The Chesapeake Bay is the largest estuary in the US… that is, a body of water where fresh water mixes with salt water. The Bay is 200 miles long, nestled into the three east coast states of Delaware, Maryland and Virginia.

About half the water in the Bay comes from the Atlantic Ocean. The rest pours in through rivers, streams and springs that flow through an enormous 64,000 square mile watershed. This watershed includes the three states that border the Bay, plus the states of New York, Pennsylvania and West Virginia, and the District of Columbia.

It’s easy to see why trying to coordinate the effort to maintain and improve the health of the Chesapeake is difficult. It involves 7 different governing bodies, all with their own priorities when it comes to environmental issues.

The Susquehanna River at the head of the Bay is responsible for fully half of the fresh water coming into the Chesapeake, about 19 million gallons per minute. This river runs through New York and Pennsylvania before it even gets to Maryland and the bay. And there are over 150 other major rivers and streams that lead into the bay’s waters.

Every river is a source of pollution. Human activity, agricultural run-off, sporadic spills from old and inadequate sewage plants all end up in the bay, from hundreds of miles around.

There are large and growing areas of the bay that are devoid of oxygen during summer months. Enormous algae blooms are becoming more common. Water quality in most of the bay raises the question if swimming should still be allowed. The effects on Chesapeake wildlife is evident first in the decline of our fishing industry. There are fewer watermen each year, taking in less catch.

It is a matter of how long can the Chesapeake bear up under the pressure of our human excess and procrastination. In the District of Columbia alone, our nation’s capital, outdated sewage treatment plants dump raw sewage into the Potomac River, which flows straight into the Bay, every time we get a heavy rain.

The Chesapeake Bay is a thing of beauty, four seasons a year. It’s the sailing capital of the Americas. Despite fishing restrictions, the Bay produces more than 500 million pounds of seafood per year. There are 3600 species of plants, fish and animals within her 12,000 miles of shoreline.

A prime mover in cleaning up the Bay has been the Chesapeake Bay Foundation, who recently, after long fought battles, has successfully won a binding agreement with the EPA that will require pollution reduction across the Bay’s watershed.

Dumping into this national treasure is like using the Grand Canyon as a landfill. Too long have we been guilty of “out of sight, out of mind.” Congratulations to the CBF.

For more articles on the Chesapeake by this author, see: Wildlife, The Osprey, The Great Blue Heron, The Eagle, The Oyster