May 16, 2005
5/17 - Chesapeake Bay Almost "Clean": Just a couple more summers of redefined standards should do it!
How do you make your local degraded waters better? Two ways -- clean them up, or re-define "degraded," which is what the EPA is doing this summer for the Chesapeake Bay as reported by the Baltimore Sun. "Progress by redefinition," is what Erin Fitzsimmons, of Waterkeeper Alliance, calls it. Shifting the baseline is what we call it. Sure looks pretty dubious. The percentage of oxygen depleted water in the bay dropped from 40% in 2003, to 28% last summer, and is expected to go lower this summer, SIMPLY BECAUSE OF REDEFINING THE STANDARDS each year. That's pretty audacious given that each of the last summers there have been widespread reports of stressed marine life. Is that really the time to relax the standards to make it look like you're making things better?
Great Work! Just a couple more summers of redefined standards and the entire Chesapeake Bay will be "clean"!