New attorney general pledges an active role on environment

Wednesday, March 7, 2007

Click here to enlarge this photo Staff Photo by Jesse Yeatman Maryland Attorney General Douglas F. Gansler (D) told an audience at St. Mary’s College of Maryland on Saturday that his office will take on a larger role to protect the environment. E-Mail This Article | Print This Story

Gansler was the keynote speaker at a symposium on the health of the Chesapeake Bay held at St. Mary’s College of Maryland.

Gansler said that his office has a limited role in growth, but does have an indirect impact on Smart Growth policies — the plan to have orderly development in specific areas of the state.

The attorney general’s office also aids in monitoring the state’s 66 sewage treatment plants, which discharge nitrogen and phosphorus into the bay and its tributaries, indirectly robbing the water of oxygen needed to sustain marine life.

By 2011, sewage treatment plants are supposed to put out no more than 3 milligrams per liter of nitrogen and .3 milligrams per liter of phosphorus.

Gansler said that he is appalled that heavy rains still cause overflows at some plants. Stormwater and sewage are supposed to be kept separate.

Gansler a Democrat and former state’s attorney of Montgomery County joked, ‘‘The Republicans now get it” — that it is a good idea to protect the environment — because now there aren’t as many animals to shoot.

He called the Susquehanna River, which is fed by tributaries in Pennsylvania and New York, one of the most polluted rivers in the nation. It brings in a large portion of freshwater into the Chesapeake.

As for those few who still work the water for a living, he said, ‘‘If we continue to allow this situation to go on, we’ll never get it back.”

In the 1860s, half of the world’s oysters came from the Chesapeake, he said. Now only 3 percent of the nation’s oysters come from the bay.

There will be more enforcement on polluters, he said, especially those in agriculture and power plant companies. His office’s environmental crimes unit will be built up, he said. ‘‘The focus has to be on the bay,” he said.

Instead of dumping chicken manure, used as fertilizer, into the watershed, it should be converted into energy, he said.

A man in the audience told Gansler, ‘‘You’re saying the most I’ve heard,” but that politicians and officials often talk about improving the bay’s health, but no results come of it.

Gansler said, ‘‘I have a very cynical view of politicians” who come along making promises. ‘‘I’d rather actually do it and talk to them afterward.”

Gansler also lent his support to a bill introduced to the Maryland General Assembly that would reduce the percentage of phosphorus in dishwashing detergent. Maryland law limits the level to 7 percent. ‘‘It’s a really good bill and I hope it gets passed,” Gansler said.

The symposium, hosted by the college’s Center for the Study of Democracy, the Environmental Studies Program and the St. Mary’s River Watershed Association also gave recognition to former Sen. Bernie Fowler. Fowler has campaigned for decades to clean up the Patuxent River, most famously through a series of wade-ins to monitor water clarity.

When he was a young man, he could see his shoes at the bottom, but that was a long time ago. Fowler, who turns 83 in less than three weeks, said progress on improving the Patuxent’s health has been slow going.

However, he offered, ‘‘The darkest part of the night is just before the dawn; think about it.”

E-mail Jason Babcock at jbabcock@somdnews.com.