Steven Warren

Bell 3A
11/4/13
Watershed Woes: The Ailments of the Chesapeake Bay Watershed
With the pollution from population centers, even bodies of water far from
civilization have become contaminated with fertilizers and animal waste products. These
contaminants have altered the pH and oxygen levels in the water, making it harder for
fish and other marine organisms to survive. These changes disrupt the ecosystem,
allowing the prey of the harmed organism to breed out of control, and exposing the
predator of the organism to the harsh effects of starvation. Biologists have been testing
the water in the southern reaches of the Chesapeake Bay watershed, but cannot clean
the waters up without funding from the Federal government. While we certainly have the
technology and physical resources to implement at least small scale cleanups in
Virginia, money is a severely limiting factor to these efforts.
Biologists have been very successful in implementing water tests, but these are
only status updates. States cannot provide any more funding to these projects, and
cities lack the resources for a large scale cleanup. This leaves the Federal Government,
and with problems such as a sky high national debt and a stationary Congress, tax
dollars cannot be adverted to such a cause. Because of a lack of money, the pollution
cannot be removed from the waters, and the ecosystem will remain damaged. While
Biologists work hard to maintain the ecosystem, politics and money prevent their goals
from being achieved.
Biologists, though limited by finance, are able to improve the situation. First, by
conducting water tests, the general public may become aware that their water is in an
unacceptable state. While the majority of the general public cannot support even small
scale cleanups, they hold significant weight with vote-needy congressmen, who can
certainly pass a budget that allots for watershed cleanup. Therefore, by informing
citizens of problems, the citizens are able to alter the state of their rivers. Another way
that science may be able to fix this problem is to make it more affordable to clean the
watershed. New technologies may be able to nullify the pH of water and increase the
oxygen content in a more cost effective manner than is presently available. Through
new technologies and public awareness through water testing, Science is making a
difference in the security of the watershed.
Although limited by resources, scientists are still able to make considerable
headway in cleaning up Virginias rivers. Through ingenuity and raising awareness,
biologists can improve the watershed, despite various economic and political problems.