The Chesapeake Bay

As a D.C. resident who is afraid to drink the tap water, I would like to thank you for taking action and producing this documentary.

As I sit here with my seasonal water view of Saltworks Creek, which flows into the Severn, I want to mention some less common things I do to walk softly here:
We compost all our non meat waste and sift it into our small herb/veg garden and two sour cherry tree orchard. Meat scraps are sifted into the neighbor's ever helpful and dutiful dog.
We butcher locally harvested deer donated from hunters who are not hypocrites like us and kill them. I take them from from field dressed (hopefully) to good meals in the form of sausage, stews or grilled steaks. We bury the inedible bits deeply in the woods, with respect and an element of sadness. These 3 animals per year remove a bit of the animal waste and lyme disease from our area and feed us organic free range low cholesterol meat.
I can and freeze fruit from farms in my county. Last year, I put up about 50 quarts of local produce. We eat much of it fresh, of course, when it is in season. Locavor eating means working hard during harvest season to preserve the bounty. I teach canning, freezing and dehydrating to my neighbors.
We have no lawn. The garden is in the only sunny area, and forest shades the ground cover on the rest of our valley wall.
We burn local dead wood in an airtight EPA certified wood stove to help reduce our central heating costs. Splitting wood is wonderful for a woman in her 50s to tone and firm that which needs toning and firming. I use a piston hammer manual splitter that doesn't require swinging a maul. My small electric chain saw is sharp and light weight enough for a mature woman to handle safely, if she follows the laws of chain saws.
We use our antique skills of fixing and refinishing to keep socks darned, coffee maker gaskets replaced, clothing mended, insulating roman shades sewn, etc.
I drive a wee gasoline powered car with a manual shift that gets 42 MPH in the city.
We get our septic tank pumped out every 5 years.
We use low water laundry equipment.
These things are both our duty to our community and they improve our lives. Who would have thought that our old fashoned Midwestern farm upbringing would be both ethical and save some much money decades later on the edge of the Chesapeake Bay.

I hope the film tonight addresses one of the least discussed sources of Chesapeake Bay pollution- the huge number of chicken factory farms, run by Tyson, Purdue and the like, that operate in the DelMarVa area. On chicken factory farms, also known as CAFOs (Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations), tens of thousands of chickens, or sometimes turkeys, are warehoused in huge sheds and the large quantities of excrement they produce is released into our waterways. But because these are huge corporations we're dealing with, few politicians want to try to make them clean up their act. People concerned about the health of the bay can help by boycotting factory farmed poultry products. A vegetarian diet is both more humane and more environmentally friendly. Or at least consider only buying poultry products from small free range operations.

Thanks for covering so many facets of the challenges we face to keep water clean. With increased population the old ways of getting rid of waste don't work anymore. Trouble is that's been true for a long time. It's helpful to see that political figures on the right side have their lives literally threatened by constituents. It shows how important good and open communications are. Your message is really important. Hopefully you'll produce a show in the near future covering some of the baby steps in successful pollution prevention which are now taking place, mainly done by young environmental engineers. There's no scientific tooth fairy who will leave a solution under our pillow as we sleep, but there are reasons to be optimistic and devote significant efforts to the challenge.

I know now a lot of places are trying to rebuild our Oceanic supplies with fish farms. However, some of those are getting shut down because they are creating a good amount of waste as well. We need a good plan of attack!

Keep fighting

Unfortunately it shows the sorry state of of the times with the I want it now attitude and very little thought being given to the consequences of their actions.

Truly this is a planet in peril. As the writer stated pollution is off the radar. People are so consumed with themselves and mere convience that they don't realize how we are killing our ownselves while destroying the planet.

It is so disappointing to see what we do to planet earth. It is however encouraging that like myself people are prepared to fight the battle!

Kirsty x

I try not to drink tap water. The question is, how safe is the bottled water?

We are killing our lakes and rivers and I don't how we plan to stay on this planet for much longer if we keep doing what we've been doing.

How can we get things moving as consumers and residents? Obviously action needs to take place but where do we begin? In some cities in California they give the residents recycling bins. Is there some kind of system we could implement like this around the rest of the country?

So sad, this is a very beatiful place and deserves an effort to save it, it a shame the people are getting places like this in to the death.

We are too slow to curb this problem. If we do not move fast, we'll lost everything

It is really sad to hear this is going on. I must admit I watch much less TV now and many times miss stories like this that I would have otherwise seen. As a Realtor I am sensitive to environmental issues as they are part of my daily experience when I am working for a client in finding a home. Hopefully on a local as well as national there will be more attention paid to this kind of environmental issue.

"I try not to drink tap water. The question is, how safe is the bottled water?"

Im lucky to live in a country where tap water is cleaner than bottled water, but unfortunately most of the worlds people arent that lucky.

I completely agree with "Pollution has slipped off America's radar screen. The environment doesn't get much attention from the media or from any of us when we fall in the grip of fear about terrorism or the collapsing economy." It is really bad.

That blue on the crab looks amazing.

It really is a shame that such pollution has been allowed to continue for so long. Why?

It will take a long time to repair the damage, though it may be too late for some things. I hope more people will become actively involved in cleaning all polluted areas (unfortunately this area isn't the only mess we have). And be proactive by being cleaner in the future. Stop pollution before it happens.

I totally agree that "Today, some of the worst pollution is invisible. The water looks okay, but science tells us it is not. "
You are right on this.

All this pollution needs to stop. I want to have a nice planet for my kids!

I am from Japan originally. This place reminds me of home somehow.

It's so sad to see us systematically destroying our environment. I feel it will be too late before governments rate the issues highly enough.

Not only you Sir, it is worrying for everyone yet politicians are not tackling it enough the way they should be, take for instance the decision of Wars, they take it instantly and send troops and fight wars within few days but when it comes to environment and tackling Global Warming and pollution they call meetings, conferences, set targets, take a decision now! It's already too late for the environment. But still I feel our generation will survive it, I am positive about it but as far as the whole Earth is concerned, I am worried as well.

Regards

Ryan Mathys (Ocean Beach real estate)

The massive increase in Europe into intensive farming and organic too cause real problems any concentration of live stock, even using organic methods will produce organic run off and Algae blooms. the biggest problems in the uk are related to estuaries where the organic waste becomes concentrated as the rivers slow and spread out giving time for the waste to settle.

"dead zones are underwater regions where not a single crab, or an oyster, or a fish or even a blade of precious bottom grass can live because dead zones are bereft of oxygen. "

Wow, I had no idea those even existed...

That is really really sad, and discouraging.

I'm glad I know now... but I don't want to know at the same time... ya know? :(

Sean