The Bay Journal

Potomac Riverkeeper Network staff and volunteers with experts from Maryland Department of Natural Resources at work giving mussels a new home on the Potomac River in partnership with Virginia Tech and National Harbor. The Potomac Riverkeeper Network has expanded its mussel-growing operation on the Potomac River with what the group is calling a “science barge.” The 80-foot-by-30-foot vessel serves as a floating platform for specially designed cages used to raise mussels.

This rendering shows one of the James River outlooks planned on Mayo Island in Richmond. (Marvel Designs and TYLin) The Capital Region Land Conservancy acquired the final quarter-acre parcel on Mayo's Island in Richmond on June 12 and plans to transfer it to the city. “This important milestone is critical to the ongoing effort to transform Mayo’s Island into a vibrant public park and riverfront destination,” said Richmond mayor Danny Avula.

Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro visited Johnstown, PA, in April 2026 to announce a grant program aimed at reducing air pollution from industrial sources. (PA Dept. of Environmental Protection) Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro announced in April $267 million to fund 31 projects aimed at reducing air pollution through the state’s Reducing Industrial Sector Emissions in Pennsylvania (RISE PA) program. The grants will be given out throughout the summer.

A skate swims over manganese nodules on Blake Plateau, which is near the U.S. southeast coast, in 2022. (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration) The U.S. Bureau of Ocean and Energy Management (BOEM) began soliciting public comments and industry feedback on potentially leasing more than 2,500 square miles near the mouth of the Chesapeake Bay to seabed mining. The public comment period ends July 23.

A volunteer and a graduate student at the University of Maryland collect water and sediment samples from the Potomac River in mid-April 2026. More than five months after millions of gallons of untreated sewage spilled into the Potomac River, aftershocks continue. Litigation, emergency repairs and a major leadership shakeup have followed in the wake of the Jan. 19 rupture of the Potomac Interceptor sewage pipe near in Montgomery County, MD.

The Rappahannock Tribe has rematriated more than 2,000 acres of its ancestral land at Fones Cliffs as of 2026. (Jeffrey Allenby/Chesapeake Conservancy) The Rappahannock Tribe on June 12 reclaimed 704 acres of its ancestral lands at Fones Cliff along on its namesake river in Virginia. The land is along what is known as Fones Cliffs, a stretch of nearly vertical banks that rise high above the north side of the river about 50 miles upstream from the Chesapeake Bay.

Jennifer Campagne of Virginia holds up a glass of water drawn from her kitchen faucet. She learned recently that her well contains PFAS or “forever chemicals.” “Forever chemicals” are extremely long-lived in the environment, and they are a growing concern among residents and lawmakers across the Chesapeake Bay region. Some jurisdictions have begun testing for them and trying to address the problem in public water systems.

A small wetland is hemmed in by new houses in a subdivision in Delmar, DE. For Delaware’s wetland advocates, the seventh time was the charm. Six previous legislative attempts to enact state-level freshwater wetland protections had come up short. But on July 1, the General Assembly passed the Wetlands Stewardship Act, creating the state’s first nontidal wetlands regulatory program.

This rendering depicts the new RFK Stadium planned for a site along the Anacostia River in the District of Columbia. Trey Sherard pushed his Carolina skiff around the tip of Kingman Island, leaving the Anacostia River behind and entering Kingman Lake. It’s a lake in name only because it’s connected to the river’s mainstem on both sides of the island. And Kingman Island itself isn’t a naturally created island.

Daniel R. Webster Sr. exits the Somerset County District Court on Maryland’s Eastern Shore after his trial slated for June 4, 2026, was postponed. The manager of an oyster-farming operation on Maryland’s Eastern Shore was found guilty July 6 of tampering with evidence amid a state investigation into allegations of widespread dumping of illegal oyster bed material into the Chesapeake Bay. Daniel R.