Shifting Course For River Festival

The Calvert Marine Museum will host its 29th annual Patuxent River Appreciation Days this weekend with a renewed focus on the river itself.

Organizers said this week that in recent years, the event has become too much like the many other annual festivals in Calvert County. And, meanwhile, the river that inspired the festivities has continued to deteriorate.

"The whole purpose of it in the first place was to focus attention on the river and have people understand the gravity of the situation," said former state senator C. Bernard Fowler, a longtime Patuxent advocate who helped to organized the event.

For the first time, this year's celebration will begin with a summit on the state of the river. Scientists, politicians, environmentalists and watermen will meet in the museum's auditorium tomorrow to talk about how to clean up the polluted river.

"You can't tell where you're going until you know where you are," said Fred Tutman of the Patuxent Riverkeeper organization, who is scheduled to speak at the summit. "This is a real opportunity to get everyone in a room and take stock."

Every day, 60 million gallons of wastewater flow into the Patuxent. That discharge contains nitrogen and phosphorus -- two particularly harmful nutrients that spawn algae blooms, which deplete oxygen and prevent the growth of aquatic grasses.

The speakers at tomorrow's summit will be split into two panels. One group will address what is being done now to clean up the river, and the other will discuss what should be done and the challenges ahead.

Organizers said former governor Harry R. Hughes is expected to speak, along with scientists from the Chesapeake Biological Laboratory and Morgan State University Estuarine Research Center, Calvert County planning officials and state and federal officials.

Fowler, the driving force behind the summit, said he hopes it will build momentum for a cause he has championed for four decades.

"It's been dwindling a little bit, and it's no one's fault in particular," he said, "but we can't just forget about this. The river is definitely in trouble right now."

The summit harkens back to one of the turning points in the history of the environmental fight over the Patuxent.

After Fowler and other local politicians and scientists won a lawsuit in the late 1970s against the state over pollution going into the Patuxent, state officials convened a long meeting, called a charrette, in 1981. Over several days, representatives of seven counties and state and federal environmental agencies worked on measures to improve water quality in the river.

A quarter of a century later, advocates for the river are still trying to get legislation passed to enforce the terms agreed to after the lawsuit. Enforcement basically would consist of requiring water treatment plants and other sources of pollution along the river to abide by limits on discharges.

A legislative strategy, organizers said, will be one of the topics at the summit.

During this year's session of the Maryland General Assembly, Southern Maryland lawmakers tried to win passage of legislation to enforce the terms of the 1981 agreement, but last-minute amendments took most of the teeth out of the bill.

Fowler has been lobbying to have the original version reintroduced when the 2007 legislative session convenes in January. State Senate President Thomas V. Mike Miller Jr. (D-Calvert) has promised to push for the law, Fowler said, and Democratic gubernatorial candidate Martin O'Malley has vowed to sign the bill and provide funding if he is elected and the measure passes next year.

"We're trying to mount some excitement and enthusiasm with the summit to push the legislation over the top," said Sherrod Sturrock, a deputy director of the Calvert Marine Museum.

Although the environmental focus of Patuxent River Appreciation Days may have been diluted in past years, Sturrock said, this year will be different.

"We still have things like the boat rides and food and the museum," she said, "but our message this year is twofold: We don't need more studies because we know what we need to do; we just need the political will to do it. And secondly, the Patuxent is everyone's problem and responsibility."