Balloon releases are often meant to honor someone or mark a milestone. But when the balloons drift away from a graveside, vigil or backyard celebration, they also break Maryland law.
The state has banned intentional balloon releases since Oct. 1, 2021. The law applies to birthdays, graduations, memorials and celebrations of life. Under the law, a person may not knowingly and intentionally release or cause a balloon to be released into the atmosphere. It also prohibits organizing or participating in a mass balloon release.
State environmental officials continue to remind residents of the ban, which has been in effect for nearly five years.
What the Law Says - The ban applies to a person who is at least 13 years old, or an organization, which means children who accidentally let go of a balloon at a party are not the target. The term “mass balloon release” means an event where a person or persons knowingly and intentionally releases or causes 10 or more balloons to be released into the atmosphere.
The measure was passed as Senate Bill 716/House Bill 391 (2021 Md. Laws Ch. 610), creating § 9-2301 of the Environment Article, Annotated Code of Maryland. Residents can read the full text of the law through the Maryland General Assembly. Governor Hogan did not sign the bill, so it went into law on May 30, 2021.
According to the Maryland Department of the Environment, a person who releases a balloon into the atmosphere is in violation of state law and may be required to perform six (6) hours of community service or watch an educational video on environmental damage caused by human pollution, or both. For larger gatherings the stakes are higher — persons convicted of participating in a mass balloon release can be punished by a fine of up to $100. Each act of releasing or organizing the release of a balloon or group of balloons constitutes a separate violation.
MDE enforces the statute, though MDE may delegate its authority to another enforcement unit, officer, or official of a county, a municipality or local government. Why It Matters for the Chesapeake Bay
For a region surrounded by the Chesapeake Bay and the Patuxent and Potomac rivers, the reasoning behind the law hits close to home. When balloons cease to float in the atmosphere, they come down on land, creating litter that can be harmful to wildlife through entanglement with the balloon strings.
The risk extends into the water as well. MDE notes that balloons that land in water can cause serious threats to marine life such as Diamondback Terrapins (Maryland’s state reptile) and other sea turtles, who mistake the half-deflated balloons for jellyfish, which are their primary food source. Shorebirds face similar dangers, and over time the balloons and strings can break down into tiny pieces, contributing to “microplastic” pollution that can end up in fish and other organisms.Maryland Dept. Of The Environment
Balloons marketed as eco-friendly aren’t a workaround either. Some balloons are labeled “biodegradable,” but they still take several months to decay and can be harmful to animals, and the environment. The National Aquarium also points out that foil balloons on power lines have caused widespread power outages — a concern for any community that has sat through a summer storm outage.
When the ban took effect, then-Maryland Department of Natural Resources Secretary Jeannie Haddaway-Riccio encouraged residents to rethink the tradition. “The key is to find other ways to celebrate or honor a loved one,” she said, adding that anyone with balloons should pop them and throw them in the trash instead.
Not every balloon launch is prohibited. The state law does not apply to a balloon that is released for meteorological or scientific purposes: (1) on behalf an agency of the State or the United States; (2) in accordance with a contract with the State, the United States, or any other State; or (3) by an institution of higher education conducting research. Also exempt are a balloon that is: (4) attached to a radio tracking device and released by a person who holds an amateur operator license issued by the United States Federal Communications Commission; (5) a hot air balloon that is recovered after launch; or (6) the negligent or unintentional release of a balloon.
When I find balloons on the beach, I pick them up and take them to the trash. However, I have to admit, I haven't found many lately, maybe none this year. Is the ban working?
A decade-long study found balloon fragments are omnipresent on Virginia’s beaches and remote islands.
About two decades ago, Christina Trapani was working with the Virginia Aquarium’s Stranding Response Program and started noticing a trend with some of the sea turtles they rescued. “We would find bits and pieces of balloons in their bellies,” she said. “It was obvious that this was something that could be affecting wildlife.”
Trapani’s experience at the aquarium set her on a yearslong quest to curb balloon litter, which has proven pervasive in coastal Virginia. She’s now director of the nonprofit Clean Virginia Waterways, which recently completed a decade-long survey of trash on Fisherman Island off the Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel.
Balloons and their ribbons topped the list of trash they identified, with nearly 6,000 pieces found on the island between 2014 and 2024. The group also collected lots of plastic bottles, shotgun shell, food wrappers and fishing gear. “When we look at our coastal beaches, especially the remote beaches, balloons are almost always in the top three types of litter that we record,” Trapani said.
Balloons are a particular concern in coastal Virginia because of easterly winds that blow them here from all over, and waves that bring them to shore. She’s found balloons bearing logos from Kansas, North Carolina, New York and Ohio. “Anything that's released inland is going to get blown offshore, and then it's going to wash back up eventually,” Trapani said. “We'd be out on the islands and actually watching balloons come in, which is really sad.”
Environmental groups previously documented balloon debris at False Cape State Park in Virginia Beach and a few barrier islands off the Eastern Shore. The recent report focused on Fisherman Island because of limited funding, Trapani said. It included site surveys twice a year. Almost 70% of the balloon litter recorded was concentrated on the highest sections of the beach, which serve as critical habitat for nesting shorebirds and diamondback terrapins.
Balloons float? Who knew?
Virginia lawmakers took action on the issue in 2021, passing a ban on intentional balloon releases with a civil penalty of $25 per balloon for violations. Virginians were previously allowed to release up to 50 balloons per hour. Balloon litter has decreased since the new law took effect, Trapani said. Before, an average of 240.6 pieces of balloon litter were found per mile, according to the report from Clean Virginia Waterways. That dropped to 174.9 afterward.
But there’s still a long way to go, Trapani said. She’s working on a program to allow people to recycle balloons and other party decorations. It started after they connected with Balloon Mission, a New York-based organization that aims to reduce balloon waste. The group works with TerraCycle, a recycling company in New Jersey, to offload balloons collected through cleanups or donations. The company converts them into materials used in manufacturing, such as for industrial flooring.
Trapani hopes to recycle 1 million balloons within three years in Virginia. That could include retailers or individuals who want to participate and ship balloons straight to TerraCycle. “We have to find another way to dispose of them,” she said. “If you're going to use balloons, let's just recycle them and give them a second life.”
We find balloons on the beach occasionally, I have yet to see any marine animal affected by them. I think since Maryland's anti-balloon law went into effect there may be a little less.Or maybe, it's just the press the problem has received.
Really? Can't you guys (and gals, don't want to be sexist) give it up for just a few days? Like the famed Christmas Truce in WWI? I guess not, so here goes.
Nicholas Ballasy at JTN, More Republicans than Democrats returned Sam Bankman's FTX 2022 cycle campaign donations, "OpenSecrets.org's data continues to be updated on a rolling basis as additional donations are returned. Although Sam Bankman-Fried's ill-gotten gains went to candidates on both sides of the aisle, so far it appears more Republicans than Democrats have returned the money."
NewsMax hears the Secret Service May Be Probing Ex-'Dukes of Hazzard' Star "John Schneider, who played Bo Duke in "The Dukes of Hazzard," may be investigated by the Secret Service for social media posts directed at President Joe Biden. . . . "Mr. President, I believe you are guilty of treason and should be publicly hung," Schneider wrote. "Your son too. Your response is..? Sincerely, John Schneider." At least it's not Catherine Bach.
Mark Judge (you may remember him from the Kavanaugh nomination) at WaEx writes of The American Stasi and the war on the Supreme Court. Daniel Oliver at Am Great, The Media Assault on Clarence Thomas, "The senior justice is the sort of man who can tell what a woman is. In Wokeville, such men are dangerous. That is what the whole ethics “scandal” is really about."
Passantino filed a $67 million Federal Tort Claims Act Complaint against the
congressional panel, claiming the group "manufactured and promoted a false
narrative" about him, "maliciously interfered in the attorney-client
relationship," and disregarded his civil rights "to further a political
agenda" against former President Donald Trump. "Liz Cheney and her
collaborators on the January 6th Committee decided to peddle a false tale
about Mr. Passantino and his relationship with his client without any regard
for the truth or whether they were destroying the reputation of a good man; a
reputation built over decades," Passantino's attorney, Jesse Binnall, said in
a statement.
Sauron's Eye,
Judge rejects Trump's request to delay New York rape trial. "A federal judge rejected a request Thursday to delay former President
Donald Trump's trial this month on civil claims that he raped a woman in the
mid-1990s, but he has granted a request by Trump's lawyers to gather more
evidence about who is paying the accuser's lawyers. New revelations that a
major contributor to Democrats helped finance the litigation against Trump by
columnist E. Jean Carroll prompted attorney Alina Habba to ask for a one-month
delay of the April 25 trial."
At the Peacock,
Ex-Capitol Police officer sentenced after sending 'stupid and reckless'
messages to Jan. 6 rioter
"Michael Riley was convicted of a felony count for deleting messages he sent
to a Jan. 6 rioter after he learned the rioter was speaking to the
FBI. After the Capitol attack, he messaged Jan. 6 rioter Jacob Hiles, a
boat captain he knew from Facebook, telling Hiles he was "a capitol police
officer who agrees with your political stance" and saying Hiles should “Take
down the part about being in the building they are correctly investigating and
everyone who was in the building is going to be charged. Just looking out!”
CNN, Former Trump intel official testifies in Mar-a-Lago classified documents
probe. Grenell says Trump declassified the Mar-a-Lago documents. “There is no
approval process for the president of the United States to declassify
intelligence. There is this phony idea that he must provide notification for
declassification but that’s just silly. Who is he supposed to notify? I think
it’s the height of swampism to think the president should seek bureaucrats’
approval.”
JTN's Ben Whedon reports Montana lawmakers vote to ban TikTok statewide. "The measure would bar TikTok from operating in the state and forbid
app stores from offering it for download in Montana." I wonder how that's
going to work.
Donald Trump has been indicted for something old and trivial. Manhattan
District Attorney Lavrentiy Alvin Bragg has acceded to the left’s demand
that Trump be arrested for the unforgiveable act of winning the 2016
presidential election. Bragg was shown the man, and he obediently found “the
crime.”
We can register our disgust about hypocrisy, or a
two-tier justice system, or criminalizing politics, etc. Or we can respond
in kind. The last option is the only one that will make this stop.
What high profile Democrat should a Republican District Attorney indict? How
about Alejandro Mayorkas?
As Secretary of Homeland Security, Mayorkas has thrown our border open to
narco-terrorists, human traffickers, and anyone else who wants to cross the
border.
What crime should he be charged with? Mayorkas is an
accessory to every crime committed by someone who crossed the border
illegally during the Biden administration. He is an accessory to every death
from fentanyl that was transported across the border. He is an accessory to
sex trafficking. He is an accessory to child abandonment. I could go on.
Who
can indict him? There are 254 counties in Texas alone, most of them deep
red, and there are a couple thousand more deep red counties throughout the
country. The District Attorney in any county touched by the Biden
administration’s open border/catch-and-release policy could summon a grand
jury and indict Mayorkas.
Stacy McCain,
Brain-Damaged John Fetterman Gets ‘Democrat Helper’ Served by CBS News "There is never any segment during the interview where Fetterman is
shown speaking in a single shot for more than five or 10 seconds
consecutively. And if you watch carefully, these interview excerpts constitute
a fairly small share of the 10-minute piece, much of which is filled with
Paulie narrating a tale of Fetterman’s “struggle,” intended to frame this as
the saga of a hero courageously overcoming misfortune."
Twitchy, Rural mom says you don’t hunt with an AR-15 because ‘it destroys the
meat’. AR-15s are generally considered too light for hunting deer, even my .243
"Deer slayer," a much more powerful cartridge, is often frowned on in favor of
30.06s etc. An AR is too big for small game, rabbits squirrels and so on; as
rural mom notes, it makes too much mess. They are, however, perfect for
varmint and wild hog hunting. Like boats and golf clubs, different tools for
different jobs.
When last we checked in on “Jessica,” he/“she” had been
arrested in January 2020 on charges of assaulting a Canadian journalist
outside a courthouse. In case you’d forgotten — who could ever forget? — Yaniv
became notorious for going to salons and seeking genital waxing (depilation) on his/“her” genitalia, then filing complaints of discrimination when the
requested treatment was denied, hence giving rise to the
#waxmyballs hashtag
in reference to the case.
The good news is, there will be no
further such cases filed by Yaniv because he/“she” finally underwent “gender
confirmation” surgery in January 2021. The bad news is, there were
post-operative complications that led Yaniv to file a lawsuit against a
Vancouver clinic, and also, whatever you do,
DO NOT CLICK THIS LINK
if you don’t want to know what botched sex-change surgery looks like. The
folks at KiwiFarms employ the phrase “gaping axe wound” to describe the result
of Yaniv’s surgery, and anyone willing to risk irreversible mental trauma can
click the link to discover how accurate that phrase is. DON’T DO IT!
Paula Bolyard at PJ Media says DOJ Finally Finds a Church Attack It Doesn't Like "On Saturday, March 25, 2023, the Community Church of Chesterland
(“CCC”), located at 11984 Caves Road, Chesterland, Ohio, reported to Chester
Township Police that the church had been damaged by what appeared to be
Molotov cocktails during the night. During the same time, a sign on CCC’s
property was damaged. CCC believes the acts were perpetrated in response to
the church’s planned hosting of two drag show events on April 1, 2023. Open
source searches revealed that individuals plan to be present and armed en
masse at the events to protest. Representatives of CCC reported that they
received hate mail and messages containing non-specific threats of protest and
violence against the drag events. Images of the damage are shown below."
At Althouse. "Only now — as a student about to graduate — do I realize how few
classmates agree with the loudest ones." ""Most of us fall somewhere between or are still forming our opinions.
A friend recently told me that 'coming out as a moderate was more difficult
than coming out as gay at Stanford Law School.' He eventually moved to San
Francisco so he could 'just ignore the madness.' These dynamics are hardly
unique to Stanford. My friends in law school at Yale and Harvard, among
others, have shared similar experiences...."
Insty comments,
"It helps the bullies that the law school administration encourages and
empowers them. Plus: “The quietness of people in the middle makes extremism
work. They’re so busy being invisible that they don’t notice — or acknowledge
— the role they play.”" JG Martin Institute sees
Wage Discrimination at App State
"In the name of “diversity,” the UNC-System institution may have violated
federal law." Joel Kotkin at Quillette, on Race and State "The emerging racial state promises no real progress for most
minorities while deepening ethnic divides and undermining the basis for
democratic self-rule"At the Wombat's In The Mailbox: 04.03.23, Behind The Black sees Pushback: University will hire no one who supports “critical race
theory”.
Capt. Ed at Hat Hair, Did Twitter's algorithm have a back door for gov't censors? Plus:
Shadow-ban code revealed? "Tey revealed his research on the mechanism for intervention, saying,
“When needed, the government can intervene with the Twitter algorithm. In
fact, @TwitterEng (Twitter Engineering) even has a class for it –
‘GovernmentRequested.’” Tey also provided a direct link to the code on GitHub
for public review."
A growing body of evidence shows U.S. govt officials, agencies, & contractors demanding Facebook & Twitter censor ordinary Americans. Now, an influential censorship advocate has admitted that she worked for the CIA. Who is she? Why is she so influential?https://t.co/XP9NAljN4G
— Michael Shellenberger (@ShellenbergerMD) April 3, 2023
At Althouse, The feeling that the blue checks were honoring a reputation that had been curated for 10 years. "It's like the cry "I thought you loved me!" when a marriage comes to an end. No, this was not love. It was not honor. It was just the 2 of us, responding to incentives, in an awkward dance that was only ever commercial, and now, an exchange of money is needed, and you owe me."
