Maryland

Chesapeake Bay is cleaner but will miss 2025 pollution targets, lawmakers say – Maryland Matters

Published

1 year ago

September 26, 2024

Chesapeake Bay is cleaner but will miss 2025 pollution targets, lawmakers say – Maryland Matters

By Mennatalla Ibrahim and Andrea Durán

WASHINGTON — The Chesapeake Bay is cleaner than it used to be but is falling short of 2025 targets for reducing pollution, state and federal officials – including most of Maryland’s congressional delegation – said Wednesday.

“The short version is that it’s going in the right direction. The longer story is that we’re still behind,” said Adam Ortiz, the Environmental Protection Agency’s mid-Atlantic administrator, said at a Capitol Hill press conference.

The bay failed to meet the main target of the 2025 plan, known as the total maximum daily load, which measures the total pollution in the Chesapeake Bay, said Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.).

“The point of the 10-year plan is to create a pollution diet to reduce the amount of phosphorous, nitrogen and other pollutants in the bay,” Van Hollen said. “That’s a measurable target. That’s how we know we’re not going to hit it this year, so we need to redouble our efforts.”

Despite missing the targets set in 2014 through 2025, Sen. Ben Cardin (D-Md.) said he remained hopeful that the delegation can work together with experts at the EPA and other agencies to ensure the bay’s health continues to improve.

Maryland Democratic Reps. Steny Hoyer, Dutch Ruppersberger, Kweisi Mfume and Jamie Raskin joined Cardin, Van Hollen, representatives from the EPA and the Maryland Department of Natural Resources at the Wednesday event.

The University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science gave the Chesapeake Bay an overall grade of a C+ in July, the highest grade the bay has received since 2002.

Virginia rolls out results-driven pollution reduction program

“I know that nobody would be thrilled with bringing home a grade of a C+, but the fact of the matter is, it is the highest grade we’ve seen in a long time,” Van Hollen said. “We all want to do better, but I do want to stress that without the collective effort we see today, the Bay would have died a long time ago.”

The Chesapeake Executive Council signed the Chesapeake Bay Watershed Agreement in 2014 and established five strategies for the restoration and protection of the bay, its tributaries and surrounding lands.

Local, state and federal governments are required to enact the plan’s management strategies and work with academic institutions, nongovernmental organizations, watershed groups and businesses and individuals, according to the 2014 agreement.

“You need cooperation between the federal government and the states, among the states, among state governments and private industry,” Van Hollen said. “There are all sorts of sources of pollution today, and so we need to make sure everybody cooperates in producing pollution reduction.”

Ortiz said that groups committed to improving the bay were in disarray when President Joe Biden’s administration began almost four years ago.

“The states were suing the federal government, and states were pointing the fingers at each other for not making … progress,” he said.

But since then, he said, the EPA has been able to bring the states together and hold them accountable.

“The Chesapeake Bay isn’t just a bay,” Cardin said. “The Chesapeake Bay has been one of the highest priorities for our Maryland congressional delegation. We’ve been focused on not only preserving but expanding our role and partnership with states, local governments and stakeholders.”

Van Hollen emphasized the importance of identifying “measurable targets” of pollution reduction for long-term success, especially as climate change concerns surrounding the Bay grow.

“I think we’ll have to have a discussion about what the length of time for the next agreement should be. It may make sense to look at shorter time horizons,” the senator said. “But you have to have a measurable target to hold people down.”

Source link

Click to comment

Maryland

Winds ease for a seasonable weekend in Maryland

Published

9 hours ago

December 20, 2025

Press Room

Winds ease for a seasonable weekend in Maryland

Happy Saturday, Maryland!

Today is the final day of fall and we’ll have more seasonable conditions and quieter weather this weekend.

Calmer weekend

Maryland’s peak wind gusts reached over 50 mph on Friday. As high pressure remains in control today (although it is moving offshore), we’ll have a couple of quieter days ahead the weekend.

Expect temperatures in the upper 30s to low 40s on Saturday with much calmer winds. Sunshine mixes with clouds overhead, but we stay dry.

Tonight, we could have a few more clouds as a cold front approaches. Temperatures cool into the 20s and 30s again tonight.

Ravens-Patriots forecast

Winds pick up slightly again on Sunday, as gusts could surpass 20 mph during the day. Temperatures will be a few degrees warmer, reaching the upper 40s in some neighborhoods.

It’ll be cool if you’re heading to the Ravens game on Sunday night. Kickoff temperatures will be in the low 30s and drop into the 20s through game time.

It will be dry with mainly clear skies during the game.

Holiday travel

We are in the final countdown ahead of the Christmas holiday next week. Overall, it looks like weather will cooperate with your travel plans here in Maryland.

Outside of a low risk for a shower or two with the passing cold front tomorrow, it’s dry over the next couple of days.

Our next chance of rain will come Tuesday as a pair of fronts will pass through. A few snowflakes could mix with showers Monday night into Tuesday. Accumulations are not expected at this point.

Then, the First Alert Weather team will watch another chance for a few showers Wednesday into Thursday. Santa may need the windshield wipers as he moves through on Christmas Eve. He’ll check in with the WJZ First Alert Weather team for updated timing on the late-week chance of showers, just as you should!

Temperatures later in the week will also be warming. Wednesday will be in the mid to upper 40s with Thursday and Friday warming into the 50s. Cooler air returns for the final weekend of 2025.

Source link

Maryland

Maryland dentist to serve 10 years for pill-splitting scheme with assistant

Published

21 hours ago

December 20, 2025

Press Room

Maryland dentist to serve 10 years for pill-splitting scheme with assistant

A Baltimore County dentist was sentenced to 10 years in prison after illegally distributing an opioid to one of his former employees over the course of three years.

According to the Office of Maryland Attorney General Anthony G. Brown (OAG), Dr. Andrew T. Fried, DMD, a licensed dentist who owned a solo practice dental office in Nottingham, Maryland, pleaded guilty to the following charges in November:

one count of distributing narcotics
and one count of prescribing controlled dangerous substances outside the regular course of duties of a dentist and not within the standards of his profession related to controlled dangerous substances.

Dr. Fried prescribed Oxycodone without a legitimate reason to a former employee who worked as an assistant at Perry Hall Family Dental from April 2022 to May 2025.

Dr. Fried admitted that he and the former assistant would split the pills between themselves and that he purchased them weekly from his assistant, who got them from close family members, according to a press release from the OAG.

On Friday, AG Brown announced the charges, stating, “Every Marylander who sits in a dental chair should trust that they’re receiving competent, professional care…This sentence protects Dr. Fried’s patients from further unsafe treatment and eliminates a source of opioids in our communities.”

Baltimore opioid crisis

Oxycodone is a strong prescription painkiller that is classified as a Schedule II-Controlled Substance due to its risk of addiction, illness, and, in some cases, death.

The drug is meant to be distributed by healthcare professionals to treat moderate to severe pain when other pain medicines aren’t sufficient; however, the pills can, at times, be found on the street.

In 2019, police arrested a man after discovering 38 pills of suspected Oxycodone during a traffic stop in Glen Burnie.

In 2018, a licensed pharmacist pleaded guilty to distributing oxycodone in exchange for sexual favors.

Baltimore’s ongoing opioid epidemic is a priority for city leaders.

In October, city leaders met to discuss ways to address Baltimore’s open-air drug market after three mass overdose incidents had taken place in the Penn North neighborhood over a span of four months.

Source link

Maryland

No. 7 Maryland routs winless Central Connecticut State 98-30 despite injury issues

Published

1 day ago

December 19, 2025

Press Room

No. 7 Maryland routs winless Central Connecticut State 98-30 despite injury issues

COLLEGE PARK, Md. — Yarden Garzon scored 12 of her 25 points in the first quarter, and No. 7 Maryland routed Central Connecticut State 98-30 on Friday.

To the delight of the screaming kids in attendance for the team’s annual Field Trip Day game, Terrapins coach Brenda Frese wore a jersey with the number 67 on it before tip-off. Then Maryland nearly won by that margin.

The blowout was no surprise. Maryland entered the game as one of 12 unbeaten teams left in Division I, and Central Connecticut State was one of 10 without a victory. The Terps (13-0) scored the game’s first 10 points and led 39-14 after one quarter.

Garzon made four 3-pointers in the first period.

Oluchi Okananwa had 22 points and Isimenme Ozzy-Momodu, who appeared to hobble on her right leg before leaving the game in the fourth quarter, had 10 points and nine rebounds. Ozzy-Momodu said after the game she’s OK.

Lucia Noin led Central Connecticut State (0-11) with 12 points.

Maryland guard Saylor Poffenbarger has been dealing with an ankle injury, and she sat out Friday as a planned rest day before the team returns to conference play. The Terrapins have lost Lea Bartelme, Ava McKennie and Kaylene Smikle to season-ending knee injuries, and Bri McDaniel, who tore her ACL 11 months ago, now plans to redshirt this season.

After the Terps took a 64-18 lead, they attempted five straight 3-pointers before Garzon finally made one to gave Maryland exactly 67 points. That drew an excited response from the crowd, as expected.

Central Connecticut State: Hosts Long Island University on Jan. 2.

Maryland: Hosts Wisconsin on Dec. 29.

___

Get poll alerts and updates on the AP Top 25 throughout the season. Sign up here. AP women’s college basketball: https://apnews.com/hub/ap-top-25-womens-college-basketball-poll and https://apnews.com/hub/womens-college-basketball

Source link