In One Month, The Chesapeake Bay's 'Most Critical' Pollution Issue Could Be Unsolvable | ThinkProgress

I know some that would read this may think 'alarmist mentality." But in this instance is that such a bad thing to have when this is taken into consideration: Conowingo Dam’s operating permit is up for renewal. The dam’s owner, Exelon Corp., has applied for a permit from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. That permit could be approved as early as September 1, and if that happens, Exelon will not be legally required to remove the sediment for another 46 years."

What struck me, " [b]ut preliminary results show that 80 percent of the sediment flowing into the bay is from the entire Susquehanna River watershed — not from the sediment piled up behind the Conowingo Dam. " Where I live, about 9+ hours away from the Bay, is part of the Susquehanna River watershed. What occurs in my little part of the world effects a much broader part of the world.

(There are some interesting comments attached to this article that imply the issue at stake is not as clear cut as TP make it out to be. An issue to keep an eye on me thinks.)

For more than 30 years, states and environmental groups have been fighting to clean up the heavily polluted Chesapeake Bay. But according to some, the tremendous effort will all be for nothing if one issue isn’t addressed soon: the Conowingo Dam.


“The Conowingo Dam is a sediment trap,” said Chip MacLeod, general counsel at the Clean Chesapeake Coalition. “It’s been in existence for 85 years, and it’s never been dredged or maintained. If we do nothing to dredge that sediment, the bay is doomed.”

Today, approximately 175 million tons of polluted sediment sits trapped behind the Conowingo hydroelectric power dam in northeastern Maryland, a product of nearly a century of build-up from clay, silt, fertilizer runoff, and sewage plant runoff from Pennsylvania and New York. The sediment — enough to fill about 80 football stadiums — contains phosphorus, nitrogen, and other harmful nutrients that can cloud waters, sprout toxic algae bacteria, harm ecosystems, kill aquatic life, and sully drinking water.

Since 1929, the Conowingo Dam has been collecting that pollution and largely preventing it from entering the Chespeake Bay. But now, that polluted sediment has nearly reached the brim of the dam, and MacLeod worries that just one big storm event could send it over the edge, blanketing and destroying the Bay.

In One Month, The Chesapeake Bay's 'Most Critical' Pollution Issue Could Be Unsolvable | ThinkProgress