Coming Soon: Paper on Phosphorus Pollution in Chesapeake Bay

Posted on April 21, 2015 Updated on June 22, 2015

Over the past several weeks, my colleague and I, Neil Saunders, have written several posts on phosphorus regulations in Maryland. In addition to these posts, we have been working on a paper on phosphorus in the Chesapeake Bay, which looks at the nutrient, how it’s used in agriculture, and how phosphorus acts as a pollutant in underwater ecosystems. I have been researching phosphorus pollution from agricultural activity in Maryland, with a focus on the use of chicken manure as a fertilizer. Neil has been researching the pollution issue from the legislative end, looking at the history of regulations affecting water quality in the Chesapeake Bay watershed, and the history of phosphorus regulations in Maryland. He has described Maryland’s proposed regulations, the Phosphorus Management Tool (PMT), and described how the PMT fits in with broader efforts to curb pollution in the Chesapeake Bay.

We will be publishing our paper to this site in segments, likely a chapter at a time, over the next few weeks. Our hope is to increase understanding of the issue of phosphorus pollution in the Chesapeake Bay, and the impact agricultural activities can have on our local watershed. Phosphorus pollution to the Bay can be reduced considerably with the right legislation in place.