The Environmental Protection Agency has drawn up plans to restore and protect the Chesapeake Bay, put into effect in the near future. Unfortunately, not everyone is in favor of putting these intelligent and well thought-out efforts into effect. Instead of the opposed organizations welcoming the changes necessary to make the EPA’s plans successful, they fought to put an end to solution of a very hot issue.
Over the last several years, the guidelines to keeping the bay clean have faltered, which is not a well-kept secret. Just walking around the Inner Harbor in Baltimore City any passerby can see the muddled water and smell the pollution that lingers over the area.
The Chesapeake Bay produces blue crabs, clams, oysters, and rockfish to the area’s the bay reaches, but especially Maryland. With the bay spanning New York, Maryland, Delaware, Virginia, West Virginia, and interestingly Pennsylvania, the restoration and protection efforts are a last resort to repair the damage done to the ecosystem.
The Chesapeake Bay’s ecosystem has been greatly impacted as a result of runoff, severe pollution from farming, and sewage contamination. Areas of the bay have experienced dead zones due to such increased amounts in pollution.
Dead zones are formed when pollution has become so great that the oxygen in that designated area has depleted and the habitat has become unfit for the fish to live. As a result, large quantities of fish die and other organisms flee the oxygen deficient pockets because they cannot adapt to the conditions.
Those who oppose the Environmental Protection Agency’s plan to fix this issue cannot possibly understand the ramifications of letting the Chesapeake Bay continue to become more toxic to the organism who reside in the bay and to humans.
The main concern to the opposing ‘intellectuals’ is how they are going to continue farming with the guidelines and rules that now effect their harvesting of crops. It can be promised that if this issue is not taken seriously and new efforts are not put into effect soon, the issue will begin to reach far beyond just the Chesapeake Bay.
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