ANNAPOLIS, Md. (AP) - A new report says Chesapeake Bay water quality has improved, but there's been a decline in fisheries.
The Chesapeake Bay Foundation released its biennial State of the Bay report Monday. It gave the nation's largest estuary a D-plus grade overall. That's unchanged from 2012.
The report cites improvements in water clarity, oysters and underwater grasses. But declines were seen in scores for blue crabs and rockfish.
CBF President William Baker took special aim at the Eastern Shore where phosphorus levels have actually gone up in some areas.
"And, it's the one part of the state where our elected officials have continued to resist sound science by delaying new regulations to control chicken manure and other forms of phosphorus applied to farm land."
*****
(Full Statement by CBF President William Baker)
*****
Pennsylvania, Virginia, Maryland
The report includes comments about some bay watershed states. It says Pennsylvania faces shortfalls in cutting polluted runoff from agriculture and urban areas. It says Virginia must speed up pollution reductions from agriculture, as well as urban and suburban runoff, and Maryland needs to set more ambitious goals and boost efforts to plant trees in agricultural and urban lands.
