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The Potomac Highlands Watershed School Stream Cleaner Environmental Forum 2013 |
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The Potomac Highlands Watershed School Stream Cleaner Environmental Forum 2013 |
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The Potomac Highlands Watershed School's Environmental Forum provides a setting for students and teachers to explore regionally important environmental issues in depth. Students work both as a class and with other students across the internet to understand problems and to seek solutions that are broadly acceptable to their communities.
Stream Cleaner Environmental Forum 2013 on Water Quality and Best Management Practices March 11 through April 17, 2013 CLOSED
Before a class begins reading the material on this page, they should take the Pre-Post Survey.
Welcome and Introduction Worksheet
Why You Matter! A Welcome from Jeffrey Lape, Former Director of the Chesapeake Bay Program "On May 12, 2009, President Obama signed an Executive Order that recognizes the Chesapeake Bay as a national treasure and calls on the federal government to lead a renewed effort to restore and protect the nation's largest estuary and its watershed. You are now part of that effort."
The SCE Forum has two parts:
During the SCE Forum, you will join classmates and students from other schools in exploring one of the most complex environmental problems ever to confront the United States, saving the Chesapeake Bay from decades of pollution. You will learn about:
Your challenge as a class will be to propose a solution that really cleans your waters and that your community would find acceptable.
Participating classes can receive technical and financial support to design and implement their own real-world best management practice projects - like those on our eSchool Projects Page - as demonstrations of watershed stewardship and as long-term living classrooms.
2. The eForum has five distinct stages:
3. There are a few ground rules for this Forum. While you may debate it in your class, for the purposes of your decision making you must assume that there is, in fact, a big problem, that the problem is as large as the Chesapeake Bay Program (CBP) says it is, and that the CBP's estimates of sources are reasonable. During the final week, you must work as a group to find a solution to the problem. All serious entries will be posted as submitted (including typos and grammatical errors). "Act of God" solutions will not be considered. In other words, you may not assume that the problem will solve itself. Just keep in mind that what you write will be available for the entire world to read. No pressure. Finally, there is a lot of information on this page and in associated links. It is only a small part of what is out there on the web and in print on this topic. While everything on this page is important, you can get a pretty good overview of each topic by reading this page carefully and then focusing on the links with a☺beside them.
Essential Background Worksheet
Words, words words - SCE Forum's essential vocabulary.
Why should we try to restore the Bay? The Chesapeake Bay might seem to be a long, long way from your home. You may never have seen it. Heck, you might never have even taken a step out of your home state. But you live in the Bay’s enormous watershed, a watershed that stretches from upstate New York to southern Virginia, and from Delaware to the Potomac Highlands of West Virginia. And you do have an impact on the Bay in the choices you and your neighbors make on how to use and manage our lands. And the Bay has an impact on you, from the oysters many people love to eat in the fall, to providing an important engine for the region’s economy.
Simply put, the Chesapeake Bay is a national treasure. It’s the largest estuary in the United States and one of the most productive in the world. Home to more than 3,600 species of plants and animals, it also provides important economic, recreational, cultural, and educational resources to the more than 16 million people who live in the watershed, and to the region’s untold visitors. Unfortunately, after many years of receiving pollution from its 64,000 square mile watershed, the Bay is in serious trouble.
All of the states in the Bay watershed have committed to reduce the flow of key pollutants - nutrients and sediment - to the Bay, which Bay scientists have determined are the key in restoring it to health. Each of the Bay states established Tributary Teams to develop strategies for reducing nutrients and sediment, and to implement their strategies. This effort will impact every community in the region for many years to come. To get an overview of what is involved, you can read a summary of West Virginia's 2004 Potomac Tributary Strategy here.☺
To help you understand this very complex problem, the Potomac Highlands Watershed eSchool has placed information in the eSchool library, and added links to information on other websites, in five key categories: water quality science, the Chesapeake Bay models, Best Management Practices (BMPs), the Tributary Strategy process, and understanding stakeholders. We also have essays from professionals who work on Chesapeake Bay and related issues to provide their perspectives on the process and the problems. Think of them as Native Guides and watch for their contributions with large bold links in a cursive font. (Note: Cacapon Institute is deeply grateful for the contributions of our Native Guides to the SCE Forum experience.)
You can’t begin to understand this material without first learning some water quality terminology:
T he SCE Forum will consider only non point source pollution. Point source pollution is a big part of the problem in many parts of the Bay watershed, but solutions to the point source problem are mostly technological, financial, and regulatory.
On the other hand, solutions to the non point source pollution problem have much more to do with educating the general public and gaining acceptance of the need to change the way we manage our landscape. In many ways, the non point source contributions to the Bay’s problems are the more difficult to solve.
The landscape and proportion of land uses in Stream Cleaner are representative of a typical rural watershed in West Virginia's Potomac Highlands.
Because the Chesapeake Bay's problems are very important to the region, Bay issues have frequently been in the news for several decades. These days, they are in the news just about every day because, by Executive Order of President Obama in 2009, the federal government increased the pressure on the states to do everything that is necessary restore the Bay to health. That pressure has resulted in a lot of newsworthy activity. Here are three articles from The Washington Post that provide an overview of important activity in recent years: The Chesapeake Bay Program collects relevant news stories from around the Bay's watershed every day. And you can take a look at a few of the stories that CI has highlighted for past Stream Cleaner eForums. Can you find more stories?
Water Quality Section Worksheet
Many perspectives on water quality are needed to understand the problems facing the Bay. You can look at water quality in the Bay itself, in the large rivers like the Potomac and Susquehanna as they flow into the Bay, or in the innumerable headwater streams throughout the Bay watershed. Guide 2. Your Water Quality Native Guide is Neil Gillies (Cacapon Institute). Mr. Gillies has been studying headwater streams in the Potomac Highlands since 1985. He provides perspective on the study of non point source pollutants, specifically nutrients, based on real data from CI's programs. The next step up is to look at water quality at the large river scale. The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) is taking a lead role in these studies.
If it hasn't happened already, your teacher should now present ☺ a Chesapeake Bay Program PowerPoint presentation that provides an excellent overview of the science as it relates to the Bay (we sent them the link so they could download this presentation). It describes how excess nutrients and sediment impact aquatic plants and result in lower dissolved oxygen levels. It is dissolved oxygen levels in the Bay that we are trying to improve, because without sufficient oxygen, the Bay is dead. Learn more about all of these issues at these additional links:
6. The Chesapeake Bay Watershed Model Scientific models are mathematical representations of the real world. In environmental science, models are often used to estimate the effects of complex and varying environmental events and conditions, to understand large scale processes that can't be observed directly in their entirety. The Chesapeake Bay Program uses various mathematical models to simulate processes in the air, land, and water of the 64,000 square mile Chesapeake Bay drainage basin, which is much too large and complex to isolate for experiments in the real world. Their models use the results of small scale scientific experiments on subjects like the effect of a specific land use change on water quality, and apply them to the whole Bay watershed. These models allow Bay scientists to simulate changes in the Bay ecosystem due to changes in population, land use, or pollution management.
This link☺leads you to a quick look at graphs of nutrient and sediment load estimates from the Chesapeake Bay Watershed Model. These graphs will help you understand where the model predicts pollution is coming from. It is important to remember that models are not the same as reality, and that the Bay models seek to understand an incredibly complex system of 64,000 square miles. Based on real world water quality monitoring results, the CBP’s scientific and technical advisory committee believes the model is overestimating progress in restoring the Bay. This happens in part because the Chesapeake Bay Watershed Model generally uses best management practice "efficiency" assumptions based on idealized research conditions, rather than from field studies on these practices as they are actually installed. It is important to note that the process is under nearly constant review and, as better information is obtained, changes to modeling assumptions are made (this approach is known as adaptive management). The problem of overestimating progress has led to many controversies and concerns that the Bay models do not simulate actual conditions closely enough. For example, in 2005 the non partisan Government Accounting Office criticized the Bay Program for overstating its progress. They found that largely because the Bay models overestimated progress toward achieving water quality goals, the Bay Program minimized threats to the Bay and was failing to address its problems. We continue to use models, however, because they remain the best scientific tool for estimating what average conditions are likely to be in a complex system where reality is enormously difficult to understand and far too costly to physically measure. You can read more on the weaknesses and strengths in this section of the West Virginia Tributary Strategy. In addition to the Chesapeake Bay Program’s model, the U.S. Geological Service has a statistical model available called SPAtially Referenced Regressions On Watershed (SPARROW), which uses a nonlinear regression approach to spatially relate nutrient sources and watershed characteristics to nutrient loads of streams throughout the Chesapeake Bay watershed. For more information on the USGS SPARROW map visit this site. It has great information and really wonderful maps of output from the SPARROW model (near the top of the page, labeled Figures).
7. Tributary Strategies and Watershed Implementation Plans
Cleaning up the Bay is about a lot more than just science and models. It also involves the interplay of science and government policy. The federal government's central role as the Chesapeake Bay Program (U. S. Environmental Protection Agency, U.S. Geological Survey, U.S. Department of Agriculture, etc.), state and local government, and local stakeholders all play essential roles in creating a workable plan and generating support from state and federal politicians, support that will be needed to generate the huge amounts of money to pay for the cleanup.
The states in the Chesapeake Bay watershed - Delaware, Maryland, New York, Pennsylvania, Virginia, and West Virginia - the District of Columbia, and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency are working together to clean up the Bay. They have determined that restoring the Bay’s health will require reducing the flow of nutrients (nitrogen and phosphorus) and sediment transported from each of the Bay States into the Bay, and have set maximum loadings for nitrogen, phosphorus and sediment in each State’s waters.
West Virginia took a uniquely open approach in the development of its Potomac Tributary Strategy by forming the West Virginia Potomac Tributary Strategy Stakeholder Group. Members of the community were invited to work with the WV Dept. of Environmental Protection, WV Conservation Agency, and WV Dept. of Agriculture in a comprehensive planning process to produce a plan that would equitably reduce nutrient and sediment loads from West Virginia. The stakeholders also sought to develop a plan that would minimize economic and social burdens on our community.
West Virginia's 2005 Potomac Tributary Strategy document provides a wealth of useful information that is referenced below and elsewhere on this page: To read the entire document, including specific strategies developed by WV stakeholders, (it's 50 pages long), click here, then click on West Virginia Potomac Tributary Strategy (PDF). A shorter, 18 page summary is here (PDF).
Every state in the Bay watershed created their own approach to developing their tributary strategy. In December 2010, the tributary strategies were replaced by state-developed Phase I Watershed Implementation Plans (WIPs) and a federal Total Maximum Daily Load (TMDL). WIPs are the next step in the continued progression toward a restored Chesapeake Bay. These plans consider such things as ecological restoration and sustainability while allowing for greater transparency and accountability for improved performance. Mike Galvin, of the Urban Long-Term Research Areas: Exploratory Research Projects, thinks that Chesapeake Bay Watershed Implementation Plans represent the most important restoration initiative in the world. Each of the seven Bay watershed jurisdictions created Watershed Implementation Plans (WIPs) that document how they will partner with federal and local governments to achieve and maintain water quality standards. To find out about these processes, the tools used and state contacts, please visit the Watershed Implementation Plans page.
See how well the states are doing in
achieving their TMDL goals.
Best Management Practices are methods for preventing or reducing the
pollution resulting from some activity. The term originated from
rules and regulation in Section 208 of the Clean Water Act.
This piece
from Watersheds.org provides a simple introduction to the concepts
of Best Management Practices (BMPs) as things we can all do that
lessen the impact of activities which might harm the environment.
Read another good
introduction
to BMPs for your community from the Chesapeake Bay Foundation.
☺
Also from the Chesapeake Bay Foundation, learn how
Stimulus Money
Increases Small Farm Jobs, Improves Economy.
All of the Bay states have urban issues, even rural areas like West
Virginia. Urban forester Frank Rodgers describes the non point
source problems caused by urbanization and suggests a series of
urban BMPs that really make a difference
here.
☺ Creative
approaches to urban BMPs have also been in the news recently.
From Ann Arundel County comes news that
"County officials tout
eco-friendly stormwater fix County officials seek to change
developers' hearts and minds as they tout eco-friendly stormwater
fix" - you can
read about it.
(PDF file.)
The Chesapeake Bay Program is constantly working to improve their
understanding of the watershed, including their understanding of how
well existing BMPs work. They also seek new BMPs to help solve
the problems.
This paper from the Bay
Program's Scientific and Technical Advisory Committee (STAC) (600 kb pdf document) is technical but very readable, and not in the least
shy about identifying deficiencies in the current program. The
Summary, Introduction, and Background sections are well worth your
time.
West Virginia's Potomac Tributary Strategy provides
a list of BMPs.☺
A
West Virginia success story! ☺
Using Best Management Practices and community support to clean
up the North Fork of the South Branch of the Potomac . West Virginia Potomac Tributary Strategy is conducting a Forested Riparian Buffer Demonstration Project ☺that is assessing relative survival of trees using different planting methods. To paraphrase a famous movie: "If you plant them, they may not grow." At one of the sites that was not growing due to deer browsing, Cacapon Institute is conducting a low-cost deer fencing experiment that is allowing plantings that were failing to succeed. CNMP Watch is the complete Web source for Comprehensive Nutrient Management Planning (CNMP) information.
9. Stakeholders If you are taking part in the Stream Cleaner Environmental Forum, then you are role-playing as a member of a stakeholder group. This section is about you! As a member of a stakeholder group; you need to understand as much as you can about the role you play in the Bay's problem and restoration. You also need to understand the roles others play. In order to successfully reach consensus with other stakeholder groups, you need to be able to intelligently discuss your groups concerns and find common ground with others. Reaching the ambitious nutrient reduction goals needed to restore the Bay will not be easy. With more than 16 million people living and working in the Bay watershed, our individual impact on water quality takes a toll on the quality of local waters. Each Bay state's Tributary Strategy relies heavily on voluntary adoption of BMPs by the private sector, including farmers and homeowners, to achieve its goals.
Ultimate success will require working with farmers and homeowners to encourage voluntary reductions of nutrients and sediment flowing from yards, cropland, pasture, and sources of concentrated animal manure such as cattle feedlots. All state Tributary Strategies and Watershed Implementation Plans seek to reduce pollutant loads by implementing a comprehensive suite of voluntary BMPs. Regulatory changes are also needed, to require that all new construction projects, including housing developments, manufacturing facilities, and even new schools, be built in a way that minimizes their contributions of nutrients and sediment to local waterways and ultimately the Bay. The WV Potomac Tributary Strategy's chapter on Challenges to Implementation provides insight into the thinking of different stakeholder groups who actually participated in developing WV's strategy. This is a must read!Cacapon Institute works to develop approaches that make adopting environmentally friendly farm practices a good business decision for farmers.
Farming Communities: Guide 4. Your Agricultural Community Native Guide is Matt Monroe (Environmental Coordinator for the WV Department of Agriculture). Matt is a key player in West Virginia's tributary strategy process, and provides his unique point of view on the agricultural community's perspective.☺ Consensus Building: Guide 5. Your Bay Foundation Native Guide is on the efforts of the Chesapeake Bay Foundation, a non profit organization with a mission to restore the Bay. They work to build consensus between groups to restore the Bay, which is what you will be doing during the third week of the SCE Forum. ☺ Community Restoration: Guide 6. Your Community Restoration Native Guide is biologist Sandy Burk, author of Let the River Run Silver Again! This book tells the exciting story of students like you who are helping to restore the ecologically important fish American shad. They are now cleaning up streams and rivers in their own neighborhoods- all while performing important community service and earning credit for school too. This is proof that individuals can make a difference. We’ve provided you with a great deal of information - and now it is your turn to do more research. Go back and look in more depth about your state’s Tributary Team process, use a few of the links below, or find your own resources online, in print, or in the news that will help get your stakeholder Point Of View across to others.
A West Virginia success story! Using Best Management Practices and community support to clean up the North Fork of the South Branch of the Potomac . And many more ....
10. Paying for it
Paying for the Bay cleanup will be incredibly expensive. This document ☺from the WV Potomac Tributary Strategy details the costs for West Virginia alone, and West Virginia is only a small part of the solution. There are quite a few government programs that provide cost share money to farmers to help pay for environmental practices.
There are other innovative ways to provide support for protection of our lands:
11. General Links Chesapeake Bay Program - a link to America's Premier Watershed Restoration Partnership
Chesapeake Bay Program - Watershed Implementation Plan Tools. The Watershed Implementation Plan Tools Page serves as a resource to each state's Tributary Team coordinators and teams as they develop their Tributary Strategies. This page provides key information, presentations, data, and other tools to help each jurisdiction develop their Tributary Strategies. It is also a forum for sharing ideas and approaches for distilling down highly technical information into a form that stakeholders can understand and use in developing their Strategies.
The Chesapeake Bay Foundation (CBF) is the largest conservation organization dedicated solely to saving the Chesapeake Bay watershed.
The Chesapeake Bay Foundation (CBF) prepares an annual State of the Bay Report, the annual report card on the health of the Bay. You can see historical CBF State of the Bay reports beginning in 2000.
The Alliance for the Chesapeake Bay is a regional nonprofit
organization that builds and fosters partnerships to protect and to
restore the Bay and its rivers.
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