Possible Good News for the Chesapeake Bay?

Environmentalist including those at The University of Maryland College of Agriculture and Natural Resources, The Chesapeake Bay Program, and The Chesapeake Bay Foundation all expressed enthusiasm for a USDA $850,000 grant to install experimental Combustion and or Gasification systems to treat chicken manure on the Eastern Shore of Maryland in an article published in the Star Democrat on October 4. The grant is administered by The Fish and Wildlife Foundation who will decide where to install the systems in the next few months.

This is an important development for Bay restoration since chicken manure is second only to fertilizer application as a source of Eastern Shore nutrient pollution. According to USGS chicken manure is 35% of nitrogen pollution, while CBF states that it is 26% of Phosphorous pollution. This grant comes in a year when record oxygen dead zones were recorded in The Chesapeake Bay. These technologies produce not only needed green energy but also biochar a soil supplement that can improve soil tilth and reduce erosion. March of 2011 also saw record sediment intrusion into the Chesapeake Bay.