Senator Gerald W. Winegrad to Speak at the Severn River Association

Senator Gerald W. Winegrad will speak at the Severn River Association Tuesday, February 17, 2009 at 7: 00 PM on the topic “WHAT NEEDS TO BE DONE TO RESTORE THE BAY? (The inconvenient truths of Bay restoration)”
The location is Calvary Methodist Church, 301 Rowe Blvd, Annapolis MD 21401. This lecture is free of charge and open to the public.

Sen. Winegrad will make a presentation and lead a discussion on the decline of the Chesapeake Bay and what needs to be done to restore this great estuary. He will show why the Bay is in serious trouble after 25 years, even after recovery efforts under the Chesapeake Bay Program and the expenditure of billions of dollars. Collapsed fisheries, including oysters and shad, and the crab fishery’s recent decline are among many signs of the serious ecological collapse as proud Smith Islanders become prison guards, leaving their island homes forever.

The renowned Bay scholar and leader will discuss how we have so poisoned our waters that reports abound of serious infections in humans who come in contact with Bay waters. These reports are widespread-from the Severn to the Nanticoke rivers, and beyond. Rockfish, one of the few success stories in the recovery of living resources, have been turning up with lesions from a chronic wasting disease, which is transmittable to humans. Catfish in the South River have cancerous lesions and male bass from the Potomac are turning up with female egg sacs.
Bay grasses acreage is only one-third of target agreed upon by the states, and oyster populations show no signs of recovery.

When the Bay Program began with the adoption of the first Bay Agreement in 1983, Gerald Winegrad notes, if anyone had chosen to frighten the public into action with a doomsday scenario, it would have probably read as he describes above and yet this scenario has become reality: Just how much worse does this horrible situation have to become before policy makers take the bold but necessary actions to reverse the decline of the Bay? Half-measures and “save the Bay” palliatives won’t do–come learn of the bold, decisive actions that can be taken now to turn the tide.

Senator Winegrad will present startling data on the impacts of growth and agricultural pollution on the Bay’s decline. He will describe the details of nutrient and sediment pollution choking the Bay and their sources Baywide and in the Severn River Watershed. Most importantly, he details what needs to be done to reduce pollutants to restore water quality. Gerald makes the case for controlling human population growth, sprawl development and the loss of forest land. He then describes the problems of storm-water runoff from development and how this can be addressed to restore the Severn and the Bay. The necessity of regulatory controls for agricultural pollution–the Bay’s greatest source of nutrient and sediment pollution–also will be a focus of his talk. Come see this up-to-date presentation and learn how we can Save the Bay and our natural heritage. SRA members have a special role to play in making these changes to turn the tide.