Uncle Suger Adds a Little Sweetener to the Bay Diet

Chesapeake Bay cleanup gets $9 million in grants

The Chesapeake Bay cleanup got a shot in the arm today (Tuesday, 8/28), as federal and nonprofit officials announced grants totaling $9.2 million for planting trees, restoring wetlands, installing rain gardens and other projects across the watershed.

The announcement was made at the Maryland Science Center in Baltimore's Inner Harbor, where one of the grants will help replace an existing parking lot with rain-absorbing "pervious concrete," intended to reduce polluted storm-water runoff. The press conference was planned to highlight such urban water-quality efforts, with more than $800,000 in grants being handed out for projects in the Baltimore area alone.

$9 million may sound like quite a lot of money (and it is), but compare it to the estimated cost of the "Bay Diet", $7-10 billion (with a 'b'), and it really is just a drop in the bucket.