by Pamela Wood, Annapolis Capital

The water quality report card for the West and Rhode rivers has a bright spot.

One bright spot.

Last summer, the water in the rivers had high levels of dissolved oxygen, meaning that fish, crabs and oysters could breathe easy.

The oxygen was so high that it merited an A-minus in a report card that was issued by the West/Rhode Riverkeeper organization last night.

But that A-minus was tempered by subpar grades on how clear the water was, how much nutrient pollution washed into the water, how much algae mucked it up and how many grasses grew underwater. The last grade was an F, as not a single blade of grass was seen last summer.

And even the A-minus comes with an asterisk. The high oxygen levels could be due to windy conditions that kept the river waters mixed up and oxygenated much of last year.

"The scores weren't great, but there's some new hope," Riverkeeper Chris Trumbauer told several dozen people who gathered for the report card unveiling at the Chesapeake Yacht Club in Shady Side last night.

He said renewed efforts by all levels of government to clean up the Chesapeake Bay and its rivers through a new "pollution diet" could pay off.

"That's our best chance we have to get our rivers in the place everyone wants - fishable, swimmable," said Trumbauer, who also is a member of the County Council.

The nutrients nitrogen and phosphorus reach the rivers from farms, lawns, polluted stormwater, septic systems, sewage plants and air pollution. The nutrients fuel the growth of algae blooms that suck oxygen from the water.

The river's grades were determined by examining data from government agencies and the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center, and from weekly readings taken by volunteers who work with the program.

Trumbauer calculated how often the data met the standards for a healthy river, then translated those percentages into grades. Anything greater than 80 percent earned an A, better than 60 percent earned a B and so forth. "We're not striving to be average. We don't want a C," he said.

Gregg O'Hara is part of a team that conducts weekly water quality tests in the West River. O'Hara, a retiree, said he's not a hard-core environmentalist and is not as liberal as others.

Attendees at the meeting also heard from Jennifer Bevan-Dangel of the preservation group 1000 Friends of Maryland, who described how bills ranging from limiting new septic systems to taxing plastic bags went down the tubes during this General Assembly session, which will end April 11.

"We're going to come out of session with not a whole lot," she said.

The West & Rhode Rivers Report Card is posted online at www.westrhoderiverkeeper.org.