{"id":327080,"date":"2010-02-16T09:00:32","date_gmt":"2010-02-16T14:00:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.earthportal.org\/news\/?p=3123"},"modified":"2010-02-16T09:00:32","modified_gmt":"2010-02-16T14:00:32","slug":"as-d-c-blizzard-melts-waterways-could-see-influx-of-salt-chemicals","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/327080","title":{"rendered":"As D.C. blizzard melts, waterways could see influx of salt, chemicals"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/wp-dyn\/content\/article\/2010\/02\/12\/AR2010021205233.html\" ><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/media3.washingtonpost.com\/wp-dyn\/content\/photo\/2010\/02\/12\/PH2010021202312.jpg\" width=\"306\" align=\"right\" height=\"232\" \/><\/a><a href=\"http:\/\/eenews.net\/Greenwire\/2010\/02\/15\/12\/\" >Greenwire<\/a>: Scientists and city officials are grappling with questions about what will happen when the 30-plus inches of snow melt in the greater Washington, D.C., area.<\/p>\n<p>If the snow melts too fast, the water could seep unfiltered into the Potomac and Anacostia rivers, and eventually into the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.eoearth.org\/article\/Chesapeake_Bay_National_Estuarine_Research_Reserve%2C_Virginia\">Chesapeake Bay<\/a>. Such fast-moving water could carry road salt and other ice-melting chemicals to the bay, which could upset ecosystems and harm fish.<\/p>\n<p>Research has shown that baby salamanders and frogs do not survive as well in salty water, and salt can compromise fish immune systems, leaving them physically stressed and more susceptible to other ailments even if they are not killed outright.<\/p>\n<p>Bill Dennison, a vice president at the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science, said the contamination is inevitable. The snow &#8220;is going to get into our waterways. It&#8217;s either going to get in in a big dose, or it&#8217;s going to trickle in slowly,&#8221; he said.<\/p>\n<p>For fish and other creatures, Dennison said, if salt-filled water flows in too fast, &#8220;you don&#8217;t have a chance. You don&#8217;t have anywhere to hide, you don&#8217;t have any opportunity to adjust. So that&#8217;s the danger we&#8217;re watching for.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>There might be some positive environmental benefits to the winter&#8217;s snowier storms, Bob Beyer of the Maryland Department of Natural Resources points out. Some animals might benefits as snow-laden trees break off or stoop over and the branches could provide shelter for deer or low-hanging food for rabbits, he said.<\/p>\n<p>As buried cars sit idle that also could make for decreased <a href=\"http:\/\/www.eoearth.org\/article\/Impact_of_local_air_pollution\">air pollution<\/a>. &#8220;It&#8217;s actually a net benefit, because fewer people are driving,&#8221; said Dawn Stoltzfus, of the Maryland Department of the Environment, adding that tailpipe emissions provide one-third of her state&#8217;s smog and <a href=\"http:\/\/www.eoearth.org\/article\/Greenhouse_gas\">greenhouse gas<\/a> emissions.<\/p>\n<p>Still, officials say, drivers sitting at home trying to keep warm with the thermostat set on high might cause increased emissions from power plants and furnaces, thus potentially canceling out those savings (David A. Fahrenthold, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/wp-dyn\/content\/article\/2010\/02\/12\/AR2010021205233.html\" ><em>Washington Post<\/em><\/a>, Feb. 13). <strong>&#8211; DFM<\/strong><\/p>\n<p class=\"akst_link\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.earthportal.org\/news\/?p=3123&amp;akst_action=share-this\"  title=\"E-mail this, post to del.icio.us, etc.\" id=\"akst_link_3123\" class=\"akst_share_link\" rel=\"nofollow\">Share This<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Greenwire: Scientists and city officials are grappling with questions about what will happen when the 30-plus inches of snow melt in the greater Washington, D.C., area. If the snow melts too fast, the water could seep unfiltered into the Potomac and Anacostia rivers, and eventually into the Chesapeake Bay. Such fast-moving water could carry road [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4055,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-327080","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/327080","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4055"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=327080"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/327080\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=327080"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=327080"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=327080"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}