The Blue Plains Advanced Wastewater Treatment Facility in Washington, D.C., will discharge 3.8 million fewer pounds of nitrogen each year by 2015 as the result of a renewed operating permit issued by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).
The reissued permit will reduce by 45 percent the amount of nitrogen that the Blue Plains wastewater facility – the largest single point source of nitrogen pollution in the Chesapeake Bay watershed – discharges to the Potomac River and the Bay.
“These reductions are critical to protecting the health of the Chesapeake Bay as well as the Potomac River,” said Shawn Garvin, the EPA’s mid-Atlantic regional administrator. “By significantly reducing nitrogen pollution from the Blue Plains plant, we’re taking a major step on the road to restoring the Bay for future generations.”
Nitrogen is a type of nutrient that contributes to cloudy, polluted waters in the Bay and its rivers. Excess nitrogen fuels the growth of dense algae blooms that rob fish, crabs, bay grasses and other Bay life of sunlight and oxygen.
Blue Plains is the largest advanced wastewater treatment facility in the world, treating wastewater for approximately 1.6 million people in Washington, D.C., Montgomery and Prince Georges counties in Maryland, and Fairfax and Loudoun counties in Virginia.
Under the permit renewal, DC Water will reduce nitrogen discharges from 8.5 million to 4.7 million pounds each year by upgrading the Blue Plains facility. Modifications are to be completed by July 2014 so that pollution reductions can be fully achieved in 2015.
This action is part of a larger effort by the EPA and the Bay states to control nitrogen and phosphorus discharges from more than 483 significant wastewater facilities across the Bay watershed. By 2015, most of these facilities will be upgraded to meet more stringent permits that will reduce an additional 11 million pounds of nitrogen and 100,000 pounds of phosphorus to the Bay.
During the past 25 years, Bay Program partners have made significant progress reducing nutrient pollution from wastewater facilities. Pollution from wastewater has dropped 55 percent since 1985.
In comparison, agricultural pollution has decreased 31 percent and pollution from cities and suburbs has increased 15 percent since 1985.
For more information about the Blue Plains upgrade, visit the EPA’s website.
Welcome to the latest installment of the BayBlog Question of the Week! Each week, we take a question submitted on the Chesapeake Bay Program website or a frequently asked question and answer it here for all to read.
This week’s question comes from Lillian: “What is the waste product of a Bay oyster? Is it toxic and is there a use for this product?”
This question ended up being a little bit complex because there are several different interpretations of what the “waste” of an oyster is. Are you referring to the waste left from their filtering of the Bay’s water? The solid waste they expel? Or the waste shells left from human consumption of oysters? So we addressed all of these facets of the question for Lillian.
When oysters feed on algae -- filtering the water in the Bay at the same time -- some waste is left behind. Oysters take in water, filter out what they need for nourishment and expel the rest back into the water. This waste is often consumed by other organisms. In this way, oysters truly do provide for many of the Bay's other creatures.
Oysters also expel solid waste in the form of pellets, which decompose into the atmosphere as nitrogen. This type of nitrogen is not harmful to the Bay like the nitrogen that comes from fertilizer, animal manure, wastewater, cars and other sources that pollute the Bay.
The oyster waste caused by human consumption is perhaps the most useful, if proper procedures are followed. Instead of just tossing your oyster shells at the end of the night, they can be collected and used to rebuild the Bay's oyster population by providing habitat for oyster spat. This process, known as oyster shell recycling, is valuable to the Bay ecosystem because it gives spat a hard surface to grow on.
The Oyster Recovery Partnership has information on its website about how to get involved in its oyster shell recycling program. The Marylanders Grow Oysters program is another great way to get involved with oyster restoration if you live on one of the waterways that are part of the program.
Do you have a question about the Chesapeake Bay? Ask us and we might choose your question for the next Question of the Week! You can also ask us a question via Twitter by sending a reply to @chesbayprogram! Be sure to follow us there for all the latest in Bay news and events.
A new study by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) suggests that underwater bay grasses in the Potomac River are increasing due to efforts to reduce nutrient pollution.
The study, which used data from 18 years of river monitoring, shows that fewer nutrients and clearer waters in the Potomac have increased the amount and different types of bay grasses growing in the river.
Bay grasses – also known as submerged aquatic vegetation or SAV – are critical to the ecosystem of the Chesapeake Bay and its tributaries. Bay grasses provide oxygen to the water and food and shelter for fish, crabs, waterfowl and other species.
Excess nutrient pollution in the water fuels the growth of algae blooms, which block sunlight that bay grasses need to grow and survive.
Between 1990 and 2007, the area covered by bay grasses in the lower Potomac River doubled, from 4,207 acres to 8,441 acres.
In addition, the area covered by native grasses has increased tenfold, from 288 acres in 1990 to 3,081 acres in 2007. Meanwhile, the proportion of non-native species to native species has declined. In 1990, more than 80 percent of the total amount of bay grasses in the lower Potomac was the non-native hydrilla; in 2007, hydrilla declined to 20 percent of all bay grasses.
The diversity of bay grass species in this reach of the Potomac has increased. More than a dozen species of bay grasses – including hydrilla – now co-exist in the lower Potomac.
These improvements have occurred “nearly in lock step with decreases in nutrients and sediment in the water” and reductions in nitrogen in treated wastewater from Washington, D.C., according to USGS scientist Dr. Nancy Rybicki.
“Upgrades to the wastewater treatment plant have benefited [bay grass] habitats 50 miles downstream. These findings underscore the benefits of nutrient reduction efforts on a major tributary to the Chesapeake Bay,” said Rybicki, who has been conducting research on the Potomac since 1979.
“People want to know that money spent on ecosystem restoration is having tangible results, but many feel that efforts to clean up Chesapeake Bay have so far had limited success,” said researcher Dr. Henry Ruhl of the National Oceanography Centre, which also contributed to the study. “Our results suggest that widespread recovery of submerged vegetation abundance and diversity can be achievable if restoration efforts are enhanced across the Bay.”
A multi-agency study released in July found similar results to the USGS study, correlating nutrient reductions with gains in bay grass abundance in some Bay tributaries, while noting a negative correlation between bay grasses and nitrogen.
For more information about the USGS study, visit the project website and the USGS Chesapeake Bay Activities page.
Welcome to the latest installment of the BayBlog Question of the Week! Each week, we take a question submitted on the Chesapeake Bay Program website or a frequently asked question and answer it here for all to read.
This week’s question comes from Peg: “We have a second home on a creek in Virginia. While there last week, I noticed an unusual quality in the water. The water appeared unusually murky and quiet and there was a large ribbon of a reddish brown color, very distinct, stretching through our cove. Contrary to normal situations there was a period of time where there were no fish noticeably jumping or swimming and no birds fishing. Could this have been some sort of red tide or algae bloom and what does that mean as far as water quality?”
Each spring and summer in the Chesapeake Bay region, low-oxygen “dead zones” and harmful algae blooms appear in various parts of the Bay and its creeks and rivers. The size and severity of algae blooms and dead zones in the Bay depend on the amount of water that flows into the Bay. That water brings excess nutrients and sediment from the land. Combined with high temperatures, the excess pollutants can fuel the growth of algae blooms and cause the water to become clouded and discolored.
The water condition Peg may have observed is called a mahogany tide, which can cause the water to appear reddish brown. Mahogany tides may also deplete the water of oxygen, which may be why Peg did not see fish in the water as she normally does. Algae blooms make conditions difficult for much of the aquatic life in the Chesapeake Bay.
Algae blooms can be very detrimental to the health of the Bay. Some are considered harmful algae blooms (HABs) and can be toxic to aquatic life such as fish, oysters and crabs. They can also cause skin irritation or other sickness to people who come into contact with them.
Even if algae blooms aren’t toxic, they can still be harmful to the Bay. When algae blooms get dense enough, they block sunlight from reaching bay grasses growing at the bottom of the Bay. Of course, bay grasses are vital to the Bay's health, so when fewer bay grasses grow, the cycle of poor Bay health continues. When algae blooms die they create more problems, as the decomposition process sucks up most of the oxygen that fish, oysters and crabs needs to survive.
Since algae blooms are fueled by excess nutrients, you can do your part to help prevent algae blooms in your local waterway by taking small steps to decrease polluted runoff. Small steps such as not fertilizing your lawn, picking up your pet's waste and planting more trees in your yard can make a difference.
Do you have a question about the Chesapeake Bay? Ask us and we might choose your question for the next Question of the Week! You can also ask us a question via Twitter by sending a reply to @chesbayprogram! Be sure to follow us there for all the latest in Bay news and events
