Atlantic CoastWatch January - February, 2007

Caribbean Confrontations
News For Coastal Advocates
Many citizens of Jamaica, the world’s fifth largest producer of bauxite, the
principal source for aluminum, suffer health problems as a result of the dust pollu-
tion accompanying mining operations. In Grenada, it is the critically endangered
z
Grenada dove, of which only at most 180 individuals are thought to survive, that
faces not just illness but extinction as a consequence of development activities. On
both islands, storms are brewing around prospective government actions that are Caribbean Confrontations 1
hotly opposed by grassroots people and local and international environmentalists.
Florida Acts on Insurance 1
In Jamaica, Alcoa and a local state run company, Clarendon Alumina
Production Ltd., seek to begin bauxite mining operations in the island’s northwest- Sayings 2
ern region. Called the Cockpit Country, this remote part of the island is controlled by
the Accompong Maroons, descendants of slaves freed by the Spanish in the 17th
Courts & the Seashore 3
Century. Late last year, with the Maroons threatening street protests as only the
beginning of a do-or-die struggle to save their homeland, the government withdrew
licenses given to the companies in order to study the issue more thoroughly and Publications 3
give both sides time to present arguments. No decision is expected soon. If the
government sides with the miners, says journalist Garfield Myers of the Jamaica ExxonMobil Oils Brooklyn 4
Observer, its decision would be “very, very unpopular.” (Alcoa also faces citizen
opposition in Trinidad and Tobago, where it seeks to build a $1.5 billion aluminum FEMA Hydro-Planes 4
smelter on a manmade island in a shrimp spawning area.)
Toxic Ammo at MMR 5
The conflict in Grenada pits the Toronto-based Four Seasons resort and
luxury hotel chain against an array of environmental groups seeking to save the
dove. In 1994, in order to protect the bird, the government declared the 154-acre Barrel Scraping 6
Mt. Hartman National Park along a stretch of the island’s southwest coast, a key
portion of a larger government-owned tract called the Mt. Hartman Estate. Now, Greens Warm to Developer 6
say environmentalists, the government “intends” to de-gazette the entire estate
and enable Four Seasons to proceed with plans to build a resort complex including a Puerto Rico Trashed 7
golf course on the property. Local environmentalists, in partnership with Birdlife
International and the American Bird Conservancy (ABC), are making strenuous Low Country Seafood 8
efforts to oppose the move using a website to promote a barrage of e-mails and
letters, and deploying other strategies, to save Grenada’s national bird from what
Atrazine’s Aquatic Threats 8
they describe as near-certain extinction. Pressure to let Four Seasons in also runs
heavy. But, says ABC president George Fenwick, “We’re not done yet.”
z

Florida Acts on Insurance Crisis Recurring

“Our Insurance Disaster,” headlined the Orlando Sentinel. “Prices are People; Awards; Species &
skyrocketing. Insurers are dumping tens of thousands of customers. Schools, Habitats; Restorations;
businesses, and residents are having to reduce or go without coverage.” Through- Report Cards; Products;
out early January, myriad similar articles mushroomed throughout the state (and
Funding
beyond), citing citizen complaints of redlining and huge jumps in premiums even
though 2006 turned out to be a quiet hurricane year.
Atlantic CoastWatch is a bimonthly
“A basic tenet of American homeownership—the idea that you should be nonprofit newsletter for those con-
able to sink most of your wealth into a house and insure it against loss at an afford- cerned with environmentally sound
able price—is suddenly drifting out of reach for more and more Floridians,” the development between the Gulf of
Sentinel continued. Not only had private insurers lowered the boom on Maine and the eastern Caribbean.
(Continued, p. 7)

Atlantic CoastWatch
Vol. 11, No. 1
A project of the Sustainable
Development Institute, which
seeks to heighten the environmen-
tal quality of economic develop-
ment efforts, in coastal regions, by
communicating information about
better policies and practices. SDI
is classified as a 501(c)(3) organi-
zation, exempt from federal
income tax.
Board of Directors
Freeborn G. Jewett, Jr., Chair
Robert J. Geniesse, Chair Emeritus
Roger D. Stone, President
Dale K. Lipnick, Treasurer
Gay P. Lord, Secretary
Nelse L. Greenway
David P. Hunt
Hassanali Mehran
Simon Sidamon-Eristoff
Advisers
William H. Draper, III
Gary Hartshorn
Stephen P. Leatherman
Jerry R. Schubel
Christopher Uhl
Staff
Roger D. Stone, Director & President
Shaw Thacher, Project Manager
Anita Herrick, Contributing Editor
Robert C. Nicholas III, Contr. Editor
Foundation Donors
Avenir Foundation
The Fair Play Foundation
The Madriver Foundation
The Curtis and Edith Munson
Foundation
The Summit Fund of Washington
Sponsored Project
15th Annual Environmental
Film Festival in the Nation’s
Capital, March 15 - 25, 2007
Featuring screenings of documentary,
feature, archival and animated films.
www.dcenvironmentalfilmfest.org
2
Sayings
“Our Creek Died Before Our Eyes: A Lesson in Suburban Ecology,” by free-lance
writer Laura Hambleton, was first published in The Washington Post on February
4, 2007. It is reprinted with her permission.
A creek runs along the outskirts of my neighborhood in Chevy Chase, Md.
It bubbles up from a spring in the middle of the Chevy Chase Country Club golf
course, flows under Wisconsin Avenue and comes out beneath a small concrete
bridge. I pass over it often as I walk to the Metro or nearby shops in the District.
Some days I see mallard ducks paddling in circles.
The stream then travels through a stand of trees, over rocks and around
boulders, past back yards and the backsides of buildings, and by a pool. The creek
is called Little Falls Branch because it drains into Little Falls Creek and eventually
into the Potomac River. The presence of ducks and the stream’s moments of
natural beauty, however few, are deceiving.
I first walked along Little Falls Branch five years ago with Sarah Morse, a
neighborhood mom who had been trained to monitor creeks by the county and by
the Isaak Walton League. In turn, Morse was educating fourth-graders from our
school about this habitat. The day I was with her and my daughter’s fourth-grade
class, we dragged out water samples to see what lived there. We stooped over
buckets, magnifying glasses, microscopes and slides. We found macroinvertebrates
and crayfish. Morse happily noted that so many lived in the stream.
After the outing, I felt almost warm and cozy, as though we were living in
some kind of balance with nature or that nature was adapting in a perverse way to
the endless development around us.
I was wrong. With each passing year, Morse has found fewer and fewer
creatures in the water.
Last year, she found none. This year, she changed the focus of her talk
from what lives in the creek to what used to live in the creek and what killed it.
“Forget global warming,” she said to my youngest child, now in fourth grade, and
his classmates a few weeks ago. “We’ve killed a habitat in our own back yard.”
I’ve repeated her words to friends. They’ve put a chill on many a conversation.
Little Falls Branch is fed by the spring, by rain and, mostly, by storm runoff.
Therein lies the issue. As more and more of the surrounding area has been paved
and storm water has been diverted through sewers and tunnels and funneled into
the stream, the sheer volume of water has overwhelmed any small creatures,
killing them, Morse said.
Macroinvertebrates like to live under rocks just below the waterline to
catch any nutrition as it floats by. As ever-increasing amounts of water flow into
the stream, more silt and mud are left behind, smothering any chance of life. Large
volumes of water also erode the banks of the creek and destabilize root systems.
As the fourth-graders walked the stream, jumping over it at times and
staying close to its banks, Morse pointed out exposed tree roots and the foundation
of an apartment building slowly sliding into the stream. We stopped at a small pool
of water that had turned an iridescent blue. The source of the pollution wasn’t
immediately clear, but it was surely a byproduct of our lives.
Although the children and I walked away that day with a better idea of how
this water system is interconnected, that understanding paled next to my feeling of
loss: In the five years since my daughter and I first visited our neighborhood creek,
it had died, right under our gaze. And we did nothing about it.
 3
People

Courts & the Seashore In January, Max Mayfield resigned

from the National Weather Service
after 34 years in government service.
z EPA regulations issued in 2004 specified how power plants were to protect
Most recently, he was director of the
aquatic life when taking in water to cool their machinery. Subsequently the agency
National Hurricane Center, where he
tolerated methods such as simply restocking fish rather than incurring higher costs
served during the disastrous 2004 and
by upgrading to better technology. But now, reports The Journal News, the 2nd U.S.
2005 seasons. In resigning, Mayfield
Circuit Court of Appeals has ruled that in order to comply with the Clean Water Act
expressed his frustration with the
the EPA must compel the plants to use the best available technology, such as closed
public and politicians neglectful of the
cycle cooling systems, even if higher costs are involved. The ruling, which may
dangers inherent in barely restrained
affect Hudson River valley plants using older technologies, resulted from litigation
coastal development.
brought by several environmental groups including local Riverkeepers.
James Ahern, a Bergen Record
z Up to now, the EPA required notorious polluters of the sewage-laden
columnist, fondly remembered Helen
Anacostia River in Maryland and the District of Columbia to meet only annual or
Fenske, the recently deceased garden
seasonal caps on their discharges. Recently, by refusing to hear an appeal from
club lady who saved New Jersey’s
EPA and the DC Water and Sewer Authority, the US Supreme Court let stand a
Great Swamp. She first took on the
lower court’s ruling mandating daily caps. “The most significant effect of the
Port of New York Authority over its
decision,” reported The Washington Post, “probably will be on the District’s
plans to build a fourth airport by
antiquated sewer system, which dumps out raw sewage and rainwater during
draining the swamp and paving over
storms. Environmentalists had argued that the damage done by each one of these
much of it, bulldozing her house in the
‘overflows’ was so severe that an annual limit was not adequate.”
process. Fenske became an expert on
the swamp and its many wild inhabit-
z North Carolina agriculture officials had sought fines totaling $184,500 on
ants, recruiting neighbors and funders
tomato grower Ag-Mart for repeatedly violating pesticide laws and exposing
for the cause.
employees to toxic pollutants. But, reported The Associated Press, administrative
law Judge Beryl Wade found many of the alleged violations invalid, based on a
“misinterpreted document.” The entire fine on which she decided: $500. Awards

z Judicial relief for beleaguered 730-square-mile Lake Okeechobee, FL Winner of the top award conferred by
(Atlantic CoastWatch July-August 2006) came in December, when after a year-long the Chesapeake Bay Trust is tireless
trial US District Judge Cecilia M. Altonaga handed down an important ruling Annapolis area activist Anne Pearson.
mandating cleaner water for the lake. Florida water managers, she stated, had Founder of the Alliance for Sustain-
violated the Clean Water Act by pumping contaminated farm water into the lake; a able Communities in Anne Arundel
further hearing would determine what to do about it. The ruling brought predictable County, Pearson has long complained
yelps from EPA and local water managers, who argued that it would make it more about how stormwater runoff is a
expensive and more difficult to deliver South Florida’s water—and that the judge’s leading source of pollution. She
ruling is based on a misinterpretation of the power under the Clean Water Act. advocates an annual impact fee to
counter the pollution and erosion
resulting from the runoff. Much as she
expressed appreciation for the award,
Publications she said, she also felt “despair”
because in spite of all her efforts she
z Generations of boaters have relied on the sound advice rendered by has not yet been able to accomplish
generations of Duncans and co-authors in the classic work A Cruising Guide to the her goal.
New England Coast. In 2005 former schoolteacher Roger Duncan, 90, son of the
original cruising guide co-author and himself the co-author of many editions, Responding to a VHF radio distress
stepped out on his own to publish Afloat and Ashore (Blackberry Books). This wide- call last summer, Captain Mike
ranging collection of articles about Maine sailing experiences and much more won Stewart of TowboatUS in North
high praise from reviewer Janet Mendelsohn in the magazine Maine Boats, Homes Miami found a disabled captain
and Harbors. “With grace and intelligence,” she wrote, “Roger Duncan has earned aboard another towing vessel. A cleat
a place in the pantheon of Maine’s distinguished writers.” had separated from the boat he had
been towing. It struck him in the head,
z Timely reading in the new era of global warming and accelerating sea level causing extensive bleeding, shock,
rise is The Disappearing Islands of the Chesapeake by William B. Cronin (Johns and erratic violent behavior. Disre-
Hopkins University Press 2005). A retired oceanographer and tireless writer, garding his own safety, Stewart
Cronin spent his entire career at the Johns Hopkins Chesapeake Bay Institute, jumped into the injured captain’s boat,
accumulating immense amounts of knowledge about history, culture, and life on the subdued him, rendered medical
bay. In this volume he engagingly chronicles the heroic efforts of many people to assistance, and helped provide
save its low islands as the bay’s water rose one foot during the 20th century and transport to a hospital. For his
they gradually gave way to storms, surges, and resulting erosion. “I guarantee you heroism Stewart won an award from
will not lose interest as he island-hops,” wrote one reviewer in Bay Weekly. the American Boat and Yacht Council.

Species & Habitats
The Caribbean Conservation Corpora-
tion (CCC), prime organization for the
conservation of sea turtles in the US
and the Caribbean, reported bad news
about the mighty (up to 4 ft long and
reaching 400 pounds) loggerhead
turtle. According to data compiled by
the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conserva-
tion Commission, nest counts in the
state, prime nesting area for the
threatened species, have dropped
22% statewide since 1989 and 40%
since 1998 at the state’s most impor-
tant nesting beaches.
Cuba, thrilled by reportedly major
offshore oil discoveries north of the
island, has divided the region into
exploration blocks and is making deals
to begin drilling with a number of
foreign companies. Not so thrilled,
says the Palm Beach Post, are owners
of tourism activities in the fragile
Florida Keys, only 50 or so miles
away, who fear that spilled oil could
kill mangroves and coral. The north-
ward-flowing Gulf Stream could,
moreover, carry spilled Cuban oil
northward and deposit it onto beaches
along the state’s east coast.
The giant barnacle, Megabalnus
coccopoma has been found in the
waters off Georgia and South Caro-
lina. It is a native of the West Coast
from Southern California to South
America. Its appearance would
indicate that the waters have warmed
enough to allow it to survive. Much
larger than the native barnacle, it can
cement itself to docks, buoys and hulls
and interfere in oyster beds.
The Asian green mussel, Perna Viridis,
has also made its way up the coast. It
is originally from the Indo-Pacific
region and was first documented in
U.S waters in Tampa Bay in 1996. It is
larger than North American mussels,
3-6 inches as opposed to 2.2 inches,
and can reproduce quickly. A possible
benefit from the green mussels is that
they are good filter feeders. They are
also edible - farm raised in Asia and
available at your local supermarket.
While protection efforts for the scarce
piping plover have been successful in
Rhode Island and Massachusetts, the
US Geological Survey reports an
overall “broad decline” for that and
4
ExxonMobil Oils Brooklyn
Under the Greenpoint area of Brooklyn, NY, a century of leakage from oil
refineries and storage tanks has created a vast underground reservoir of petro-
leum products. New York state estimates the total spill at 17 million gallons vs. the
11 million gallons spilled in the famous Exxon Valdez grounding in Alaska. For
years local residents claimed they could predict a change in the weather as a result
of lower air pressure letting fumes escape from the ground.
In 1990, Standard Oil and its successor Exxon (now ExxonMobil) signed an
agreement with the state’s Department of Environmental Conservation to proceed
with a cleanup. However, no timetable was included and, reports Bloomberg News,
probably less than half the job has been accomplished. Benzene, methane and
other dangerous substances remain in the ground. In 2004, the environmental
group Riverkeeper brought suit along with local residents who had long objected to
fumes coming up in their basements and out of the soil. Enter the state attorney
general’s office, which under new Governor Eliot Spitzer had taken over jurisdiction
and has threatened ExxonMobil, Chevron, BP, KeySpan, and Phelps Dodge (the last
two for toxic pollutants in the soil and in nearby Newtown Creek, which separates
Brooklyn and Queens) with legal action under federal environmental laws.
Barry Wood, an ExxonMobil spokesman, stated that “While the cost is
confidential, ExxonMobil is committed to remediation of site, and we have been
aggressive in our efforts and have made significant progress.” Countered Andrew
Cuomo, the attorney general: “This is one of the worst environmental disasters in
the nation....The toxic footprint of Exxon Mobil is found all over this area. It is
ExxonMobil oil that remains under the homes and businesses. And it is ExxonMobil
that has dragged its feet and done as little as possible to address the dangers that it
has created.”
State officials claim that the other companies have been cooperative in
cleaning up their properties. But ExxonMobil is said to have declined to take
responsibility for stopping continuing leaks at two of its sites and, according to one
report, uses cleanup methods resulting in the discharge of even more pollutants
into the creek.
FEMA Hydro-planes on Floodplains
At the core of the woes of the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) are
decades old floodplain maps that encourage development in flood-prone areas by
omitting them. Little wonder then that with the NFIP $20 billion in debt, and FEMA
underwriting $870 billion worth of flood prone properties nationally, updating more
than 100,000 floodplain maps has gained urgency.
Currently $3 billion is budgeted towards updating floodplain maps over
several years, in processes that employ FEMA’s national mapping standards. The
problem, as identified by a Temple University flood plain assessment of the
Pennyback Creek watershed, is that sticking to FEMA’s map standards generates
products that are too generalized and will, warns the survey, continue to understate
flood plain risks.
The Pennyback Creek watershed, a microcosm of a major national issue, is
one of the Philadelphia region’s most flood prone suburbs. Its 11 municipalities are
home for 300,000 people living within the watershed’s 56 square miles. In June
2001, 12 of these residents died from flooding. According to the Philadelphia
Inquirer’s September 2006 series “A Flood of Trouble,” $30 million in claims have
been paid in the Pennyback Creek watershed over 3 decades, largely going to some
properties that repeatedly file damage claims.
(Continued, p. 5)
 5
29 other shorebird species surveyed
in the northeastern US and southeast-
Toxic Ammo at MMR ern Canada between 1980 and 2000.
Declines of more than 50% were
recorded for 13 species and more
In 1997 the EPA banned the firing of lead bullets on the Massachusetts than 60% for 7 species including the
Military Reservation on Cape Cod and required the Army to quantify the level of black-bellied plover, American golden-
lead pollution from decades of live firing and create a lead pollution prevention plover, killdeer and 3 sandpiper
plan. Instead, the Army in 1999 adopted the use of new “green” bullets employing species. USGS researchers could not
tungsten powder bound with nylon, ignoring a consultant’s report that the sub- confirm that the results mean a
stance may be “more dangerous than lead.” But despite subsequent research decline in populations moving through
indicating that tungsten powder leached into the environment, the Army did not the area; changes in migration
reveal these findings to the National Guard, manager of the base’s firing ranges, or movements could also be the cause.
to the state.
Familiar to many scientists and
In early 2006 a water sample taken from a small arms range indicated watershed managers is a well-
concentrations of 560 parts per billion, and in February of that year Governor Mitt researched rule of thumb: when more
Romney banned the use of tungsten bullets at the Cape. While its toxicity to than 10% of a river’s watershed
humans is not established, tungsten in animal tests has lowered fertility and may becomes paved with so-called
increase the risk of cancer from other substances. So far there is no evidence the impervious surfaces, water quality
metal has migrated to off-base water. declines sharply and problems mount.
In Maryland’s Severn River, scientists
Now, reports the Cape Cod Times, the Army is studying results of past have documented a classic case of
explorations and drilling test wells in order to assess lead pollution and is testing this syndrome: as shopping centers
new designs for ranges to prevent it. It is anticipated that lead bullets landing in an and other hard surfaces proliferated
experimental sandbox would not break apart, exposing lead to the elements and on the river’s banks, draining toxics
allowing leaching into the aquifer. and other pollutants into the water,
populations of the once-plentiful
Other refinements, the Times continues, include wooden structures above yellow perch have dropped sharply. A
targets that keep lead bullets from being exposed to water, and the addition of lime group of scientists in the region calls
to the soil to limit lead drainage. Another option is a bullet trap being tested which itself the Impervious Serfs, reports
would allow removal of the lead from the area. Before training can begin on these The Washington Post. They have
ranges both the State and EPA will have to give their approval. made a presentation about the
consequences of too much pavement,
and are showing it to interested
FEMA, cont’d from p. 4 audiences around the state.

In 2002 Temple began its Pennyback Creek study using more detailed
Restorations
contour and tributary data than FEMA requires, while laboriously examining the
“real-world” drainage capacities of often blocked culverts, ditches and storm Since August 2006, New Hampshire’s
drains. By 2006 the Temple study found 24% more high risk areas (3.4 square John Decker, AKA the “Sign Bandit”
miles, total) over the FEMA estimate. Temple found 131 more properties than the has been getting arrested by Ports-
577 FEMA had identified. 47 “new” miles of tributaries were added to the 78 on mouth and Rye police for his removal
which FEMA had based its floodplain assessment. of illegal signs that bespeckle road-
ways. Decker, an advertising execu-
For the creek’s residents and municipalities, FEMA’s reaction to the Temple tive, had verified with public agencies
study was even more shocking than the survey results. Stating that Temple had that they were neither able nor willing
exceeded FEMA’s mapping standards, FEMA refused to add Temple’s floodplain to keep up with a surge of roadside
maps to its national map collection, a critical NFIP bureaucratic step that decides ads. Drawing upon the national
floodplain coverage and where developers can build. Further, whether or not publicity that Decker’s activism
municipalities elected to use the Temple assessment, or decided not to, lawsuits generated, NH state Rep. Jim Splaine
brought on by flood irate citizens or developers were bound to follow. proposed legislation to alleviate the
penalties for those who remove signs.
In January FEMA reversed course and endorsed the costlier Temple Said Splaine in the Portsmouth Herald:
methodology as a model for assessing flood plain risk. The agency did not, how- “I don’t want to see the sign owners
ever, make the budget changes that the Temple program requires. According to punished so much as I want to
the Inquirer, Eugene Gruber, director of FEMA’s federal insurance and mitigation empower citizens to remove the signs.
division in Philadelphia, noted that if counties and municipalities want the more Today the winners are the ones who
detailed assessment, they’ll have to pay for it. Some municipalities won’t be able break the law.” Said Decker: “I’d love
to. Others will elect not to. Many citizens who should be entitled to flood insurance to see people arrested for putting
coverage under NFIP will still not get it. And counties that employ the generalized those signs up. But it’s vandalism if I
FEMA guideline will allow construction where they should not. take them down.”

With abandoned naval yards a dime a
dozen along the Atlantic seaboard,
developer John J. Knott Jr. has found
an especially innovative use for a
grimy old warehouse building on the
grounds of the US naval yard in North
Charleston, SC, shuttered since 1996.
As part of a large-scale redevelop-
ment on the grounds, Knott’s Noisette
Company peeled off layers of grit,
installed green buildings and systems,
and offered to rent portions of it as
artists’ studios. At first the going was
slow, reports the New York Times.
But now there is a waiting list thanks
to way below market rental rates
made possible because the building,
listed on the National Register of
Historic Places, won tax breaks.
Report Cards
Oysters may be tough enough to
withstand relatively low levels of
heavy metal pollution, reports
ecophysiologist Inna Sokolova of the
University of North Carolina at
Charlotte. But when the pollution is
coupled with high seasonal tempera-
tures, says the university, “the
combined effect is strong enough to
lead to fatal weakness and disease.”
Thus revealed is “an additional impact
that warming coastal waters may
have on cold-blooded organisms.”
Sokolova’s findings appear in the
December 2006 issue of the Journal
of Experimental Biology.
A study by researchers at the Univer-
sity of Delaware and Stanford
University projects that the wind over
the Middle Atlantic Bight, the area
between Cape Cod, MA and Cape
Hatteras, NC could produce 330
gigawatts of electrical power if
thousands of wind turbines were
installed off-shore. This area encom-
passes more than 50,000 square
miles, and includes 9 states and the
District of Columbia. The region
currently uses 185 gigawatts of
electricity, so this windfield would
potentially supply a 50% increase in
demand. The advantage of having so
many turbines over such a wide area
is that it would allow consistent
electrical generation despite the
natural fluctuations in wind patterns
and power. The study took into
account areas which would have to be
excluded because of shipping lanes,
bird flyways, and even viewsheds.
6
Barrel Scraping
After a recent meeting in Nairobi, the UN’s Global Environment Forum
reported that at the current rate of exploitation the likelihood of the disappearance
of fish stocks throughout the world’s oceans by mid-century is very real. Recent
stories coming from the Gulf of Maine point to the drastic depletion that has
happened in the past 50 years in what was once a rich and productive fishery.
An article in the New York Times focused on the delectable chowder that
Dick Bridges, a fisherman in Stonington, ME, was building for a group of friends and
colleagues. Fish chowders have traditionally incorporated a bit of everything from
the day’s catch: cod, haddock, halibut, cusk. In 1985, 7 million pounds of groundfish
were landed in Stonington. Ten years later, the fish had disappeared from
Penobscot Bay. In Stonington, there is nothing now to fish commercially except
lobster, so Bridges’ soup should properly be called “Lobster Stew.”
As the fish become scarcer, fishermen reach lower down the food chain In
Milbridge, Lawrence and Drusilla Ray of Cherry Point Products have been process-
ing sea-cucumbers for several years now. They are pleased to have been able to
add another species to their roster: the hagfish. The results from this first year of
processing hagfish, which they freeze and ship to South Korea where both the skins
and flesh are used, “have been pretty good,” said Lawrence Ray. He has not tried
the fish himself, nor would he recommend it for anyone’s chowder pot. It is a
primitive species related to lampreys. Colloquially, it is known as “slime eel”,
because it protects itself from predators by producing large quantities of slime.
This fishery first appeared in the Gulf of Maine in the mid-1990s, and it may
follow what has become a trend. A new species is found marketable. Soon it is
overfished, adding to further depletion of the bio-mass. This trend does not bode
well, adding a touch of weight to the UN’s forecast.
Greens Warm to Developer
For fully 20 years Washington, DC developer John A. Clark has yearned to
bring about his dream: the environmentally sensitive, New Urbanist-style develop-
ment of a scenic 1,650 acre parcel of land 15 miles from Fredericksburg, VA. The
project, called Haymount, would bristle with environmentally correct features
including state of the art wastewater and storm drainage systems, an organic farm
and market, and many other green amenities.
Elaborate care would be taken to preserve the tranquil rural character of
the site, while also offering commercial opportunities and on-site retail shopping.
The 4,000 dwelling units and all other development would be placed on the 34% of
the site that had previously been farmed; the rest of the land would remain open
space. Some 300 feet of riverfront, which could be sold as waterfront plots for a
handsome profit, would instead be preserved as a park with residential units set
back from the water. Haymount “not only promises a sense of place,” reads
promotional material. “It is a place.”
For all that, Clark and his partners spent vast amounts of time not only
struggling with permitting and financing issues, but also facing opposition from
environmentalists insisting that Haymount was at best “the right development in
the wrong place.” But now, with construction underway and the first residential
units expected to be occupied next year, Clark has won over the once-antagonistic
greens. The principal former foe, the lively, Fredericksburg-based Friends of the
Rappahannock, now considers Haymount to be a “model” of low-impact develop-
ment. They have become so enamored of the project, reports The Associated
Press, that they plan to occupy an office on the site that Clark is building for them.
 7
Seeking the cause of large fish kills in
the Potomac basin in 2003, scientists
found that there was an unusual
FL Insurance Crisis, cont’d from p. 1 number of intersex fish (male fish with
female characteristics). The US
homeowners; so had the state-run Citizens Property Insurance, which ran deficits in Geological Survey followed up,
2004 and 2005 and reacted by more than doubling premiums in some areas—in analyzing the chemicals in both the
one instance, reported the New York Times, from $2,006 to $4,700 in the past year. rivers’ waters and the fish. They
found pronounced levels of endocrine
In last fall’s election campaign, virtually every candidate for the state disrupters, which interfere with
legislature pledged to address the issue. The governor-elect, Republican Charlie natural hormones and are absorbed
Crist, lived up to his campaign promise by convening a special session. The result by the fish from the water. The source
was a series of measures including repeals of Citizens Property rate increases and of these compounds appears to be
a scheme whereby private insurers would get backup coverage from the state’s effluent from wastewater, both
Hurricane Catastrophe Fund in return for lower premiums. agricultural and municipal. Flame
retardants, pesticides, steroids and
Some, stressing the spirit of bipartisan cooperation that characterized the antibiotics all contain some of these
week-long session, called its outcome “a good start.” Others, hoping for sharper compounds, which do not dissipate
cuts in premiums than what seemed to be taking shape, were underwhelmed. For and therefore end up in the water-
the longer term, a representative of the Insurance Information Institute told the ways.
Times that “lasting relief could come only from building less on Florida’s vulnerable
coasts and requiring the strictest of building codes.” The US Army Corps of Engineers
reports that 122 levees nationwide
are at a risk of failing. This list did not
include any of those on the Gulf Coast.
Puerto Rico Trashed Twenty of the levees cited are along
the Atlantic seaboard. The Corps has
Scanning the island of Puerto Rico, one of the wealthiest places in all Latin given the communities three months
America, the Associated Press’s Michael Mejia reported findings not usually to come up with a plan and a year to
associated with tropical landscapes. Mejia saw rusted cars, dismembered appli- implement the repairs. This is a tall
ances and at least one dead horse on the banks of the Rio Grande de Loiza. He order for many; for instance, Lincoln,
found five leaky landfills that regulators are moving to close down because of the NH’s estimated cost for the work is
contamination seeping from them into surrounding soil and groundwater. He also $500,000 to $1 million, according to
unearthed evidence that the territory produces 1,420 pounds of trash per person Ted Sutton, the town manager.
per year—”more than nearly any other country except the United States.” Lincoln is a small town, which took ten
years to raise the money for a new
EPA regional administrator Alan Steinberg termed the situation no less town hall that cost $250,000 to
than “a state of environmental crisis.” Recycling rates are only about 10% despite $300,000. As it is, the communities
government public relations efforts. More than half its surface water and 99% of have not been able to keep up with
reservoirs are polluted, Mejia stated. The Loiza and other rivers spew nutrient and basic maintenance, which is one of the
toxic pollution, causing health issues. reasons the levees are in such
disrepair.
Though government officials are showing greater environmental aware-
ness and citizen groups are pitching in with clean-up efforts, Mejia continued, some Products
forms of remediation are rendered difficult because of often-strained relations
between the territory and the United States. Islanders are, for example, resisting The Oregon-based group Meeting
Steinberg’s suggestion that waste be burned to generate electric power—a Strategies Worldwide (MSWW) has
technology that remains controversial in the US itself. come up with a handy, web-based
“Calculator” that assesses the
environmental impact of a meeting or
With Appreciation event in such categories as food
leftovers, locally produced food, travel
distance, recycling and reuse of food
Very special thanks to The Summit Fund of Washington, Freeborn G.
and beverage containers. Environ-
Jewett Jr., and Lee M. Petty for their most generous contributions to the Atlantic
mental groups have signed on with
CoastWatch program, and to these other recent donors:
enthusiasm, using the calculator in
their efforts to achieve MSWW’s
E.U. Curtis Bohlen Gay P. Lord
highest possible MeetGreen rating.
Celia F. Crawford Natural Resources Defense Council
Robert J. Geniesse Eric Ostergaard
Nelse L. Greenway Frederick A. O. Schwarz, Jr. Funding
Mel and Lissa Hodder Clyde E. Shorey, Jr.
Timothy L. Hogen Wren W. Wirth Developers in eastern Massachusetts
Hunter Lewis and Elizabeth Sidamon-Eristoff now have a chance to destroy

Tax-deductible contributions for Atlantic CoastWatch are urgently needed.
wetlands if they buy credits in a Pilot
Wetlands Mitigation Bank. It plans to
use the funds to restore a 1,800 acre
cranberry bog, said to be the world’s
largest, in the town of Hanson.
Though the model has succeeded
elsewhere, this is the first such effort
to be mounted in New England.
Locals are skeptical, reports the
Boston Globe. While the restoration
will benefit one community,
naysayers argue, all 42 others in the
program encompassing the Taunton
River watershed stand to lose
valuable resource areas and local
control. Even in Hanson there is
suspicion. “Maybe when we know it
better, we’ll be more comfortable,”
town Conservation Agent Janine
Delaney told the Globe. “But we’re
not there now.”
As the proposed cost of cleaning up
the Chesapeake Bay continues to
mount to an estimated $28 billion, and
as the chances of meeting agreed-
upon 2010 pollution control targets
fade, the Chesapeake Bay Foundation
has proposed innovative new legisla-
tion for Maryland that would help
control Bay pollution and fight sprawl.
Expected to generate $130 million a
year, the so-called Green Fund would
impose on developers a fee of $2 per
square foot of blacktop or other hard
surfaces located outside designated
growth areas. Within them, the fee
would drop to 25 cents per square
foot. 35% of the program’s revenues
would go, via the state’s agriculture
department, to farmers in support of
their efforts to reduce pollution;
smaller portions to other conservation
initiatives. The state’s new governor,
Martin O’Malley endorsed the
program. So has the Democrat-
controlled legislature’s majority
leader, Michael E. Busch.
Atlantic CoastWatch
Sustainable Development Institute
3121 South St., NW
Washington, D.C. 20007
Tel: (202) 338-1017
Fax: (202) 337-9639
E-mail: susdev@igc.org
URL: www.susdev.org
www.atlanticcoastwatch.org
Low Ebb for Low Country Seafood
The South Carolina Lowcountry seafood industry is in peril, reports the
Post and Courier. Creeks once lined with commercial fishing docks have come
under heavy pressure from more profitable recreational marina, residential and
tourism development. Lower priced imports have reduced the market for locally
caught seafoods. Not long ago, when Cherry Point Seafood unloaded 13,000
pounds of the grouper-like wreck-fish, only 1,400 pounds could be sold in Charles-
ton. Fishermen, facing federal catch restrictions as well as rising costs and foreign
competition, are increasingly reluctant to remain in the trade. “Shrimping is all but
gone because the local catch couldn’t compete with cheaper imports,” the paper
says. All too visible at Cherry Point are old, sinking boats no longer in use.
It’s a Catch-22 situation, the paper continues. “The docks can’t stay in
business because there are too few boats. The boats can’t do business if they
can’t dock.” In an effort to revive the trade and steer tourist dollars toward the
fishermen, Cherry Point owner Micah LaRoche founded the South Carolina
Seafood Alliance, but not much came of it. A man once told LaRoche that the best
use of his dock land was for condominiums. At the time, LaRoche said he had it
wrong. Now, he sighed, “I think he might be right.”
Atrazine’s Aquatic Threats
Atrazine, an herbicide extensively applied in the US to broadleaf and
grassy weeds, also suppresses the photosynthesis of algae. Research by NOAA’s
National Center for Coastal Ocean Science exposed 5 species of algae (phy-
toplankton) to atrazine contamination levels often found in rivers and estuaries.
The laboratory based result was a “significant decrease” in the algae’s size and
protein composition and rate of growth. “Many aquatic animals such as clams and
oysters rely on phytoplankton as a food source,” said Marie DeLorenzo, NOAA
research ecologist. “Disruption to the cellular composition of phytoplankton
species may negatively affect nutritional levels of the plant, resulting in decreased
growth rates for those animals that consume phytoplankton.”
Atrazine has also been fingered among the chemicals that disable a fish’s
sense of smell, critical for identifying predators, locating food, mates and spawning
grounds. Research at Simon Fraser University in British Columbia showed that
atrazine exposure at 1 part per billion (ppb) reduced the effectiveness of coho
salmon’s olfactory senses by 11%, which dropped their responsiveness to preda-
tor alarm odors by 45%. Exposures of 100 ppb eliminated any sense of smell.
What we’re finding,” said NOAA’s Nathaniel L. Scholz, is that “even short-term
exposure to many of these pollutants - on the order of hours - can interfere with
olfaction.” Other common products that harm fishes’ sense of smell include
Roundup, Diazinon, copper based pesticides, and some wood preservatives.
Atrazine was banned in Europe in 2006.