Sunday, July 2, 2006; B08
Body Blow for the Bay?
In June 1972, remnants of Hurricane Agnes dumped 8 inches of rain over the 64,000-square-mile Chesapeake Bay watershed. While modest compared to the monster hurricanes of 2005, Agnes had devastating impacts. The flooding pushed the bay over the edge, greatly accelerating the decline of this magnificent ecosystem. Thirty-four years later, it still has not recovered.
While last week's rains locally exceeded those of Agnes, they did not extend over as great an area. The peak flows down the Susquehanna and Potomac rivers are likely to be less than half those following Agnes. But, these flows will still be among the top 10 percent ever recorded, putting the bay at further risk.
After Agnes, the bay was greatly freshened, and some parts of the upper bay received 8-inch-thick deposits of sediment, killing the underwater grasses so vital to the health of the bay. The longest lasting consequence was the big flush of nutrients that had been building up in the landscape. This stimulated microscopic plant production that consumed oxygen as it decomposed, creating a massive "dead zone." Reducing nutrient inputs has been the objective of Chesapeake Bay restoration ever since.
Last week's rains come at a time when there have been encouraging signs of improvement in the bay. Even with an increasing population, nutrient inputs from sewage treatment plants have been greatly reduced. Nutrient concentrations in river discharges have been declining since the late 1980s, causing a resurgence in underwater grasses throughout the upper bay. It will take time to calculate the damage from the recent deluge. As we await the verdict, some realities should be kept keep firmly in mind:
? The bay is nowhere near as resilient as it was in 1972. Depending on the strength of last week's event, recovery may be a long-term proposition that will confound and frustrate restoration efforts for years.
? Damage to the watershed that increases susceptibility to flooding has continued. Development has paved fields and forests, while wetlands and other natural buffers have been compromised. Runoff from rainfall has increased the rate of flooding, erosion, siltation and nutrient runoff.
? And then there is the "inconvenient truth" of changing climate. While there is no basis for concluding that last month's deluge was a clear manifestation of climate change, models indicate we will see more frequent periods of more intense rainfall.
The Chesapeake Bay can withstand only a certain number of body blows. The commitment to restoration must be redoubled so the recovery from this and future storms can be measured in years and not decades. Absent this commitment, we may live to see the day when recovery for our bay is no longer a realistic possibility. Time is not on our side.
-- Donald F. Boesch
Cambridge, Md.
is president of the University of Maryland
Center for Environmental Science.
Ill-Prepared for a Disaster
As folks dry out their basements and clear debris from the "big rain," a critical question must be answered: What is the state of emergency preparedness in Washington? Five years after Sept. 11, 2001, this is how Washington handled last week's weather emergency:
? Monday, near-gridlock.
? Tuesday, complete gridlock.
What went wrong?
For starters, communication among federal and local agencies, as well as the utility companies, remains inadequate. No one seems to know, for example, who ordered the street closures downtown: Was it the D.C. Department of Transportation, the D.C. police, the General Services Administration or the utility companies? Police on the scene should always be in charge, but no one from these agencies seems to know who ordered the closings or why.
Also, the region's "state of the art" early warning systems are not ready for prime time. The mayor declared a state of emergency for the District only late on Tuesday, days after flooding had led to power outages and closures of streets and buildings, and well after additional rainfall was being forecast. The city's command center should have known by Monday the need for added assistance that comes with a state of emergency.
The police department still does not have a fully staffed and trained traffic division. Washington has constant special-event situations. Be it storms, terrorism alerts, marches, parades or festivals, the city is continually faced with big events necessitating street closings. The rains knocked out some traffic signals, but that should not have required street closures. Police could have directed traffic through those intersections. Instead, many commuters were left gridlocked and without direction.
The Secret Service only made things worse Tuesday with its security measures for a presidential speaking engagement downtown; this led to the closing of key commuter and evacuation streets during rush hour. Given that dignitaries come and go throughout the city, these type of situations will occur regularly. Do the Secret Service and the D.C. police and transportation departments even talk to one another? It seems as though they need to improve their communication.
One benefit of the weather emergency is that it has exposed the lack of communication that continues to bedevil the nation's capital. Given the number of authorities that need to be involved in disaster response -- local governments, federal agencies, WMATA, law enforcement and emergency responders, and utility companies -- the region obviously has a long way to go to achieve the first-rate emergency preparedness that it should have.
-- Terry Lynch
Washington
is executive director of the
Downtown Cluster of Congregations.
