13,2 



(The statement referred to follows :) 



[From the Congressional Record, Tuesday, April 15, 1969] 



Apathy in Chesapeake Ba-s Devedopment 

 (By Representative Rogers 0. B. Morton (R.-Md.) ) 



Mr. Speaker, before us today is another bill, which I support, aimed at con- 

 trolling pollution of our water resources. The measure authorizes new weapons — 

 in the form of funds, demonstration projects, and educational programs — to be 

 used in our fight against this encroachment on our environment. 



We can see the vital need for acts of this nature when we consider the impact 

 of pollution on a specific body of water. For this reason, Mr. Speaker, I would 

 like to speak at this time on a matter of grave economic and environmental im- 

 portance to this Nation. This is the rapidly accelerating deterioration of Chesa- 

 peake Bay, the largest, possibly the most magnificent, and certainly the most 

 productive estuarine area in the United States. 



Mr. Speaker, let me hasten to say I am indeibted to many i>eople who are 

 dedicated to the proposition of conserving our environment, and particularly to 

 saving this magnificent Bay and its system of watersheds. 



We have been guilty of an almost criminal neglect in allowing urban and 

 technological pressures to stalk virtually unchecked through the estuarine en- 

 vironment. Pollution is steadily, silently winning its fight against society. Its 

 arsenal consists of ignorance, temporizing and apathy — ^simple weapons which 

 man effectively uses against himself. 



If the Chesapeake Bay water resource planning and concomitant action are 

 to be more than a frantic race to catch up with the present, immediate action 

 must be forthcoming. A study of wide scope is urgently needed to develop a com- 

 prehensive plan to set forth an effective and rational program of management 

 for the Chesapeake Bay. The Corps of Engineers has been authorized to make 

 this study ; the problem has been that the funds have not been appropriated. 



The Chesapeake Bay, situated as it is in a rapidly expanding industrial and 

 urban complex, is as vulnerable to the adverse effects of the works of man as 

 any other estuarine system in the world. In order to save it, we must institute a 

 sound program based on a firm foundation of an expanding estuarine and water- 

 shed management technology. 



The problems that are emerging today forecast the magnitude and complexity 

 of problems expected in the future. In 1960, the 64,000 square mile drainage 

 basin was the recipient of the waste products of an estimated 11 million people. 



This population will grow to approximately 17 million by 1990 and is projected 

 at 30 million in the year 2020. 



The increasing nutrient and chemical loads in the Bay system is a problem 

 of great concern. One appalling source of this is the District of Columbia sewerage 

 system. After final treatment, it discharged some 8 million pounds of phosphorus 

 and 2.5 million pounds of nitrates into the Potomac River annually. Unless tertiary 

 treatment facilities are provided, the above numbers can be expected to double 

 within the next 25 years. An excess of chemical nutrients frequently leads to 

 explosive blooms of algae and to increased growth of noxious aquatic weeds which 

 triggers other problems. These noxious weeds tend to trap silt, potentially caus- 

 ing a shoaling problem. Small boats are inoperable in areas heavily infested by 

 weeds. Further, vreeds affect the recreational and esthetic use of the waterways. 

 If nutrient discharges are excluded from a flowing nontidal river, the river in 

 time will revert to its natural state. But, the damage done to the estuary by 

 excess nutrients is virtually irreversible because of the continuous recycling of 

 the nutrients. 



It is generally believed that the present trend toward more intensive urban 

 development in the United States, and in nearly all other nations, will persist at 

 least through the end of this century. Problems associated with water resources 

 management in urban areas have become both acute and complex. As this develop- 

 ment moves along the tributaries of the Bay system, we shall see radical changes 

 as more and more agricultural and forest lands are replaced by streets and 

 roofs. 



Urban construction skins the earth's surface and can increase sediment yield 

 a thousandfold. These sediments enter the Bay and smother bottom-dwelling 

 organisms and create esthetically objectional conditions. Over the centuries, shore 

 and bank erosion have removed much fine agricultural land, in fact a number of 

 islands in the Bay have completely disappeared. 



