By Kevin Allen Rappahannock News Staff Writer Tb get

By Kevin Allen

Rappahannock News Staff Writer

Tb get at the heart of what ails the Chesapeake Bay, one has to travel upstream, past the tidal flats and coastal areas to the hundreds of farms in the bay’s 64,000-square-mile watershed.

That is where Chesapeake Bay Foundation officials are working to clean up tributaries that are feeding an overloaded dose of nutrients into the nation’s largest estuary.

On Friday in Warrenton, representatives from the foundation’s Richmond office told the Times Community Newspapers editorial board about their plan to get more funding from the 2007 farm bill directed toward conservation measures in the bay watershed.

As many in the region already know, the Chesapeake is languishing. Last year, the foundation gave the bay a grade of 29 on a 100-point scale in its annual “State of the Bay” report.

The biggest reason for that failing mark is nutrient pollution from agricultural runoff. That is, too much nitrogen and phosphorus from commercial fertilizers and manure are washing fronf croplands and pastures into the tributaries that end up in the Chesapeake.

“What that does is overfertilize the algae in the rivers and creeks and the bay itself,” said Chuck Epes, the foundation’s Virginia communications coor- . dinator.

Such algae “blooms” block sunlight from shining onto underwater grasses, preventing them from photosynthesizing and producing much-needed oxygen for oysters, crabs, fish and other animals in the bay. The problem is exacerbated when the algae die off, sink to the bottom and consume even more oxygen while they decay.

The dearth of oxygen leads mobile animals like crabs and fish to swim away to healthier waters, while sedentaiy animals like oysters and worms are stuck there to suffocate in the oxygen-depleted • waters called “dead zones.”