July-August 2018 Volume 28 Number 5 Exelon sues MD, Shells with baby oysters, calls Conowingo or spat, growing requirements on them, are washed an ‘unfair burden’ overboard ≈ State and utility at odds over from the who is responsible for pollution Oyster entering the Bay. Recovery Partner- BY KARL BLANKENSHIP ship vessel The owners of the Conowingo Dam Robert Lee and the state of Maryland have come to to seed a legal blows over whether the utility can be restored forced to pay potentially billions of dollars reef in the over the coming decades to help clean up Tred Avon the Chesapeake Bay. River in The Maryland Department of the 2018. Lack Environment in late April issued a of funds decision that could require the Chicago- will prevent based utility to pay up to $172 million a more reef year to help control nutrient and sediment construc- pollution flowing past the Susquehanna tion this River dam as a condition of it getting a year. new federal operating license. (Dave In late May, Exelon fired back, saying Harp) those conditions imposed an “unfair burden” on the 94-foot-high hydroelectric facility that would cost $7 billion over the Corps rejects MD request to fund oyster restoration course of its requested 50-year operating Lack of federal funds urging the Corps to explicitly request license — a figure the company said was ≈ Feds give qualified OK to dredge restoration funding in future years. “orders of magnitude” more than the dam may halt reef construction oyster shells from Man O’ War Shoal. Cardin said he reinforced that mes- was worth. in the Tred Avon River. See article on page 7. sage with senior Corps leaders when It asked the MDE to reconsider its BY TIMOTHY B. WHEELER Tred Avon. A Cardin spokesman said he met with them in early April. decision, and filed challenges in both state Bay Oyster restoration in Mary- his office has requested an immediate Sarah Lazo, spokeswoman for the and federal courts. Exelon said it went to land, which has been beset by disputes meeting with Corps leaders to get an Baltimore District, said the District court at the same time it asked the MDE and delays the last two years, appears explanation. had planned to issue a contract this to reconsider its decision because of the headed for further delays. Cardin had said in April that he year to construct the 45 acres of reefs “seriousness of the issues at hand.” Despite pleas and pressure from was “pretty confident” that the Corps needed to complete reef construction “The dam itself does not produce any the state’s congressional delegation, would provide at least some fund- in the Tred Avon River, with a cost pollution,” Exelon said in a statement the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers ing for oyster restoration in its Civil ranging from $3 million to $5 million. issued May 25. “Rather, the science left funding for oyster restoration out Works work plan, even though the She said the Corps headquarters pro- clearly shows that the pollutants that of its Civil Works work plan for the budget passed by Congress in March vides no explanation for why projects travel down the Susquehanna River, from current fiscal year, which ends Oct. 1. did not specifically allocate any are or are not included in the annual New York and Pennsylvania, are the That decision, disclosed in early June, money for such work. work plan. source of the nutrients and sediments that means the Corps’ Baltimore District Cardin said he had been optimistic Chris Judy, shellfish program flow into the Bay.” will have to shelve plans to complete because Congress has approved a director for the Maryland Depart- In response, the MDE said it would the construction of reefs in the Tred larger budget for the Corps than ment of Natural Resources, said state “vigorously defend our comprehensive Avon River on the Eastern Shore — at the White House had sought, and officials would work with the Corps to Conowingo plan to restore the river and least for now. members of Congress had expressed see “what the next steps are.” the Bay. The Hogan administration is Sens. Ben Cardin and Chris support for oyster restoration. Con- “This is exactly what we feared committed to using science, law and Van Hollen, both D-MD, expressed gressional rules prohibited earmark- would happen … It’s a real setback,” partnerships for environmental progress disappointment, noting that funding ing any of that extra funding for said Allison Colden, senior fisheries throughout the entire Chesapeake Bay was needed to continue the large-scale oyster restoration, but the budget bill watershed and the Conowingo plan is at restoration project under way in the passed in March contained language Oysters continues on page 9 Dam continues on page 27 Bay Journal • July-August 2018 2 is published by Bay Journal Media to inform Editor’s Note BAY JOURNAL the public about ecological, scientific, historic and cultural issues and events related to the Chesapeake Bay. The Bay Journal, circulation 35,000, is published monthly except in midsummer We’ll be out but still about this summer and midwinter. It is distributed free of charge. Bundles are available Summer is here, so it’s posting new material as warranted on our for distribution. Material may be reproduced, with permission time for our combined website, at bayjournal.com. and attribution. Publication is made possible by grants through July-August issue which There’s several other ways you can keep the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Chesapeake Bay gives our staff a chance to up with us: Program Office, the Campbell Foundation, the National Oceanic unwind and head outside, ≈ Sign up for our weekly e-newsletter and Atmospheric Administration’s Chesapeake Bay Office, the (and our readers a chance which each Monday presents everything Sumner T. McKnight Foundation, the Rauch Foundation, the to catch up with their Bay posted to our website the previous week. Fair Play Foundation, the Shared Earth Foundation, the Virginia Journals). Subscribe by going to our site, click the sub- Environmental Endowment, anonymous donors, and by reader We’re leaving you with scribe tab, and fill out the form. (You don’t contributions. Views expressed in the Bay Journal do not an issue packed with important stories. need to give up your hard copy subscription necessarily represent those of any funding agency or organization. The battle between Exelon and Mary- to get the newsletter). land over how much the Conowingo Dam ≈ “Like” our Facebook page, which high- For mailing list additions/changes, please use the form on this owner should contribute to the Bay cleanup lights all new Bay Journal articles as well as page or contact: Bay Journal, P.O. Box 222, Jacobus, PA 17407-0222 effort has far-reaching implications for the other content. E-mail: [email protected] Chesapeake. The Bay could use some help: ≈ Follow us on Twitter, which will keep BAY JOURNAL MEDIA The interim 2017 cleanup goal was missed, you alerted to new website posts and other and the EPA is warning states — especially Bay-related information. Bay Journal Media is a nonprofit 501(c)(3) organization with Pennsylvania — to ramp up efforts if they are a mission to further public education and awareness of issues to reach their 2025 objective. Welcome to Jeremy Cox affecting the Chesapeake Bay and the mid-Atlantic environment But there is some good news. Dolphins We recently welcomed Jeremy Cox to our by creating and distributing journalistic products. In addition are turning up in surprising numbers and in staff. Our first reporter on the Eastern Shore, to producing the Bay Journal, Bay Journal Media operates the surprising places, while the invasive Chinese Jeremy comes to us from the Daily Times in Bay Journal News Service, which distributes Bay Journal mitten crab doesn’t seem to be turning up Salisbury where he has worked since 2012. articles and original op-eds about the Chesapeake Bay or regional anywhere. Jeremy has been covering issues affecting environmental issues to more than 400 newspapers in the region, Last fall, Tom Horton and I sat down Maryland, Virginia and Delaware, and will reaching several million readers each month. for a long chat with University of Maryland help with our coverage of all three states. scientists Walt Boynton and Mike Kemp to Jeremy has been a reporter for daily news- Karl Blankenship, Executive Director talk about their long careers on the Bay, as papers since 2002, having previously worked Andrew Nolan, CPA, Chief Financial Officer well as the new signs of hope they see for the for the Florida Times-Union and the Daily STAFF estuary in their most recent work, which has News in Naples, FL. He’s been writing about just been published. In this issue, Tom writes the Bay since coming to Salisbury, but has Editor: Karl Blankenship ([email protected]) about their long careers in Chesapeake Born, plenty of previous environmental reporting; Managing Editor: Lara Lutz ([email protected]) while I write about how their work offers new Jeremy won awards for environmental cover- Associate Editor/Projects: Timothy B. Wheeler ([email protected]) hints of a Bay recovery. age while in Florida and participated in the CONTACT US Bay Journal News Service Editor: Tim Sayles ([email protected]) If you’re looking for something to do production of a 15-part series about the Gulf by mail: Copy/Design Editor: Kathleen A. Gaskell ([email protected]) during the summer, we have an expanded of Mexico while at the Naples Daily News. The Bay Journal Staff Writer: Jeremy Cox ([email protected]) five-pageBulletin Board section which offers Jeremy will continue to teach a course in 619 Oakwood Drive Staff Writer: Donna Morelli ([email protected]) all sorts of ideas.