"Large ‘Dead Zone’ Signals More Problems for Chesapeake Bay"

"It began forming in May, when heavy spring rains loaded the rivers and creeks with fertilizer washed from farms and suburban lawns. It grew rapidly over the summer, as a broth of chemicals, animal waste and microbes simmered in the warm, slow-moving waters of the Chesapeake Bay.

By early August, the 'dead zone' was back: more than a cubic mile of oxygen-depleted water in which nothing — fish, crab nor shrimp — can survive.

The phenomenon has been recurring in the Chesapeake whenever hot summer weather and pollution combine to trigger algae blooms that suck life-giving oxygen from the water. But this year’s dead zone was bigger than most, making 2014 the eighth-worst year since record-keeping began in the 1980s, according to monitoring data compiled by Maryland’s Department of Natural Resources."

Joby Warrick reports for the Washington Post August 31, 2014.