boating regulations 

ii) ‘‘Clean list’’ of safe species 

e) Educational Programs 

i) ‘‘Bay Schools’’

ii) Community Environmental Clubs 

f) Legislation 

i) Clean Water Act 

5) Funding 

a) State level taxes 

i) ‘‘Flush Tax’’

• New to Maryland 

ii) Tax on Licenses 

• Boating 

• Fishing 

• Hunting 

b) Federal Income Tax Credit 

i) Tax break for upgrading septic systems 

ii) Tax break for selling land rights 

iii) Energy Tax Credit 

c) Grants 

i) School/community education programs 

ii) Local Governments 

• Upgrade sewage treatment 

iii) Chesapeake Bay Grant 

d) Fund Recommendations of Chesapeake Bay Agreement (2000) 

Mr. GILCHREST. Thank you very much, ladies. Excellent presentation. 

I think what we will do before we begin the questions, we will 

listen to Leslie and Kenneth from Pocomoke, and we will try to get 

through your testimony before we have to leave. 

So Leslie, Kenneth, you may begin. 

I would like to help the Bohemia Manor High School students 

and teachers go before the Cecil County commissioners and give 

them the same presentation. We will work on that down the road. 

Leslie and Kenneth, you may begin. 

STATEMENT OF LESLIE LEVIN AND KENNETH NUGENT,

POCOMOKE HIGH SCHOOL, POCOMOKE, MARYLAND 

Ms. LEVIN. Hi. Thanks for having us. 

Mr. GILCHREST. You are welcome. 

Ms. LEVIN. We will get right into it. 

Our Pocomoke River, as you can see, it starts in Virginia as a 

pretty small—

35

Mr. GILCHREST. Could I just say something very quickly, the way 

you started was poetry: ‘‘our Pocomoke River,’’ it is just a nice way 

to put it. 

Ms. LEVIN. Thank you. It starts as a smaller river and eventually 

gets bigger as it gets toward us. It goes into the Pocomoke Bay. 

Also, the reason why it looks the way it does is because it goes 

through the Cyprus swamp, which gives it a tea color, which also 

kinds of hides the problems that we have with it. 

Our main problem would have to be poultry. We have 600 million 

chickens, and one-fifth are raised in our counties. Because of all of 

those chickens, we have a lot of waste. And those chickens, the 

waste that they use, the farmers put it back on their lands to save 

money. There is a lot of money coming in from it, and people do 

not want to change from it. We have 14,000 people in our area 

from Tyson, Perdue and Mountaineer, so it helps our economy. 

This is just a picture of a chicken house. 

Where the problem comes in with the chicken waste is, we have 

13 million pounds of phosphorus and 48 million pounds of nitrogen. 

And the problem is—and the phosphorus is going up. Chickens do 

not use as much phosphorus in their system as they need nitrogen, 

so the waste that comes out has more phosphorus. And that tends 

to be a problem. 

This is just a place where they store the waste. And the ground 

water, as you can see, 80 percent comes from underground sources, 

and one-third of that ground water has been contaminated from 

the nutrients that the manure is put on the fields. And it runs off 

and then gets into the underground water system. 

Solutions would be, you could burn the—find a way to use the 

manure as a fuel, or you could convert it into fertilizer pellets. But 

it would have to be regulated by either the Government or the 

county. You would have to have some kind of specialist that would 

know how much and test the soil to see what kind or how much 

they need. 

The nutrient management plan would have to be enforced for the 

farms to see that there would be no nutrients running off into the 

river. 

They found that phytase, if you add it to chicken feed, it reduces 

the phosphorus that the chickens do not use. So a way to kind of 

help that would be to give the farmers money to add the phytase 

to the waste or somehow give them advantages that, if they do 

have to pay for it, they will get something out of it. 

Our agriculture, as you can see, it is a very big industry also. 

With the agriculture and the farms, we have all this fertilizer that 

they have to use, and they use the chicken manure. Because of 

that, we have the nitrogen and the phosphorus that is getting into 

the Chesapeake Bay by going through the drainage ditches that 

are not monitored well. They get into the Pocomoke River, which 

causes problems also. As you can see, nitrogen pollution is one of 

the serious problems with the Bay. 

Phosphorus is more difficult to deal with because it is not as 

readily absorbed as the nitrogen, because it does not take as many 

forms as the nitrogen does. And phosphorus, because it isn’t used 

as much, it accumulates. And there was a study done at UMES, 

which is the University of Maryland, Eastern Shore, that showed 

36

that there was so much phosphorus in the soil that collects, something like 25 years, before they needed phosphorus. 

And this is just what I was talking about. They found that gypsum could be added, and that it would help control the phosphorus 

that is in the soil 

Also, the drainage ponds would help for sediments or anything 

that is in the water, is coming from the drainage ditches to settle 

to the bottom before it would move on and cause any problems in 

the Pocomoke river and further, the Chesapeake Bay. 

Mr. NUGENT. Sedimentation is also a big problem. As you can 

see, it comes mainly from nonpoint sources like construction sites, 

agriculture, and dirt roads and any other places that there is uncovered dirt. And what happens is like anything, like rain or even 

vehicles going on it—like on there—it kicks up a little bit of dust 

which then gets into water sources and will eventually reach the 

Pocomoke River and the Bay. 

And right there, you can see again how much dust is kicked up 

on just a dirt road. And some things that can be done to help fix 

this are limits that are set on exposed land and when cover crops 

should be planted on empty fields. And also dirt roads need to be 

covered up. And if they are paved, there could be buffer strips on 

the side to stop runoff or cover them up with gravel or other types 

of vegetation to stop so much sedimentation from being formed. 

And like Lindsey said, tannic acid is a unique characteristic of 

the Pocomoke River. From all the cypress trees that actually get 

into the river, it turns the water to a tea color. 

Mr. GILCHREST. Keep going. 

Mr. NUGENT. And this is how the Pocomoke River got its name 

from the Native Americans who lived here. They named it 

Pocomoke, meaning ‘‘dark water’’ from that coloring. 

And like you can see there, wastewater counts for 32 percent of 

the nutrient flow into the Chesapeake Bay. That shows to you how 

inadequate the water treatment plants are in our area, which is 

another big problem. 

Here, you can see that the Pocomoke River water treatment 

plant has recently been given a grant to upgrade to a 5A class 

treatment facility. And this will result in a 55 percent reduction in 

nitrogen and 33 percent reduction in phosphorus. And Snow Hill 

is also a little town on the Pocomoke River, and their mayor has 

also requested a grant to update the water treatment plant. 

And another problem is the old pipes, that they are cracked, and 

they leak into the groundwater which, then, in turn, gets into the 

river and then into the Bay. 

Here is another problem with the groundwater: Fertilizers and 

pesticides used by homeowners, they do not have any regulations. 

They collect in storm drains, and especially when there is a lot of 

rain, then it will just go straight into the river. And a solution for 

this is that all storm drain water should be sent into the wastewater treatment plant and filters. And that will remove toxins, 

fertilizers and chemicals. 

And whenever you hear about the Pocomoke River, you hear 

about Pfiesteria. And right there is a fish that has been infected 

with Pfiesteria. And in 1997, 20,000 to 30,000 fish died in the 

Pocomoke River. This is known as fish kills. And it has not exactly 

37

been pinpointed if Pfiesteria did this, but many scientists think 

that it was. 

And Pfiesteria is a single-celled micro-organism. And it has a life 

cycle of 24 stages. And not many stages are dangerous, but there 

are toxic stages that affect the fish and can even affect humans if 

they swim in the water or come in contact with it too long. 

And like I just said, it takes certain things with the water to let 

Pfiesteria reach that stage. And these are water temperatures exceeding 70 degrees, low salinity levels and the presence of large 

quantities of fish, which would make the Pocomoke River a good 

area for that. 

And a problem related to the nitrogen and phosphorus is that 

some Pfiesteria feeds on the algae. And the algae feeds on the nutrients. So when there is a lot of nutrients in the water, the algae 

grows more and leads to more Pfiesteria. And this is what happened in the river in 1997. 

Here is a map that shows where it was. The red box highlights 

the Shelltown Pocomoke area, site of the 1997 fish kills and lesion 

events. And some scientists hypothesize that the Pfiesteria weakened the fish, allowing the fungus to create lesions on the menhaden. And other scientists have hypothesized that the lesions were 

caused by the Pfiesteria itself, which would also be a big problem. 

And as a result of Pfiesteria, the American Rivers 13th Annual 

Report named the Pocomoke the third most endangered river in the 

United States, which shows how much of a problem it is. And even 

though it is so small, it is one of the most widely studied and monitored rivers in the United States, because of this Pfiesteria problem. 

And through our research, we found that education always comes 

up with a good solution to the problems. Like people might be 

aware that there are problems, but they do not know how to fix 

them. And through education, we hope that this is the way to go 

to solve these problems. 

And we have to direct it toward everyone—homeowners, farmers, 

watermen, people involved in the poultry industry, students, teachers and anyone who comes in contact with it. And an example of 

this is the construction workers—not pointing fingers at anyone—

but just exposed dirt that is left for extended periods of time with 

big machinery rolling over it. And all the water from rain just kicks 

up so much dirt that, even if they just know that, if they are just 

covered up, or plant buffer strips, like easy solutions like that will 

make such a difference. 

Right here is an example, from the education, what can be 

solved. Right next to the Pocomoke River we have a discovery center that is currently being worked on. And students go there. And 

doctors are there that will teach them about the river and what 

they can do to just—during the summer, if they do not have something to do, they can go to help the river or go to the discovery center. 

[The prepared statement of Ms. Levin and Mr. Nugent follows:]

38

Statement submitted by Pocomoke High School,

Pocomoke, Maryland

Thomas Gladding

Amber Mason

Leslie Miller

Kenneth Nugent

Steven Payne

Maurice Waters

Mrs. Amy Lines (Advisor) 

INTRODUCTION 

The Chesapeake Bay is a unique and diverse ecosystem. It is the largest estuary 

in the United States. About half of the Bay’s water comes from 150 rivers, streams 

and creeks. The Bay’s watershed expands through six states including Delaware, 

Maryland, New York, Pennsylvania, Virginia and West Virginia. The Chesapeake 

Bay contains approximate 11,600 miles of shoreline, nearly 200 miles long and 25 

miles wide at its widest point. The Bay’s water capacity is approximately 18 trillion 

gallons of water. 

One of the rivers included in the Chesapeake Bay’s watershed is the Pocomoke 

River. ‘‘Pocomoke’’ is an Algonquin word meaning ‘‘dark water.’’ The dark water of 

the Pocomoke is the result of tannic acid from falling cypress leaves, which results 

in a pH of 5—6 throughout the river. The river is nearly seventy-three miles in 

length and originates in the Great Cypress Swamp on the Delaware-Maryland border and flows approximately sixty miles through Maryland into the Pocomoke Sound 

at the Chesapeake Bay. 

The Pocomoke River watershed is a large area; it spans over 170,000 acres of 

farmland, which consists mainly of a large poultry industry. The Pocomoke River 

is relatively narrow and very deep until it reaches Shelltown, Maryland where it 

opens rapidly into the broad and shallow Pocomoke Sound. The National Oceanic 

and Atmospheric Administration has recognized the Pocomoke Sound as one of the 

largest shellfish producing areas in the Chesapeake Bay The Pocomoke Sound is 

considered to be the mouth of the river and is bordered by both Virginia and Maryland. 

A unique habitat of the area is the Pocomoke River Swamp, which is thirty miles 

long and two miles wide. It contains the northern most cypress swamp in the 

United States. There are more than 27 species of mammals, 29 reptiles, 14 amphibians and 172 birds identified in the wetlands bordering the river. Pileated woodpeckers and bald eagles are not uncommon. 

In the 1700’s and 1800’s, the Pocomoke River was a trade and shipping route. 

Shellfish, tobacco, fish, cypress trees and pelts were harvested and shipped as far 

as the Orient from Worcester County’s largest city. Over time, the forest was cut 

away, agriculture expanded. In the 1930’s the government sponsored the draining 

of the swamp because of the limited amount of high ground suitable for agriculture. 

Channels and ditches were carved into the landscape. Changes in agricultural practices including plowing, followed due to an increasing demand for grain to feed the 

nation. Soil erosion has increased ever since. These changes to the landscape and 

harvesting of timber resulted in an erosion of the river’s banks and a deepening of 

the river. Both of these still impact on the health of the river today. 

The National Park Service, U.S. Department of the Interior and the Nationwide 

Rivers Inventory as a ‘‘Great River of America’’ list the Pocomoke. The periodical 

‘‘Field and Stream’’ called the Pocomoke River one of the ‘‘last undiscovered rivers’’ 

of the nation. 

Today, the Pocomoke River is challenged and threatened by faulty wastewater 

treatment, failing septic systems, the poultry industry, agriculture, sedimentation 

and channelization. In 1998, the Pocomoke River was named the third most endangered river in the United States by the American Rivers 13th annual report on 

America’s Most Endangered Rivers, due mostly to nutrient problems associated with 

chicken manure and the outbreak of Pfiesteria that killed tens of thousands of fish 

and sickened watermen and boaters. 

THE IMPACT OF THE POULTRY INDUSTRY ON THE POCOMOKE RIVER 

The main industry located in the Pocomoke River’s watershed is the poultry industry. Over 600 million chickens are produced annually on the Eastern Shore. Onefifth of the chickens raised are located in Worcester and Somerset Counties, both 

located in the Pocomoke River’s watershed. The chicken industry is a powerful $1.6 

billion continually growing business. Over 14,000 people are presently employed by 

the poultry industry. The birds are raised in poultry houses owned and operated by 

small farmers who are responsible for disposing of 750,000 tons of chicken waste 

39

per year. One method of disposal is the use of the chicken litter as fertilizer. However, recent studies have found that many areas on the Delmarva Peninsula posses 

two to three times more manure than needed to fertilize local crops. 

The water quality of most rivers on the east coast of the United States has improved since 1980 but the Pocomoke River’s condition seems to have worsened. 

Many feel the increase in the poultry industry continue to affect the River. Many 

citizens work in the poultry industry and rely on this industry for their livelihood. 

The industry helps to support bankers who finance chicken houses, farmers who 

grow chickens, grain farmers, truck drivers and plant workers to support the chicken industry. It has been estimated that a 4 percent decrease in the chicken industry 

would wipe out thousands of jobs and up to $74 million in economic output necessary for our area. 

The chicken industry grew by one-third from 1982 to 1997. Cropland was reduced 

by 15%. Some estimates include the doubling of chickens on the Lower Eastern 

Shore, including the Pocomoke River watershed. An increased demand for chicken 

has resulted in an increase in the number and size of chicken houses being built 

and are being built in thicker clusters. The chicken houses are being built closer 

to the slaughterhouses to reduce trucking distance and time. There is a slaughterhouse 15 miles south of Pocomoke City. 

Weather has an effect on the amount of pollutants produced by the production of 

chickens. An increase in storms sends more waste related materials into the 

Pocomoke River and its watershed. Droughts decrease the amount of pollutants entering the river. 

Chicken manure has higher quantities of nutrients than manure produced from 

other livestock grown on the Eastern Shore of Maryland. Chicken manure contains 

more phosphorus than nitrogen. This waste contains approximately 13 million 

pounds of phosphorous and 48 million pounds of nitrogen. The watershed area of 

the Pocomoke River houses over 100 million chickens and 60,000 hogs, producing 

close to 250 million pounds of manure each year, along with bedding litter and the 

remains of chickens killed in production. Phosphorus concentrations in the 

Pocomoke Sound have increased more than 25% since 1985 according to EPA data. 

When a farmer applies enough manure to deliver the nitrogen needed by a specific 

crop, a surplus of phosphorus goes with it. More than 90% of soil samples tested 

by the University of Maryland Eastern Shore in 1997 showed elevated qualities of 

phosphorus. 

Air pollution directly relates to the pollution of nearby waterways. All chicken manure must be removed in one of three ways, released into the air, put it into the 

water or spread on the land. Fans are used in chicken houses to remove excess ammonia. Ammonia gas, which is a form of nitrogen, floats off piles of manure. It then 

settles into nearby ditches and creeks. 

Nutrient pollution also affects groundwater. Nitrates contaminate one-third of all 

groundwater in Delmarva’s agricultural areas according to the U. S, Geological Survey. Samples taken by the USGS indicate nitrate levels in ground water are three 

to four times as much as the EPA considers safe. Contaminated groundwater adds 

to the nutrient pollution problem reaching the Pocomoke River and Chesapeake 

Bay. The USGS estimates that as much as 80% of freshwater that flows into Delmarva’s rivers and streams originates from groundwater sources. 

Irrigation also plays a role in increased air pollution eventually settling as water 

pollution. Millions of gallons of treated water are sprayed onto fields. It then seeps 

into the groundwater. Some chicken plants spray wastewater close to the slaughterhouses and the wells inside the slaughterhouses have been contaminated. In some 

areas, this spraying practice has stopped but nitrate levels continue to rise due to 

the long-term movement of water. 

There is massive regulations and legislation regarding the production of chicken. 

The Delmarva Peninsula consists of three states. Often chicken farmers in one state 

find less regulation in a neighboring state. For example, trucks from Perdue transport millions of gallons of waste a year from its Delaware slaughterhouses into 

Maryland where the manure is used on farms due to a lack of regulation on the 

dumping of manure in Maryland’s fields. 

The chicken industry has a very powerful lobby. Money is spent to back candidates who are supportive of the chicken industry. Poultry corporations hire lobbyists who lobby for legislation decreasing regulations. Advertisement, scholarships, 

baseball fields, support of Salisbury University are just some of the ways the chicken industry attempts to improve the image of chicken production. 

An issue related to nutrient management is the question of who is responsible for 

the massive quantities of chicken waste produced. Some feel the large four brand 

name companies (Allen Family Foods, Mountaire Farms, Inc., Perdue Farms, Inc, 

Tyson Foods, Inc.) that own and market the birds and earn $1.6 billion a year 

40

should be responsible for the waste. Others feel the local farmer, who is under contract with the large companies and raises the chickens, is ultimately responsible for 

dealing with the manure. At this point, the growers own the waste and must deal 

with it. They must deal with chickens that die before they reach maturity. As a result of this decision, chicken manure is scattered on thousands of farms throughout 

the watershed and monitoring is almost impossible. 

The only solution that may be feasible and ultimately good for the environment 

is to find alternative uses for chicken waste projects such as burning it as fuel or 

converting it into fertilizer pellets that can be economically trucked away as compared to heavy loads of manure. This process could be more feasibly accomplished 

if the large industries ‘‘owned’’ the manure and it was kept at a limited number of 

facilities. The industry has the resources necessary to develop alternative uses. 

The most recent Maryland law, in effect as of 2004, forces all farmers to test their 

soils and apply no more manure than the crops need. A nutrient management plan 

must be developed and kept by each farmer. As a result some farmers who now rely 

on chicken manure will have to replace it with commercial fertilizer to get the nitrogen needed without the excess phosphorus not needed. 

One other helpful method to decrease phosphorus is adding an enzyme called phytase to chicken feed. The phytase helps chickens digest phosphorus limiting the 

amount of phosphorus that ends up in the chicken manure. Due to the expense of 

adding this extra component to chicken feed, the legislature reimburses half the 

costs of the phytase. 

Tax benefits and grants could encourage research and development of alternate 

uses for manure. This is extremely complex issue. The bottom line is the chicken 

industry is an integral component of people living in the Pocomoke River watershed. 

Discussions result in hot debates on both sides. 

AGRICULTURE 

One of the leading causes of pollution in the Pocomoke River and the Chesapeake 

Bay is the result of agricultural practices. Water carries pollutants long distances, 

and once pollutants get in water, they are very hard to remove. Nutrients, pesticides, sediments and pathogens used in agriculture move from the land and into 

the watersheds of tributaries, including the Pocomoke River, and from there they 

find their way into the Chesapeake Bay. 

Agriculture contributes about 44 percent of the nitrogen and about 56 percent of 

the phosphorus entering the Chesapeake, according to Bay Program figures. In 

Maryland, agriculture contributes about 38 percent of the nitrogen and 55 percent 

of the phosphorus. Yet more than half of the fertilizer applied by farmers is never 

used by plants and percolates into groundwater, nearby ditches and ultimately into 

the Pocomoke River. 

Fertilizers are used to promote plant growth. Nitrogen and phosphorus are common ingredients. When fertilizers are applied improperly and the plant cannot use 

them, they leach into the soil. When the plant cannot use all the fertilizer applied, 

the result is runoff. These chemicals support algae growth leading to eutrophication. 

According to the Chesapeake Bay Foundation, nitrogen pollution is the most serious pollution problem for the Bay because it causes algae blooms that consume oxygen, which lowers dissolved oxygen levels so severely that fish and shellfish die. The 

majority of nitrogen pollution comes from sewage treatment plants, large-scale animal operations and agriculture. 

There are many different sources of fertilizer used to supplement the nitrogen 

contained in soil. The most common soil fertilizers can be categorized as either inorganic or organic fertilizers. Inorganic nitrogen fertilizers often have the advantage 

of being concentrated sources of nitrogen and, therefore, a smaller amount is needed 

and transportation costs are lower. Nitrogen fertilizers are also mixed with fertilizer 

materials containing phosphorus and potassium to produce a fertilizer blend. Common disadvantages of inorganic fertilizers are often associated with poor management such as applying too much nitrogen fertilizer. 

Organic nitrogen fertilizers often have a relatively low nitrogen content and, 

therefore, they are often applied to the soil in large quantities. They have the advantages of adding organic matter to the soil thereby improving soil physical, biological and chemical properties for plant growth. 

Nitrogen is applied by farmers in the Pocomoke watershed in two forms, as both 

organic and inorganic fertilizers and as chicken manure. Over application of fertilizers poses a threat to the environment by increasing the risk of surface runoff 

of nitrogen into the Pocomoke River and there is also the risk of nitrogen leaching 

into the groundwater. 

More funds for research and adjustments made to agricultural practices may help 

lead to some methods of decreasing nitrogen. Losses to the environment can be 

41

minimized by crop rotation, planting cover crops, soil testing and ploughing in crop 

residues. 

Excess phosphorus is much more difficult to deal with than nitrogen. Phosphorus 

is vital to root growth, seed formation, and increases disease resistance. Phosphorus 

is added to the soil to help plants absorb nutrients. Without it, more nutrients are 

lost to the environment. For most effective use of phosphorus, the fertilizer needs 

to be placed to ensure quick contact by growing roots and minimal contact with the 

soil. On agricultural land when annual application of phosphorus exceeds its removal by crops, then phosphorus will accumulate in soils. 

Fertilizers containing phosphorus are not only used by farmers but are used as 

feed for livestock as part of poultry and hog feed. The digestive tracts of pigs and 

chickens do not adequately absorb phosphorus so phosphorus is added to the diet 

of chickens and hogs increasing the phosphorus in their manure. 

Scientists at the University of Maryland Eastern Shore are studying methods to 

reduce runoff resulting from phosphorus used in fertilizers. One new control method 

being studied is the use of gypsum. Gypsum is a combustion by-product, which 

means that it is formed when coal is burned. Most phosphorus initially added to 

land through fertilizer or manure reacts with soil components, converting to an insoluble form or attaching to soil particles. Studies at University of Maryland Eastern Shore show gypsum, when spread on the soil, significantly impairs the vertical 

movement of phosphorus into the water table. Another advantage to use of gypsum 

is its cost; it is very cheap. Scientists at UMES only had to pay for the truck to 

deliver this by-product. 

One of the main crops grown on farms on agricultural lands near the Pocomoke 

is soybeans. This crop is used for forage for livestock. On local farms, the new soybeans could be grown to produce forage that could be baled or cubed for shipping 

to other areas. There are three new ‘‘giant soybeans’’ which may actually pull more 

phosphorus out of soils than conventional soybeans usually grown for grain. The exceptional growth of these giant soybeans could make them useful in our area as well 

as decrease phosphorus in nearby waters. 

Farmers in low lying, flat agricultural areas around the Pocomoke River use 

ditches to drain excess water off the fields. These ditches usually have very few if 

any buffer zones to assist in the absorption of fertilizers and nutrients. As a result, 

the level of fertilizers are concentrated in these drainage ditches which flow unobstructed directly into the Pocomoke River. A proposed solution is to reexamine 

drainage ponds. In the past farmers mishandled the drainage pond by using them 

for aquaculture and the fish. The fish often died, fouling the ponds and creating 

more problems. Drainage ponds act as storage units and allow the nutrients to settle before they flow into the river. Scientists are then examining the possibilities of 

dredging the bottom of the ponds and reusing the nutrients built up on the bottom. 

SAV’s planted in these ponds also absorb nutrients and prevent them from flowing 

into the River. 

Sedimentation in the Pocomoke River and Chesapeake Bay 

Over the past 100 years, the net deposition of sediment entering the Chesapeake 

Bay from the Maryland portion has been estimated to be approximately 155 million 

metric tons. Scientists believe that sedimentation rates have continued to increase 

since colonial time due to an increase in population, logging, agriculture and different land uses. 

The term ‘‘sediments’’ refers to any loose particles of clay, silt, sand and other 

substances that are suspended in the water and eventually settle to the bottom of 

a body of water. Sediments pose a serious threat for bodies of water including the 

Pocomoke River and ultimately the Chesapeake Bay. Sedimentation in the 

Pocomoke River is mainly derived from nonpoint sources including construction 

sites, dirt roadways, and agriculture 

Massive quantities of sedimentation in the Pocomoke may cause problems ranging 

from clouding the water a bit, to smothering plants and animals at the bottom of 

the river. The clouding of the water may presents problems by blocking the sunlight 

to submerged aquatic vegetation necessary for photosynthesis. Sedimentation may 

not be as apparent in the Pocomoke River as it is in the Chesapeake Bay because 

the Pocomoke River is one of the Eastern Shore’s ‘‘black rivers.’’ Its tea color, characteristic of cypress swamps, comes from tannic acid in the roots and decaying 

leaves of trees and plants that line its banks. This darkened color means that light 

has never penetrated very deep and it is unlikely there was ever sufficient deep 

light penetration that would have permitted the presence of submerged aquatic 

vegetation. The natural dark color of the river makes it appear sedimentation is not 

a problem because it is not as apparent. 

42

In the Pocomoke River, the size of each sediment particle is complicated by the 

fact that the individual sediment particles have a large surface area. These sediments act as chemical sinks and absorb fertilizers and pesticides from nearby farms. 

The pesticides cling to the particle and slowly release high concentrations of nutrients over an extended period of time. As a result of the size factor of the particles, 

sedimentation increases the nutrient content in the Pocomoke River. 

The release of sediments into the environment is the result of a variety of activities. Sedimentation from natural sources accounts for 30% of sedimentation production from man induced activities accounts for 70% of sedimentation production. One 

of the main causes of this form of erosion is due to farmer’s fields lying next to the 

river. The increase in development on the river itself and the lack of sufficient buffers result in an increase in sedimentation. 

Weather conditions increase sedimentation. Weather conditions including temperature, storms and humidity may increase the rate of sedimentation. Precipitation 

moves soil great distances and ultimately these particles end up in the waterways. 

Once the sediments arrive in the Chesapeake Bay there are few ways to filter the 

amount and size of the particles out of the water. 

Construction sites expose large amounts of sediments as a result of the movement 

of land. On a construction site, the first thing that takes place is the removal of 

all vegetation in the area. With this removing process, the roots that usually hold 

the soil in place are torn out of the land and the soil becomes loose and easier to 

move. During periods of construction, unprotected soil is usually left uncovered for 

long periods allowing the wind to lift the exposed sediments and carry them to the 

river. Runoff from construction sites can be 2,000 times greater than erosion occurring in woodland. The term ‘‘run-off’’ is used to describe sand and loose soil left on 

the land surface which can easily able to be washed by rain and water into the near 

by waterways. 

A possible solution may be a training course for builders and construction site 

workers in sedimentation reduction followed by a certification presented for completion of the course. This practice has already been implemented by the Coastal Bays 

program and has participation in the training has shown to be successful. 

Agriculture is a major contributor of artificial sedimentation similar to construction sites. Fields are harvested or cleared, exposing the soil and making the soil susceptible to run-off. Cover crops may not be planted immediately. Run-off from farmlands near the river usually runs into channels and then run straight into the river, 

carrying fertilizers and pesticides with it. Therefore, sediments are carried to the 

river along with toxins. 

Limits need to be set on how long land may be exposed for construction and farming. Recently,(March 2004) sediment goals have been set. The first step of these 

goals is reducing from 5.05 million tons of sediment to 4.15 million tons of sediment 

that annually washes into the Bay from major tributaries. The second step of these 

goals involves shoreline erosion where reductions are being set on a case-by-case 

basis to help restore historic levels of grass beds, (Bay journal Marc 2004, pg. 16). 

WASTEWATER TREATMENT 

The Pocomoke City water treatment plant treats 1.2 million gallons of wastewater. The treatment plant has recently been upgraded from a 1C class to a 5A 

class plant. This means wastewater will now receive the third stage of treatment. 

The tertiary stage used in Pocomoke’s water treatment includes the implementation 

of a Biological Nutrient Removal (BNR) system. The goal of the plant is to decrease 

the total annual nitrogen discharge to an average of no more than 8 mg/L. That is 

a reduction of 55 percent of the nitrogen and 33 percent of the phosphorus. It is 

expected to be up and running by June 2004. Wastewater accounts for 30% of the 

nutrient flow into the Chesapeake Bay 

The Pocomoke City storm drains, like many other towns in the Chesapeake watershed, flows directly into the Pocomoke River. There are catch basins that collect debris and trash, and then the water goes into the river untreated. This filtered water 

still has liquidated toxins including fertilizers and pesticides used by homeowners. 

From these fertilizers, comes large amounts of nitrogen and phosphorus, nutrients 

associated with problems in the Pocomoke watershed. Solutions to the storm drain 

problem should include sending storm water to the water treatment plant to eliminate toxins, metals, and chemicals still present in the water 

Pocomoke River State Park is located on the River and has approximately 250,000 

visitors annually. The wastewater is treated through a septic system that is not 

checked annually. Therefore, this wastewater has may seep into the ground water 

and eventually run into the river. This septic system has 14 tanks allowing for 

drainage, one tank for each building according to the building’s square footage. The 

drainage fields are only a few acres in size and are within several hundred feet of 

43

the Pocomoke River. The septic system at Pocomoke River State Park needs to be 

examined to meet the growing needs of the Park and the effect of the wastewater 

on the river. This treatment should include an updated plant sized to accommodate 

the sewage flow. If a modern wastewater treatment is not built the drainage fields 

should be relocated further from the River to prevent any seepage. 

Snow Hill is located on the banks of the Pocomoke River with a population of approximately 2, 400. The town manager has requested a grant of six million dollars 

to help update wastewater treatment. Snow Hill has cracked sewage pipes, and sewage is drained right into the river. The treatment plant needs to be updated in order 

to reduce nutrient problems. If the town of Snow Hill receives money for the sewage 

treatment plant, nutrient overload Pocomoke River would be greatly reduced. 

Oysters 

A little known fact is the common oysters may be another possible solution for 

the problems of the Chesapeake Bay. In the past, the Pocomoke Sound was a major 

supplier of oysters. Oysters serve many important purposes in the Bay. Not only are 

they beneficial to the economy surrounding the Bay, but they also serve many important ecological purposes. For over 100 years, Chesapeake Bay watermen have 

made their living fishing and harvesting oysters. Until the mid-1980’s, oystering 

was the most valuable commercial business in the Bay. Despite their economical importance, oysters are most beneficial in the ecology. 

Oysters eat by filtering the nutrients they need out of the water. This not only 

gives the oysters food, but also cleans the water. Filtering takes excess nutrients 

out of water, settles sedimentation, and helps clear the water. Whatever the oysters 

don’t consume gets deposited at the bottom of the body of water, where it is not 

harmful. According to the Chesapeake Bay Foundation, an adult oyster can filter 

an average of 60 gallons a day. In fact, before oysters were fished, the population 

of oysters would be able to filter the volume of the whole Chesapeake Bay, about 

19 trillion gallons, in a mere two or three days. Now because of over fishing and 

diseases, it would take the remaining oysters up to a year to filter the Bay. 

Another way oysters help keep a healthy ecosystem is by providing a habitat for 

fish. Groups of oysters will form oyster beds, a favorite living area and hunting area 

for a variety of fish. The fish that live in these oyster beds sometimes feed on the 

nutrients and sediments that oysters miss, which further serves to clean the water 

in the Bay. 

Despite being a very resilient species, the oyster population in the Bay is rapidly 

disappearing. One obvious reason for the decreasing population is the over harvesting and over fishing. During the twentieth century, oysters were the most harvested animal in the Bay. Loss of habitat is also making it harder and harder for 

oysters to find a place to live. The tremendous amount of pollution getting into the 

Bay is just another element oysters have to fight. Parasites have been killing many 

oysters. 

Two specific parasites have been the worst so far. These two microscopic predators 

are known as Dermo, Perkinsus marinus, and MSX, known as multinucletedsphere 

x. These diseases thrive in waters with high salinity and temperatures above 68 degrees Fahrenheit. These diseases have been documented as early as the 1950’s, but 

really hit hard in the 1980’s. 

These parasites are truly devastating to Crassostrea virginica, the oyster native 

to the Chesapeake Bay. However, oysters from different parts of the world have developed immunities. One such species is the Asian oyster, Crassostrea ariakensis. 

Some groups, including the Department of Natural Resources, Gov. Robert Ehrlich, 

and the Virginia Marine Resources Commission strongly support the proposal to artificially introduce this alien species to our ecosystem. They say that this new species will theoretically take the place of the old species if the old species can’t make 

it. The Asian oysters will thrive despite the parasites, and the population of oysters 

will increase. This will help keep the Bay clean because the oysters will once again 

be able to filter the water. This also helps the Bay ecosystem by replacing the habitats oysters provide. Government officials also hope that more oysters will help the 

economy. 

There are also some groups fighting the introduction of this alien species. Many 

scientists and environmentalists are urging that it is too early to determine if this 

other species will actually help the environment. They want more tests to be completed before any actions are taken. They are afraid that artificially introducing a 

species may throw off the very sensitive balance of the ecosystem. These people are 

also afraid that the cost will be greater than the profits. There may be an economic 

benefit if these oysters do work, but it will cost millions to discover if these Asian 

oysters are compatible. 

44

Pfiesteria and the Pocomoke River 

Pfiesteria piscicidea is a single-cell microorganism. It has a very complicated life 

cycle that includes at least 24 flagellated, amoeboid and encysted states or forms. 

They may live for years in a tiny, cyst-like shells buried in river bottom sediments. 

If many conditions come together, the cyst-like shells hatch. The conditions must 

include a water temperature of 70 degrees or above, elevated levels of phosphorus, 

ammonium and suspended solids, moderate to low salinity levels, increase rainfall 

or runoff, and the presence of fish in particularly large number. Pfiesteria is very 

sensitive to elevated phosphorus enrichment. It seems to respond more to phosphorus at higher levels than it does to nitrates. 

Excrement of fish, especially when they are found in large numbers, in an area 

where Pfiesteria are present, trigger the encysted cells to emerge and become toxic. 

Fish excrement can also cause another stage of Pfiesteria to develop. The small single cells swim toward fish prey and give off toxins in to the water. These toxins 

make the fish lethargic and often cause bleeding sores and hemorrhaging. Once the 

fish are sickened the Pfiesteria feed on the epidermal tissue, blood and other substances that leak from the sores. Dead fish cause the flagellated stages to transfer 

to a different amoeboid stage, which feed, on the fish remains. If conditions become 

unfavorable or food supply diminishes, the Pfiesteria develop a protective covering 

and sink back to a dormant cyst state in the bottom of the river. Pfiesteria may 

change forms in a matter of hours. 

Pfiesteria also affects humans. Dr. JoAnn Burkholder of North Carolina State 

University indicates symptoms associated with exposure include short term memory 

difficulties and respiratory problems. Nausea and vomiting, eye irritation, suppressed immune system are other symptoms may exposure to Pfiesteria. In 1997, 

20,000-30,000 fish were killed in the Pocomoke River and 13 humans were sickened. 

As a result of the fish kill in 1997 and the possible risks to humans a seven mile 

stretch of the Pocomoke River was closed for five weeks. 

The Pocomoke River has received considerable attention and study after the initial reports of Pfiesteria. Temperature, salinity, precipitation, and water quality parameters including dissolved oxygen, nitrates, phosphates and turbidity are being 

monitored. In July of 2000, 9.6% of menhaden captured in the lower Pocomoke River 

showed ulcerative lesions. The majority of these fish were menhaden. Pfiesteria has 

been found in the river but not in its toxic stage. The conclusions drawn from this 

study include the belief that fish lesions were not the result of Pfiesteria. 

The United States Geological Survey found high levels of arsenic and selenium 

present in the Pocomoke River and these two elements are known to stress fish and 

reduce their immunity to disease. It is hypothesized the fish are then more susceptible to fungus and bacterial invasions. Arsenic is added to chicken feed to kill 

parasites and promote growth and may be the source of the elevated levels of arsenic and selenium. 

The only factor that humans can influence is nutrient levels. Nutrient levels in 

the Pocomoke during the summer of 1997 were high as compared to other areas in 

the Chesapeake’s watershed. 

CONCLUSION 

Over the past fifty years we have become aware of the deteriorating health of the 

Chesapeake Bay. The Bay went through a period of rapid deterioration between 

1950 and 1980. The Bay has changed from an ecosystem with clear water and extensive fields of underwater grasses and vast expanses of oyster beds to its present 

condition. It had a sustained population of fish and wildlife. Poor water quality, 

overharvesting and disease has taken its toll on the Bay. For two decades there has 

been considerable effort to restore the Bay but there has been only moderate improvement. 

In 2001, the Chesapeake Bay Foundation’s State of the Bay Report concluded the 

health of the Bay is still on the decline. The more we study the Bay, the more we 

find the harm people have caused this estuary and how difficult it is to repair the 

damage. 

The main problems facing the Bay must be addressed by the states in the watershed representing the different perspectives of the people who live there. Each 

group has a different approach to solving the problems. So what can be done to meet 

the needs of the Bay and still satisfy the diverse population? We cannot afford to 

lower the bar or give up. 

In 1933, the first regional conference was held to address the overall health of 

the Chesapeake Bay. The second major push for Baywide management took place 

in 1965. At this time, the U.S. Army Corp of engineers did the first study of the 

present and future conditions of the Bay. Their report was completed in 1977 and 

led to further Bay Agreements. Since their final report, there have been three Bay 

45

Agreements, 1983, 1987 and 2000. The most recent Agreement has developed specific commitments and addresses living resources, habitat restoration, water quality, 

land use and community management. Further studies have been completed to 

project the state of the Bay to the year 2020. The goal of the Bay Agreements attempt to develop legislation and regulations that cross state boundaries. $282 million in federal monies has been used to fund restoration programs for the Bay. The 

federal government must also expect the states to develop programs. It has been estimated that Maryland will spend $6.30 million a year for Bay programs. Other 

states have not made the same commitment. 

The Chesapeake Bay Foundation was established in 1967. This nonprofit group 

has stated that it will take at least $8.5 billion dollars to meet the goals set by the 

Chesapeake Bay Agreement by the 2010 deadline. 

It seems to us that identifying the problems associated with the Chesapeake Bay 

and the Pocomoke River is the easiest part of the solution. We understand how difficult it is to ask farmers to change their practices. We understand how important 

the poultry industry is on our local economy. Our economy is strongly influenced 

by tourism. We all use and enjoy the Pocomoke River. It seems it is necessary to 

find alternative methods to make it feasible for each of the interest groups to improve their role in improving the quality of the Pocomoke River and the Chesapeake 

Bay. 

Education of all people in the Bay’s watershed is crucial. The Delmarva Discovery 

Center will be opening in 2005 in downtown Pocomoke. This Center has many different goals but its main objective is to educate the people in the Pocomoke watershed on their impacts on the river. This innovative program will include educational 

programs for local citizens, students and teachers. The Pocomoke River is one of the 

most beautiful rivers that flow into the Chesapeake Bay. The Discovery Center is 

an exciting program that will reach our citizens and hopefully the Pocomoke River 

will return to its place as one of America’s most beautiful rivers. 

Mr. GILCHREST. We will help encourage them. 

I—we have about 9 minutes. I have to go across the street to 

vote. 

You did an excellent job. The votes should be no more than half 

an hour. We will come back and ask you fellows questions. 

We have a House photographer here, I guess which means they 

have to take the picture now and not later. So very quickly, if all 

of you could just walk up here and stand behind us. That is what 

I am instructed to tell you. We will take the picture. I will come 

back in half an hour, and we will ask questions. I have about 2 

minutes before we have to go. 

[Recess.] 

Mr. GILCHREST. The Committee will come to order. I trust everyone had a good lunch, a good break. We have about 20 minutes to 

a half-hour before some of us have to move on. But I want to thank 

all of you once again for coming. And I want to thank Bohemia and 

Pocomoke for coming back from these questions. 

And the questions I ask, anyone on the panel can respond to. 

And certainly, anyone from the audience can respond as well. 

The Bohemia High School did mention, I think, invasive species. 

This is appropriate for Pocomoke also. And you mentioned nutria, 

which is that little pleasant looking critter that you had at the bottom right-hand corner of the screen that is wreaking havoc in Dorchester county and a little bit in Queen Anne’s county. And I wonder if you know if there are nutria in Cecil County. 

Ms. SANFORD-CRANE. I haven’t seen any where I live but one of 

our members said he had seen some. I don’t know if they are a 

huge and widespread problem there, but I believe there are some 

that have made it up that far north. 

46

Mr. GILCHREST. That is interesting. And it is not unexpected that 

those are one of the invasives that could wreak havoc on the marsh 

grass, even up in Cecil County. 

Ms. LUCS-HAJI. We got that picture off of a Cecil County web 

site. 

Mr. GILCHREST. Oh, you did? That is interesting. So when you 

go and testify before the county commissioners in Cecil County, you 

may want to ask them about that. 

Ms. SANFORD-CRANE. They make a little nest, and people probably think they are beaver nests, because they have flat things 

with grass on top. But they are nutria. They might not know that 

that is what they have. 

Mr. GILCHREST. That must mean that we have them in Kent 

County, if you have them in Cecil County. 

Ms. SANFORD-CRANE. Probably. 

Mr. GILCHREST. How about Pocomoke, any sign of nutria down 

in Worcester County that you know of? 

That is good. 

Cecil County, Chris and Jamie—I have the wrong schools. I 

guess we have the wrong—Sarah and Charlotte, you mentioned 

raising standards for perk tests before you build homes. I am sure 

that is a problem on the lower shore as well. 

Do you know how you might do that, who you would listen to to 

raise the standards? Whose suggestions? What should the standards be raised to? 

Ms. LUCS-HAJI. Well, first of all, they shouldn’t test them in the 

summer, because the water—I mean, the soil is the driest of all. 

Mr. GILCHREST. Very good. 

Ms. LUCS-HAJI. And that is when a lot of perk tests are done. 

And a lot of it is unrecorded. A contractor might come out to your 

house and say, ‘‘Let’s do a perk test.’’ it is in the summer. OK, it 

is minimal. It goes through. And then they probably just say, ‘‘OK 

we can put a sewer system in here.’’ it is not recorded. A lot of this 

is not recorded. And so I think we should have the perk tests recorded and done maybe in the spring. 

Mr. GILCHREST. So you say that when a contractor or someone—

I think the person that does—when a contractor comes out to do 

a perk test to determine whether or not it is suitable to put in a 

septic tank, it is not recorded by the public works department in 

Cecil County or the planning office in Cecil County? 

Ms. LUCS-HAJI. See, her septic system—

Ms. SANFORD-CRANE. I have a lot of experience because we 

moved out here. And we moved to a nice little waterfront property, 

and it was so beautiful. And we got in, and the septic backed up. 

And we found out that back in the 1970s, in the summer after a 

4-year drought, they did a perk test. They put in the septic system 

and left it at that. And it wasn’t really meant to be that way. And 

we asked around and found that a lot of our neighbors had the 

same problem. 

When you are on the waterfront as close as we are, the soil is 

not very good. So our whole county we really needs septic help. 

Mr. GILCHREST. You probably should have had the Cecil Whig 

come up and listen to your testimony. That is a newspaper in Cecil 

County. I would like to encourage you and your teachers to give 

47

this testimony to a number of groups in Cecil County. Whether it 

is the Cecil Whig, the county commissioners, and even towns and 

communities where they have the town council and the mayor. Because I think the kind of information that you have presented to 

us today is the kind of information that should be widely disseminated and widely understood. 

You spoke a little bit of invasive species, and I am just curious 

to know what you think of the proposal to introduce Asian oysters 

to the Chesapeake Bay to act as a filtering system for the water 

and to help buttress or increase the oyster industry for economic 

purposes and if you have had any discussions on the Asian oyster 

versus the native oyster. Would anybody care to comment on that? 

The gentleman from the back. 

Mr. HUSFELT. I am Brandon Husfelt. I am from Elkton. But I go 

to Bohemia. 

And I believe there would not be a problem with that as long as 

the Asian oysters would not adversely affect the Chesapeake Bay—

the native. I mean, if it could be like a strengthening thing, it probably would be a very good thing to help get toxins and stuff out 

of the Bay and then really clarify some of the water and stuff. 

With the natural oysters declining, you would have—you need a 

substitute, something to take their place, or they won’t live long. 

Mr. GILCHREST. That is very good, Brandon. I think you have 

your finger on the pulse of the problem. 

Ms. LUCS-HAJI. I am against it. 

Mr. GILCHREST. OK. All right. Sarah. 

Ms. LUCS-HAJI. Just because—I am not against the watermen. I 

know this is their job, and this is, you know—but I think they have 

overfished the oysters. And this is a problem. And this is a quick 

fix. The Asian oyster is just going to come in, and it is taking over 

the native species’ job. But it is just a quick fix. It is going to be 

another creature to exploit. 

I don’t think the watermen—this is their job. I don’t think they 

are really thinking about the actual bay’s health, because the 

Asian oyster will help and filter, but this is the Bay’s health. I 

think the oysters should be left alone and at least try to be repopulated. That is all I have. 

Mr. GILCHREST. That is very good. Those are the kind of issues—

what you just presented to us this afternoon, when we have hearings, we bring in people that we know have opposite opinions on 

all of these issues. And they come in and discuss and debate those 

issues right at the same table where you are talking about it right 

now. 

So when we deal with—I do want to clarify that the Chesapeake 

Bay gets a lot of Federal money, but for the most part, the regulatory environmental issues of the Chesapeake Bay are the purview 

or the jurisdiction of the State of Maryland or the State of Virginia. 

It is not Federal water. It is all State water. 

So if the State of Maryland wants to introduce Asian oysters, basically the State of Maryland can introduce Asian oysters or the 

State of Virginia. Where the Federal Government has the hook, 

generally speaking, both of those States, besides needing certain 

kinds of permits, need money to do that because they do not have 

the resources to do it widespread. So they come to the Federal GovVerDate 0ct 09 2002 08:28 Oct 08, 2004 Jkt 088533 PO 00000 Frm 00051 Fmt 6633 Sfmt 6602 J:\DOCS\93706.TXT HRESOUR1 PsN: KATHY
48

ernment through various agencies for help. Whether it is the Corps 

of Engineers, Fish and Wildlife Service, EPA and so on. 

Since they have come to us, in a small way, then we are a part 

of the research to determine whether or not these Asian, non-native oysters will be good for the Bay or whether they will eventually be classified as an invasive. 

I do want to say that apples are not native to North America, 

but they are not invasive. They have been pretty good for us. And 

honey bees, I understand, are not native to North America. But 

honey bees are good. So we just want to make sure there is enough 

understanding and research before these things are introduced 

slowly so that we can follow that. 

There is no cure for that yet, native oysters live to be about 3 

years old, and then they die. It is a process that we are very interested in, and we are working with the Secretary of the DNR, a man 

named Ron Franks and we are working with another fellow named 

Mike Slattery in DNR and some other people to try to do the right 

thing. 

We are not hurrying. Some people—I do have to tell you, some 

people in the State of Maryland DNR want to hurry up, but I think 

the overall view is that we ought to pursue this in a reasonable 

way. 

Ms. MASON. I am Amber Mason from Pocomoke High School. I 

just want to say, the only problem with the oysters, the Asian oysters, is that they are resistant to a strain of bacteria that exists 

in the Chesapeake Bay. Therefore, there are no natural predators 

that are going to kill off those oysters. Therefore, they do become 

invasive. Rather than investing our money in bringing in what 

could become invasive species, we should invest the money in a 

cure for this bacteria so that our native oysters can re-flourish in 

the Bay. 

Mr. GILCHREST. Very good comment. 

Somebody else that had a comment? 

Ms. LINES. I have spoken with Tom Horton and Don Baugh with 

the Bay Foundation, and they talked about the oyster restoration 

plan that we have been trying to do with our native oysters. And 

they said, initially, they thought that was not working when they 

built the reefs, but what they found—they were just checking the 

oysters on the outside of the reefs that they are building and putting shells in and putting new spat out—that the oysters on the 

outside were not doing well. But if they went inside, they found out 

that they were doing really well. 

And I wonder in maybe we shouldn’t investigate more building 

reefs up from old shells, seeing if the native oyster could not do 

better in the reef setup where the internal ones seem to be resistant to the diseases. 

Mr. GILCHREST. We will follow up on that this afternoon. 

Moving on to some of the problems down in the Pocomoke, poultry, large poultry farms on small acres that we have been working 

with up here, along with a number of other States, to come up with 

a better management—nutrient management plan. And I am just 

curious, especially the two students here from Pocomoke High 

School. Have you visited or do you know much about the pelletizing 

plant that Perdue has built just inside the Delaware line? 

49

Ms. LEVIN. No. 

Mr. GILCHREST. Jim Perdue—and you mentioned it in your testimony, which was on target, taking some of that manure and putting it—I don’t know if you used the word pellets or pelletizing it 

or similar to that. 

Ms. LEVIN. Turn them into pellets. 

Mr. GILCHREST. So you can determine the amount of nitrogen 

and phosphorus in that amount of pelletized manure, and you 

would be able to distribute that on the land in a much more managed fashion so that the corn and the soybeans would take it up 

instead of leaching into the ground and the water, washing it 

away. 

Jim Perdue has built a large pelletizing plant just inside Delaware. And what he is trying to do, since most of the grain that the 

poultry farmers use comes from the Midwest—they use all the 

grain on the Eastern Shore and still have to import it from the 

Midwest, nutrients from Iowa, Indiana and places like that. What 

they want to do is ship the pellets back. We get the corn, but they 

do not leave behind the nitrogen and phosphorus. We send it back 

to them, and they use it on their fields to fertilize their plants. 

You also mentioned something about gypsum being used. Can 

you tell us a little bit more about the process that gypsum might 

play in nutrient management for agriculture? 

Mr. GLADDING. I am Tommy Gladding from Pocomoke. Gypsum 

is a combustion byproduct formed when coal is burned. It is extremely cheap. When EMES conducted its studies, they only needed to pay the truck to bring it, and the companies are giving it 

away. And they found in the studies that gypsum impairs the 

vertical movement of phosphorus. 

The problem is that there is so much phosphorus in the soil that 

it would last 25 more years if we did not add any more. And the 

plants cannot use it, and it leaches in the ground and gets in the 

water and, in some places, the water table, 6 inches below the crop 

surface. So it does not have to go far before it is in the water. It 

does not alleviate the problem, but it keeps moving, so they do not 

need to add more. They can use up what is in the soil now. 

Mr. GILCHREST. So the concentration of phosphorus that is in the 

soil now will be there for another 25 years means that you do not 

have to add phosphorus. 

Mr. GLADDING. There is plenty now, and so we just keep it from 

getting in the water. And the plants can use it. 

Mr. GILCHREST. So the gypsum would help it from moving and 

would aid in plant uptake as well? 

Mr. GLADDING. I am not sure if it is gypsum or another one of 

the chemicals that they were using, but the plants can get it out 

of the soil relatively easily. I think they might have said that adding something like that to the soil, and it will help plant intake. 

They can get it out of the soil relatively easily. They just have so 

much there already; there is no need to bring in more manure. 

Mr. GILCHREST. Very good. Thank you very much. Pocomoke also 

mentioned a problem with—you have sewage treatment plant 

problems, septic tank problems generally. Do you have any issues 

at all similar to what Cecil County had with perk tests before you 

50

construct a house? Have you heard anything like that down in 

Worcester County? 

Ms. LINES. The Pocomoke watershed is not growing as fast as 

other areas in Worcester County like Ocean Pines and Ocean City. 

Almost all of the land near the river is agriculture or swamp. So 

I don’t think the perk is an issue yet. 

Mr. GILCHREST. I see. Right. You mentioned—the Pocomoke students mentioned the various streams and ditches that flow into the 

Pocomoke River that carry rain. Problems with nitrogen, do you 

have any recommendations? The ditches were put there to drain 

the fields so you could farm. And you are apparently keenly aware 

of the economic importance of agriculture because you have mentioned that a number of times. Ditches, however, do bring nutrients 

to those fields as they are drained into the Pocomoke River to 

further—I hate to say it—degrade the Pocomoke River. 

Are there any—do you have any recommendations on what farmers could do with the ditches? 

Ms. LEVIN. The idea would be that drainage ponds that allow the 

nutrients to settle or allow you to be able to remove them however 

way you need to. You can dredge it, and then find somewhere that 

needs the soil, even though that is expensive. But you could also 

plant plants that use those nutrients around the pond or in the 

pond. 

Mr. GILCHREST. So have a sediment pond near the ditches? That 

is a good idea. Good idea. 

You also mentioned that word that was so prominent a few years 

ago, Pfiesteria, the mystery disease. People were even talking 

about it up here from all over the country. 

It was very controversial at the time as far as, is there such a 

thing as Pfiesteria? Does it actually have a toxic stage in its life 

cycle? Could it really affect people? Is it caused by large numbers 

of fish, menhaden in particular? All those things. 

From your perspective, in your research and living in Worcester 

County around the Pocomoke River, do you have a sense that Dr. 

Burkholder from North Carolina was correct when he said that 

phosphorus on farm fields getting into the water is what caused 

the outbreak of Pfiesteria? 

Mr. NUGENT. I think that had something to do with it. Like we 

said, all the algae that will grow from the extra nutrients will help 

feed the Pfiesteria. And so I think it had something to do with it. 

I don’t think it was all that, but I do think it had a big part in 

it. 

Ms. LEVIN. Also, Pfiesteria can thrive in a river that has phosphorus in it. 

Mr. GILCHREST. Do you have a sense that most people recognize 

that? Is there any sense that you have, including in Cecil County, 

that agriculture has improved over the last 5 years or so with some 

of the things that you have discussed as far as buffer zones, crop 

rotation, better nutrient management plan? Do you think that agriculture is better today than it was 5, 10 years ago? 

Ms. SANFORD-CRANE. I think it really has in Cecil County. I live 

on a farm, a small one, and one of our members also lives on a 

farm. Last year, we went to a large dairy farm called Mount 

Ararat, and they were a prime example of people using best 

51

management practices. And we toured their whole farm. And I 

know cows, and they are messy, but their farm was amazing. They 

had everything the right way. The farmers are trying hard. They 

always get a bad rap. They are dumping pollution in the Bay and 

the fertilizer. But the majority of it comes from the suburban families that do not care. The farmers seem to really try hard to make 

sure that they fit with the Bay. 

Mr. GILCHREST. Very good. 

A gentleman in the back who had his hand up. What was your 

name again? 

Mr. HUSFELT. Brandon Husfelt. The agriculture has really improved in Cecil County over the last 5 years, because there has 

been many best management practices implemented, like no-till 

farming. There is—

Ms. LUCS-HAJI. On a curve, the contour. 

Mr. HUSFELT. There is contour farming. Water, one way where 

there is like a ditch. You could put grass in it there to slow the 

water down and trap some of the dirt and sediment and stuff. That 

really helps a lot with runoff. 

Mr. GILCHREST. So we are making progress? 

Mr. HUSFELT. Yes. 

Mr. GILCHREST. We have to keep the pressure up, though, to 

make that progress. 

We have in statute—that means in law—a pilot project for the 

Delmarva peninsula. It is called the Delmarva Conservation Corridor. We are working with the U.S. Department of Agriculture and 

the States to help improve markets for agriculture, so the farmers 

can make money, but also use conservation dollars to put in a lot 

of these buffers and waterways, forested areas. That is the conservation part, to hold on to the ecological integrity of the Delmarva peninsula. And the kind of things that you are talking about 

here this morning are really right up that alley. 

Do you have—oh, on June the 14th, we are having a hearing like 

this on the pilot project, the Conservation Corridor on the Delmarva peninsula at Salisbury State College. And we will have witnesses from all over the watershed talking about agriculture, water 

quality, septic tanks, perk tests and those kinds of things. 

So if you have an opportunity, it is the 14th of June. I think it 

will probably start at 10:00 and probably will go to some time late 

afternoon if you have an opportunity to come down. And we will 

be discussing the same kinds of things. 

Does anyone feel—you mentioned, both the schools, that much of 

your area is becoming too urbanized or too developed. Worcester 

County talked about Ocean City and, to some extent, Berlin and 

a place called Ocean Pines. And Cecil County is developing fairly 

quickly in a number of areas, not as fast as Delaware, but if you 

drive up from—if you drive east from your school, you see a wall 

of houses on the Delaware line. 

Ms. LUCS-HAJI. Yes, that is true. 

Mr. GILCHREST. Do you have any comment? Any comment about 

development trends in your area? 

Ms. LUCS-HAJI. There is a lot of zoning meetings—for the paper, 

like community forums with zoning. And I know that my mother 

and a couple of other people have gone to a lot of the Cecil County 

52

forums for urban sprawl and have voted out a lot of the zonings 

that have said industrial or—industrial zonings. 

Delaware, I think, has enough like gridlock on a lot of the urban 

sprawl. I guess some of the delegates feel that they want to let 

their land, their agricultural land urbanize and populate. But the 

land is very valuable around the Bay. And Milltown is right down 

south of Chesapeake City, and that has totally—it has gone from 

maybe 15,000 to maybe 5,000 more in maybe a year. And these are 

a lot of new houses that have just added to the problem. 

Ms. SANFORD-CRANE. Yes, we have been having a lot of meetings 

because the farmers want to sell their land. Right now, land is very 

expensive. Everybody wants to move to Cecil County. I don’t know 

why, but they do. The farmers are selling their lands. 

However Maryland has a law that states how many houses can 

be built in how many acres. I do not remember all of the rules 

about them, but if you have a 20-acre farm, you can only build five 

houses, and each house has to have an acre of land. You can’t subdivide into tiny places. 

But the Cecil County farmers have been lobbying to get rid of 

this rule, because they want to sell the land into lots of tiny houses 

that people are willing to buy and give them even more money for 

it. I don’t think any of them have been disregarded yet. I think 

these laws are still in place, but it is hanging on there barely. 

Mr. GILCHREST. Do you have any sense that your local elected officials are aware of the kinds of ecological discussions that you 

have raised here today? 

Ms. LUCS-HAJI. There is a new Happy Harry’s right across from 

our farm. And we did not need it. It is another problem we have. 

Mr. GILCHREST. So you are saying that maybe the local elected 

officials or the people who decide or determine land use in your 

area, do you think they are as sensitive to these—

Ms. LUCS-HAJI. No, I do not think they are. 

Mr. GILCHREST. OK. That is a pretty straight forward answer. 

Comment from Pocomoke? 

Ms. LEVIN. I don’t think you should overdevelop the land. You 

have to think about how we are talking about watersheds and 

problems. And if you develop, you are going to create more problems that won’t just be agriculture, like for us, poultry. It will be 

maybe more sewage and more chemicals, maybe. Stuff that people 

just dump. And it will just kind of shift the problem. 

Mr. GILCHREST. You all seem to have a sensitivity to these issues 

and a passion for these issues and knowledge about these issues. 

There is an old saying that knowledge is power, but I like to think 

of that saying from a more democratic perspective which is: Knowledge is influence. So the kind of knowledge that you have, you can 

influence people by passing that knowledge along to those people 

who make decisions. 

How do you think you can be a part of that influencing process 

now with the kind of knowledge you have accumulated over the 

last many month or years? How best can you participate in the 

political process or the local process to have enough people 

understand what you now seem to know, to help with the watershed, to have an understanding of the hydrologic cycle is what 

53

moves a lot of these toxins? What do you think you can do to further your knowledge and curiosity? 

Yes? 

Ms. MASON. I think that our Discovery Center in Pocomoke for 

one, the Delmarva Discovery Center could have a really big impact 

on the community. But us being teenagers in the high school, if we 

show a passion for it and we get other people involved in it and 

have hands on activities and different things to do where kids are 

learning and not realizing it, where they do not look at it as a 

classroom but a new perspective, I think they will gain a better 

knowledge of what exactly the problems are and how they can be 

fixed. And I think they will put a better hand in the community. 

And not only that, but they will get their parents involved in the 

community better, completely rather than just in the school systems. Because I think that residential areas need more knowledge, 

too, not just students. 

Mr. GILCHREST. Very good. I think some of the new developments 

outside of Berlin are already experiencing severe problems with 

flooding every time it rains a quarter of an inch because there was 

not enough planning that went into these new developments. 

There is a group in Worcester County called Friends of the 

Nassawongo River. They meet in Furnace Town every once in a 

while, and they might want to hear—not that I want to overwork 

you so that you do not have any summer vacation, but there is a 

farmer in Cecil County named Bill Kilby who works very aggressively to deal with these land use issues. 

Do you have any other suggestions or comments or any questions 

you want to ask us? 

Ms. LUCS-HAJI. What is being done about urban sprawl? 

Mr. GILCHREST. You know, that is an excellent question. I wish 

I could take this gavel and had the influence or power to say, no 

more urban sprawl. But in our system of government, and that is 

an excellent question, in our system of government, land use, 90 

percent of the time, is a local issue. 

Ms. LUCS-HAJI. Local? 

Mr. GILCHREST. Is a local issue. It is only a county issue, but 

Elkton cannot be told by Cecil County what they can or cannot do 

or Perryville or Russellville or Rising Sun. All of those places—or 

Ocean Pines or Berlin or Pocomoke itself—they have the purview 

or the jurisdiction, the authority to determine land use in that political division. 

Now, the county pretty much takes care of anything that is not 

incorporated in that community. But the county government can 

determine the land use, which means they can determine, you can 

have 20 houses on 20 acres or a thousand houses on 20 acres. That 

is determined by the local government. 

What we do at the Federal level, we pass sweeping laws, like the 

Clean Water Act or the Clean Air Act, those kind of things that 

provide, for the most part, a minimum standard as far as the air 

is concerned, the water is concerned. 

But a number of you mentioned that DNR does not have enough 

people. The EPA, for the whole country, does not always have the 

kinds of resources and people to test everybody’s well, to test the 

54

outfall of a sewage treatment plant, to make a determination of a 

septic tank. And almost all septic tanks do not hold on to nitrogen. 

So what are we doing about urban sprawl? We try to use our influence as much as possible. For example, on the Eastern Shore of 

Maryland, you have a lot of farms. And there is a Federal program, 

a State program, and some counties have a farmland protection 

program. What we do here is to appropriate millions of dollars—

sounds like a lot, but when you spread it all over the country, it 

is a minimal amount—we send Maryland every year a number of 

dollars to mix with their ag programs in rural areas so that you 

can purchase the easements of farms, the development rights. The 

farmer gets the advantage of keeping the farm, getting a big chunk 

of money, and it protects the area from being urbanized or suburbanized. If we can hold on to enough farms and find markets for 

those farmers, the farmers can continue to make money, and they 

will keep their farms. And open space will be available. 

So what are we doing about urban sprawl? And we have to get 

into the heart and mind of local elected officials and the planning 

commission, who helps really determine land use, and then the 

county commissioners agree or disagree with it, with the kind of information that you gave to us this morning. Communicating and 

trying to influence people. 

So if you could get to the Worcester county commissioners, Cecil 

County commissioners and expand programs that already exist 

there, it would be very, very, very helpful. 

Yes, sir? 

Mr. BRITAIN. I am Daniel Britain, and this is going to sound different from what we have talked about today. I think one of the 

problems is the rhetoric we are using. When we say ‘‘Save the 

Bay,’’ it creates an impersonal response to people who never see 

the Bay. I think we need a slogan like ‘‘saving ourselves,’’ because 

the Bay will be there when we are not. 

So I think we need to turn it into more of a structured local response, so a person in western Maryland will see how their actions 

affect the rest of the Bay instead of ‘‘Save the Bay.’’ ‘‘Save the Bay, 

this is what we need to do and this is how it affects the Bay,’’ rather than just ‘‘Save the Bay.’’

Mr. GILCHREST. It is an excellent idea. I hope maybe—each town 

and each county needs someone to be the intellectual/spiritual leader for that community. Enlighten your neighbors. 

I want to thank all of you for coming. This has been just a wonderful experience for us. And I would like to help you take this another step beyond a school project, which was the foundation for 

the information that you can accumulated, to an interesting curiosity to testify in Washington to help you continue to work to save 

our Pocomoke and to save our northeast Sassafras. I live near the 

Sassafras. I have a special feel for the Sassafras river as well. We 

want to take this all over the watershed, but particularly in your 

two areas, you did a fine job. 

I want to thank the teachers and your families for being patient 

and especially the students for your dedication. The hearing is adjourned. 

[Whereupon, at 1:25 p.m., the Subcommittee was adjourned.]

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