CBF: Chesapeake Bay on the right track

We’re about one year away from the newest State Of the Bay report, which comes out every two years. The report measures pollution and wildlife in the Chesapeake.

In 2015, the bay received a “D-plus” letter grade. This was no change from the prior report; however, officials say they already have high hopes about moving up in the ranks.

According to the Chesapeake Bay Foundation (“CBF”), new regulations on the Phosphorus Management Tool that took effect last summer may help.

Alison Prost, Maryland executive director for CBF, says farms with the highest risk of damaging waterways had to stop applying manure immediately says under one regulation.

Prost says another promising factor is water clarity. In Annapolis on Tuesday, Prost tells 47ABC the bay was nothing like she had ever seen before this past fall and summer.

“You can be all throughout the bay and see to depths that you hadn’t able to. Our education program at Baltimore harbor was seeing water clarity and that just shows that there’s not that algae.” She says. “There’s not that sediment that’s throwing off, you being able to see to the bottom.”

Prost tells us there is no specific letter grade goal they are trying to meet next year, but the hope is to do a little better each time.