Page 154 - Dark Matter:Women Witnessing Issue #3 - December 2015

hydrocarbon-laden water gushes off paving into local streams. Scouring banks, this “runoff”

erodes fragile soils and sends sediment into the Bay.

The Report Card says:

The State of the Chesapeake Bay is improving. Slowly, but improving. What we can

control—pollution entering our waterways—is getting better. But, the Bay is far from

saved. Our 2014 report confirms that the Chesapeake and its rivers and streams remain

a system dangerously out of balance, a system in crisis. If we don’t keep making

progress—even accelerate progress—we will continue to have polluted water, human

health risks, and declining economic benefits—at huge societal costs. The good news is

that we are on the right path. A Clean Water Blueprint is in place and working. All of us,

including our elected officials, need to stay focused on the Blueprint, push harder, and

keep moving forward...

Pushing harder is the mantra of the human-centered mindset that has been destroying the Bay

since French and Spanish explorers came through in the 1500s, followed by Englishman Capt.

Smith’s expeditions in 1607. It’s time to try something new. Or something ancient. In this

uncharted territory of climate change, species extinction and the general breakdown of our old

cultural stories, imagining new pathways is a first step towards taking them.

I have begun dreaming about going on a “Water Walk,” following the example of Grandmother

Josephine Mandamin, who has circumnavigated the Great Lakes with blessing and prayer

ceremonies and inspired many others to follow her lead. The shoreline of the Chesapeake Bay

and its tributaries presents quite a challenge, as it measures over 11,000 miles, longer than the

entire west coast of the United States. Much of that is on private property or marshy and

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