Chesapeake Bay in ‘pitiful condition’

The writer of this Associated Press article about the estuary is being too generous when referring to the bay’s health like this. There are plenty of signs and bumper stickers and T-shirts and fund-raising appeals from groups like the Chesapeake Bay Foundation. But the multi-state Chesapeake Bay Program is a largely symbolic effort. The Bay (I live within its upper reach, in the Susquehanna River Basin) is dying and humans are singularly responsible, whether it’s nonpoint-source pollution or fertilizer runoff.