http://www.foxbaltimore.com/newsroom...vid_9488.shtml
Storms Leave Chesapeake Full of Debris
Tuesday, September 20 2011, 05:41 PM EDT
Back-to-back storms have dumped mud, debris and pollutants into the Chesapeake from across the bay's six-state watershed,
turning it into a brown plume that can be seen from space. Scientists are now fanning out across the bay's 200-mile length to learn how Hurricane Irene and Tropical Storm Lee are affecting the nation's largest estuary.
A Maryland Department of Natural Resources crew aboard a research vessel finished two days of water quality sampling in the middle bay on Tuesday.
The good news, they say, is the storms stirred bay waters and they didn't find any dead zones where oxygen is too low to support aquatic life. The bad news is the water is still muddy, although not as cloudy as last week. That's bad for bay grasses and oysters.Storms