The health of the Chesapeake Bay continued to improve in 2021, although the Upper Eastern Shore’s score declined slightly – a first for any region of the Bay’s watershed since 2014, according to a new report by the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science (UMCES) on Monday.
The Bay’s overall health score improved slightly from 45% in 2020 to 50% in 2021, which the environmental center classifies as a C grade. That’s a larger increase than the Bay saw the previous year, from 44% in 2019.
Dissolved oxygen levels continue to be good for most of the Bay. Phosphorus levels are also good for much of the Bay’s regions, although some regions – including the Patapsco and Back rivers that flow through Baltimore City and nearby counties – scored very poorly.
Levels of nitrogen, aquatic grasses, and benthic community (which includes bottom-dwelling organisms) vary across the board. The Patapsco and Back rivers scored very poorly for its nitrogen levels, but the region’s aquatic grasses and benthic community scored moderately.
Chlorophyll levels received scores ranging from moderate to very poor across the Bay’s regions, while water clarity scored poor or very poor in every region.
Last year’s report added new social and economic indicators, including the social index, walkability, and heat vulnerability index.
This year’s report introduced additional indicators for regions’ median income, housing affordability, income inequality and jobs growth.
The Bay’s watershed, which includes six states and Washington, D.C. and which feeds into the Chesapeake Bay, received a C+ grade overall. However, the report’s authors said the 2021 score cannot be directly compared to the 2020 score (B-) because this year’s report newly added ecological, societal and economic indicator categories.
Scores within the social index, walkability, and heat vulnerability index indicators this year remained largely the same as scores from last year’s report.
Among the newly added indicators this year, the Patapsco and Back rivers scored moderately for median income and jobs growth, while that region scored poorly for housing affordability and income inequality.
Peter Goodwin, president of UMCES, said in a statement that these new factors “help assess progress in improving this vast human and natural system that is a major component of the quality of life for people in the region.
William C. Dennison, vice president of science applications at UMCES, said that by including economic indicators in the report card metrics, the center sought to show how economic and environmental factors are intertwined.
“[W]e must stop pitting the economy versus the environment,” Dennison said in a statement. “Rather, we need to recognize that a healthy economy and a healthy society make for a healthy environment.”
