Chesapeake Bay improving, but gets D+

RICHMOND, Va. (AP) - The Chesapeake Bay is showing encouraging signs of improvement but remains afflicted with dead zones, fish kills and pollution, the Chesapeake Bay Foundation said Tuesday in its "State of the Bay Report."

The report notes improvements since the last report in 2008 in eight of 13 indicators, including a rebounding blue crab population and flourishing underwater grasses, a key habitat for crabs and other marine species.

Using a grading system, the bay's overall grade was a "D-plus," up slightly from the 2008 grade of "D."

"The good news is the Chesapeake Bay is getting better," William C. Baker, president of the foundation, said in an interview. "The bad news is it's still a system out of balance."

The report was released as the Environmental Protection Agency prepares this week to establish mandatory pollution limits for six states and the District of Columbia, which comprise the 64,000 square-mile watershed. The TDMLs - or total daily maximum loads - are aimed at reducing the bay's nitrogen and phosphorous levels by one-quarter by 2025.

"We are at a tipping point," Baker said. "If the EPA stands firm, and the states deliver on their commitments, the bay will become resilient and bountiful. At the same time, reducing pollution will create jobs and improve local economies."

In the foundation's report card, nitrogen and phosphorus levels remain well above recommended limits to restore the bay. The sources are primarily stormwater pollution, urban and agricultural runoff, and detergents.

Fed by this pollution, algae blooms suck oxygen from the bay, creating vast dead zones where no marine life exists.

The foundation measured the bay's health by using 13 indicators. They included marine life such as oysters, shad and striped bass; buffering factors such as forests and wetlands; and water clarity, toxics and dissolved oxygen.

Fisheries such as rockfish and crabs ranked among the highest, although the report raises concerns about striped bass spawning numbers, which were below average for the third year in a row. The bay's blue crab population more than doubled since 2008, to an estimated 315 million.

Management efforts by Maryland and Virginia have been key to their recovery. The states set catch limits, tinkered with the seasons and bought licenses back from watermen, all to ease pressure on the crab.

"The good news there is that a formula was followed," Baker said. "That formula is: use science to set a limit. It's a terrific development."

Under the pollution category, grades were in the "F'' and "D'' range, although water clarity and the toxics category showed improvement since 2008.

Using another measure, the foundation puts the bay's health at 31 out of 100 - with the top measure being the unspoiled ecosystem described by Capt. John Smith during the first European exploration of the bay.

"Our belief is a 50 would be a stable Chesapeake Bay system and a 70 would be restored," Baker said. "We very much believe that a 50 really should be achievable by 2025."

The report also pointed to a new threat to the bay: drilling in a vast natural gas deposit called Marcellus shale, which lies beneath portions of upstate New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Maryland, Virginia and West Virginia.

The gas is obtained through a process called hydraulic fracking, which uses water, abrasives and chemicals to drill through layers of shale for the gas. The EPA is studying the process to see what risks it poses to water supplies.

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Online:

Chesapeake Bay Foundation: www.cbf.org

Hearing concludes on water rates

December 3, 2010 - By Matt Armstrong Journal Staff Writer

RANSON - After the conclusion of a two-day public hearing regarding a proposed water rate increase for Jefferson Utility Inc. customers, those involved will have to wait possibly until January for a decision from the West Virginia Public Service Commission.

The public hearing was called, in part, because a number of JUI customers, as well as the Jefferson County Commission, filed for intervenor status with the PSC to protest JUI's most recent rate increase request, which was in excess of a 70 percent increase to current water rates.

JUI owner Lee Snyder, who also owns Snyder Environmental Services, has said the rate increases are needed because JUI, a privately owned company, has continued to lose money over the past several years.

JUI's water rate is $63.60 per 4,000 gallons of water per month, which makes more than 2,000 JUI customers pay the third-highest rate for water in West Virginia, according to a PSC Sewer Utility Cost Ranking from Nov. 26.

The public hearing was presided over by Sunya Anderson, an administrative law judge with the PSC, and Ron Robertson was the PSC staff attorney assigned to the case.

Jefferson County Assistant Prosecuting Attorney James Casimiro was the County Commission's attorney in the case, and attorney Sam Hanna represented Citizens for Fair Water, another intervenor group. Charles Town attorney Dan McDonald represented JUI.

One of the issues raised during the hearing was JUI's financial relationship and debt to JUI, and Snyder admitted that JUI's losses have been dragging SES down since JUI was founded. In an e-mail sent after Thursday's hearing, Casimiro said, "SES is the real utility," and, "JUI is a utility on paper only."

"The evidence showed that the financial arrangements between SES and JUI are so purposefully convoluted that JUI can continue to claim it is losing hundreds of thousands of dollars a year," he said. "Meanwhile, SES's balance sheets remain confidential and hidden from public scrutiny."

Another issue raised by Hanna and Casimiro involved alleged "double billing" that JUI enacts on its customers, which Snyder denied after the hearing.

"There's no double billing, and (Casimiro) knows that," Snyder said. "(Hanna) just wanted to try to make it sound like there was some deception here, but that's clearly not the case. There's certainly no double billing, and we would never be so unfair to even suggest something like that."

Citizens for Fair Water President Craig Daniel said that while he was frustrated with parts of the hearing, he believed good things came out of the proceedings.

"A lot of information that needed to come out has come out, but at the same time, I think until these two companies (JUI and SES) are split and all the convoluted interminglings of the two companies are split, we're never going to be able to truly understand what's happening," Daniel said. "The rate I'm being charged, I don't know any more about it now than I did before."

Jefferson County resident Chris Cody, also with Citizens for Fair Water, said he's "cautiously optimistic" about the decision the PSC will make in the case.

"I think that the Public Service Commission is finally starting to work on the side of the citizens of Jefferson County and the citizens that are paying Jefferson Utilities," Cody said. "I think that they're finally starting to realize that ... the way this is all accounted for is so convoluted that the accountants can't even figure it out. Snyder's own comptroller couldn't figure out how he came up with some of his numbers."

Snyder acknowledged the accounting complexities involved in the hearing and said it was easy for numbers to be misrepresented.

"Unfortunately it's a complicated hearing, there are a lot of accounting complexities and it's easy to misrepresent things inside of that," Snyder said. "And that's what I think we saw at the end of the hearing."

Now that the public hearing has concluded, Anderson must file a brief with her recommendations no later than Dec. 17, and any reply briefs will have to be filed by Dec. 23. The PSC will issue a decision on the case no later than Jan. 7.