Here goes nothin'

On the other side of Hampton Roads, the Elizabeth River Project laid out a bold plan last week to make what is the most polluted river in the state both "fishable and swimmable" by 2020.
The grassroots group was joined at riverside by four southside mayors and state officials who pledged their support for the ambitious goal.
Unlike most creeks and tributaries that mostly suffer from too many nutrients and too much sediment, the Elizabeth remains hobbled by toxic pollutants.
That and the continued heavy industrial presence make the "fishable and swimmable" goal a tough one. But it has one thing going for it: Rather than weighing down the project with weighty terminology and environmental jargon, the Elizabeth River Project boils it all down to two things everyone can understand. Make it fishable. Make it swimmable.
A couple days after the kickoff, reality hit home in the form of Lake Explorer II. The 90-foot ship — an Environmental Protection Agency research vessel, for those interested in irony — spilled about 1,400 gallons of diesel fuel. The cause is being investigated.

How many will make it?

Maryland officials planted a record 485 million seed oysters in the bay this year, thanks to the increased capacity of their hatchery at the University of Maryland's Horn Point facility.

Bay Foundation gets into presidential politics

Not taking any sides, but the Chesapeake Bay Foundation for the first time has laid out a "clean water agenda" for the next president.

The seemingly most important role outlined in the plan would be the president's sway with the Department of Agriculture, and the department's role in helping reduce farm pollution from "hot spots" such as the poultry-farming center of the Shenandoah Valley.

Has anyone seen my drill bits?

And just like that, it was gone

The moratorium on offshore drilling that has blanketed much of the U.S. coastline for 26 years and most of it, including Virginia, since 1990 will, it is now clear, expire in a few days.

House Democrats in Washington passed -- on a mostly party-line vote -- an energy bill last week that would allow for some drilling in addition to pushing alternative energy investment. But that was a non-starter with Republicans, the Senate and the White House.

And now the Democratic leadership will allow the moratorium -- which has been renewed on an annual basis -- to lapse after Sept. 30 rather than force something else through.

David Obey, a Democrat from Wisconsin and chairman of the House Appropriations Committee, said the presidential election will now be key in deciding the direction of the country's drilling policy because beginning Wednesday of next week, this country will lack any clear direction on offshore drilling policy.

The Minerals Management Service, which oversees offshore exploration and production (and, let's not forget, recently got hammered for its employees having ridiculously inappropriate relationships with oil company reps), has already put Virginia in the queue to open up the coast for leasing in 2011. The decision was largely moot when the moratorium was still in place, but that's not the case anymore.

So, the push to drill more offshore began in Virginia and the whole maze-like process could lead back here soon enough. Check back after Nov. 4.