Closer Scrutiny of Farm Pollution Urged in New Abell Foundation Report on Bay Recovery

A report released in early December by the Abell Foundation --The Chesapeake Bay and Agricultural Pollution-- concludes that efforts in Maryland to restore the pollution-damaged watershed are being threatened by misguided state clean-up priorities, and by inadequate monitoring of the biggest source of Bay pollution: agriculture.  Maryland Morning senior producer Rob Sivak invited two authors of the report -- Rona Kobell, a veteran environmental journalist who now writes for the Bay Journal, and Dr. Robert Summers, the former Maryland Secretary of the Environment who works today as senior research scientist with the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Sciences -- and Lynne Hoot, executive director of the 400-member Maryland Grain Producers Association, to discuss whether the state’s farmers are doing everything they can to help clean up the Bay.