Algae can clean up the Chesapeake Bay, and the EPA will NOW get serious -- supposedly

Algae, the eutriphying, putrefying, anoxifying scourge of the Chesapeake Bay, can actually be used to reduce the nutrient flow from livestock farms if deployed properly, according to U.S. Department of Agriculture scientists:

Algae Advances as a “Green” Alternative for Improving Water Quality

"Microbiologist Walter Mulbry works at the ARS Environmental Management and Byproduct Utilization Research Unit in Beltsville, Md., which is located in the Chesapeake Bay watershed. In 2003, Mulbry set up four algal turf scrubber (ATS) raceways outside dairy barns in Beltsville. The shallow 100-foot raceways were covered with nylon netting that created a scaffold where the algae could grow. ....... Mulbry and his partners harvested wet algae every four to 12 days, dried it, and then analyzed the dried biomass for nitrogen and phosphorus levels. His results indicate that the ATS system recovered 60 to 90 percent of the nitrogen and 70 to 100 percent of the phosphorus from the manure effluents."

(Plus, you can turn it into fertilizer (as shown in the article) or maybe even biofuel.)

The EPA must comply with a case settlement to get serious -- and tough -- about cleaning up the Bay. They say they will.


Our View: Unified effort may save bay

"The federal Environmental Protection Agency released its latest strategy to restore the health of the Chesapeake Bay and watershed on Wednesday. On Tuesday the Chesapeake Bay Foundation announced it had settled its lawsuit with the EPA. EPA Director Lisa Jackson acknowledged the impact of waterways on the communities and economies that rely on them and said the new strategy would hold everyone to higher levels of accountability."

They say they're going to address nutrients and noxiousness in urban and suburban runoff -- that's going to be interesting.

EPA vows 'unprecedented' effort in Chesapeake Bay cleanup

"We plan to devote unprecedented resources to this," EPA Administrator Lisa P. Jackson said at an event Wednesday on the Anacostia River. "We are holding ourselves accountable for nothing short of real, measurable results."

Chesapeake Bay Foundation President William C. Baker called the administration's commitment "an impressive building block" but said that "we have had these before, and we have a healthy skepticism."

"Getting farm runoff commitment is the big step," said Beth McGee, a water quality scientist with the bay foundation.

Nitrogen from farm fertilizer and manure is the leading pollutant of the bay, and Vilsack said the USDA would commit $700 million to help farmers contain it."

Let's hope this make tangible improvement. We and the Bay could use some.