Friday, October 14, 2011
The city displayed the first of two boat with hybrid diesel-electric-solar propulsion systems, made possible through grants.
You've heard of hybrid cars, but now, the city of Annapolis has a hybrid boat patrolling its harbor. In a press conference Thursday afternoon, Annapolis Mayor Josh Cohen and Harbormaster Flip Walters unveiled the first of two hybrid diesel-electric-solar propulsion systems mounted on Harbormaster boats. The first boat, on display Thursday afternoon, will be used to collect mooring fees and as a water rescue boat as needed, city officials said. The second boat is the city's pumpout boat, which is currently being converted to an identical system. That boat is scheduled to be ready in January, officials said. The boats are not new, but were repurposed with the hybrid systems, city officials said. The entire process took about four years. …
Thursday, July 21, 2011
Agencies with the appropriate regulatory authority should not hope to simply mitigate damage to the watershed. Their authority should be used to help restore it.
After centuries of unregulated wetland filling, land clearing, and shoreline modification, over the past several decades, federal, state, and local regulations have been put in place, ostensibly to reverse the trend of the declining health of the country’s waterways. As a rule, these have taken the form of a sequence of options: “avoid, minimize, mitigate.” So, in the context of a development project, impacts to wetlands or trees in the Critical Area buffer should be avoided if at all possible, and if not avoided, minimized. Any impacts that do occur, should either be mitigated, or offset, preferably on the same site where they originally occurred, but if not there, somewhere else in the same jurisdiction. The merits of this system can be …
Thursday, April 21, 2011
Join in some of these events to celebrate Earth Day to learn how to do your part to protect the environment every day.
Earth Day has been celebrated each on year on April 22 since 1970. Born in a time of industry without much regard for its impact on the environment, that first Earth Day bore witness to rallies across the country protesting against negative practices harming the environment. Opponents of damaging oil spills, factory pollution, extinction of wildlife and more had a common interest—the Earth. The inaugural day heralded an enormous political accomplishment that crossed party lines. It gained such support that it was argued that an independent agency was needed to coordinate the new initiatives for the environment. In December 1970 the Environmental Protection Agency began operations. “Earth Day is a benchmark day for the Sierra Club," said …
Thursday, January 13, 2011
A representative from the American Farm Bureau Federation comments on the lawsuit filed this week.
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Thursday, January 13, 2011
Patch received this response to the Jan. 11 article, "Lawsuit Could Slow Down Bay Restoration Efforts," from Don Parrish, senior director of regulatory relations for the American Farm Bureau Federation (AFBF). Despite the rhetoric from Tom Zolper and the Chesapeake Bay Foundation (CBF), the American Farm Bureau Federation’s lawsuit is not about whether to clean up the bay. Farmers are committed to doing their part to achieve the goal of clean water for the Chesapeake Bay. They have been and will continue to be a critical part of the solution for cleaning the bay. AFBF and its members will continue to work cooperatively with the states and other stakeholders to find and implement practical solutions to achieve a healthy Chesapeake Bay. Our …
Friday, October 15, 2010
New 'pollution diet' will regulate the amount of pollutants entering the water.
It's time for the Chesapeake Bay to tighten its belt, by way of a "pollution diet." That was the word coming from Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) officials at a public forum held Oct. 13 at the Sheraton Annapolis Hotel. Speaking to a full house, in the middle of the afternoon on a weekday, state and federal officials discussed the new Total Maximum Daily Load (TMDL) plan for the Chesapeake Bay. Most often referred to as a "pollution diet," the plan is a strategy to put a cap on how much nitrogen, phosphorus and sediment flows into the Bay each day. A number of factors contribute to the influx of these pollutants and it's time they are addressed, officials said. Under the Clean Water Act, TMDLs are required for any waters that don't …
Liz Vanden Heuvel
9:19 pm on Friday, April 22, 2011
I really liked the article and have already made plans to celebrate Earth Day with the Sierra Club. We have worked hard in this area to protect the environment in many ways. David Prosten is an excellent example of those who go beyond duty to bring the message to other citizens and legislators, more ›