This unique book focuses attention on the failure of current efforts to cleanup the Chesapeake Bay and suggests an approach often used in cleaning up environmentally damaged sites
While military munitions sources contribute significantly to the pollution and degradation of Chesapeake Bay, they have been completely overlooked in many of the efforts to restore the Bay. Death of the Chesapeake explores this important aspect of the nation's environmental health. The book also recognizes for the first time that efforts to restore the Bay have failed because of the violation of a fundamental precept of environmental cleanup; that is, to sample the site and see what's there. The Bay itself has never been sampled.
Thus, this book presents a view of the environmental condition of Chesapeake Bay that is totally unique. It covers a part of the history of the Bay that is not widely known, including how the Bay was formed. It presents a mixture of science, military history, and novel solutions to the Bay's degradation. In so doing, the author examines the military use of the Bay and reveals the extent that munitions dumpsites containing nitrogen and phosphorus as well as chemical warfare material are affecting the environment. The book concludes with the author's own cleanup plan, which, if implemented, would go a long way toward restoring health to the Bay. The book is supplemented with many photographs and maps.
"Albright undertakes a timely and essential investigation of the pollution resulting from spent and unused munitions in and around Chesapeake Bay—dangerous and deadly waste materials that undermine the Bay's ecological integrity and threaten public safety and human health."
—Marie Sansone, former acting director of the D.C. Environmental Health Administration
"From now on, I'll stay on top of the water."
—Christophe Tulou, former executive director of the Pew Oceans Commission and founder of the Center for SeaChange
Readership
The book will have a wide readership. Anyone living in the Chesapeake Bay area who has an interest in the Bay will find this book very important to their understanding of this essential natural resource. At the professional level, government officers, environmental scientists, military personnel, naval historians, and weapons experts will also find this book necessary to read and consult. The book will enjoy wider national and international interest as munitions around the world, dumped in oceans and waterways, affect countries that struggle with cleanup problems.
