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Revitalizing Baltimore's Inner Harbor: A Path Towards a Healthy Chesapeake Bay

Once a bustling hub for trade and industry, Baltimore’s Inner Harbor now faces significant environmental challenges. With deteriorating water quality, high levels of toxicants, and sewage issues, the harbor's health is in jeopardy. However, initiatives like the Healthy Harbor initiative aim to restore its integrity and make it swimmable and fishable by 2020. Collaborative efforts, including the Baltimore Watershed Agreement, focus on trash removal, stormwater management, and public education to ensure the future vitality of this vital waterway and its role in the Chesapeake Bay ecosystem.

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Revitalizing Baltimore's Inner Harbor: A Path Towards a Healthy Chesapeake Bay

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  1. Healthy Harbor Baltimore T’ara smith

  2. Baltimore and the Chesapeake Bay watershed

  3. History of the BalitmorE INNER harbor • 1706 – Official Port of Entry for MD Tobacco Trade • 1840s - Primary oyster canning industry • 1900s – Steel dominated industry • 1980s – National Aquarium and Harborplace opens • One of two Eastern U.S ports to have water depth at 50 feet or more • $3.2 Billion in annual revenue and local purchases contributed to MD economy • Exports: Coal, corn, soybeans, lignite, coal coke, petroleum • Imports: cars, trucks, iron ore, cement , machinery • Untouched by 1930s depression

  4. What it looks like now..

  5. Current state of the harbor • Very Poor Condition in: • - Dissolved Oxygen • - Water Clarity • - Nitrogen/Phosphorus • - Benthic Communities • - Toxicants • - Bacteria • Moderately poor for the surrounding tributaries • Sewage is a major problem for the Baltimore Inner Harbor - an ongoing challenge

  6. The future of the harbor?

  7. Save the harbor – healthy Harbor initaitve • Goal: Make the Harbor swimmable and fishable by 2020 • Similar to the Baltimore Watershed Agreement • - Signed in 2002, renewed in 2006 • - Baltimore City and County agree to clean up the area to help restore the Chesapeake Bay Watershed • - Stormwater and Trash were major concerns • Methods to Save the Harbor: • - Trash Removal /TMDLs • - Education • - Funding • - Harbor Stat • - Stormwater/Sewage treatment

  8. The global scale - Watershed management • Importance of Watersheds: why should we care? • International Water Initiative (IWI) and the International Joint Commission (IJC) • IWI introduced in 97 by the IJC • IJC was established by the United States and Canada • - International Conference on Sustainable Watershed Management • There has only been ONE – September 2011 • Next one is in April 2013

  9. references • Why Watersheds http://www.cwp.org/your-watershed-101/why-watersheds.html • Case Study – India http://www.mainstreamweekly.net/article516.html • Sustainable Watershed - http://igemportal.org/?Dil=1&SID=324 • Integrated Water Management - http://www.cogesaf.qc.ca/rv-eau/en/home.html • IWI - http://www.ijc.org/conseil_board/watershed/en/watershed_mandate_mandat.htm • Baltimore/Chesapeake Bay • http://www.msa.md.gov/msa/mdmanual/01glance/html/port.html - Port of Baltimore • Restoration Bay: http://www.chesapeakebay.net/track/restoration • Healthy Harbor http://healthyharborbaltimore.org/state-of-the-harbor/history-of-the-sewer-system

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