Angela Grant used to enjoy relaxing walks along the water's edge near her Dewey Beach bayfront home -- now she spends her mornings shoveling piles of dead, stinking seaweed off the shoreline.

Stuart Hammond, a 15-year employee of a local business, fears for his job. The state now requires the removal of all known specific  pollution sources from the bays -- that includes his company's discharge pipes, which may mean closure of the business.

Brenda Garrett remembers when she could easily harvest bushels upon bushels of clams from the bays -- now it seems that there are hardly any there. Steve Smith wants to install an environmentally friendly septic system (the kind that might be mandated under new pollution-control  strategies), but he finds that the cost is at least five times what he'd pay for a conventional system.

Barbara Steele, a lifelong poultry grower, has found her income steadily falling. She is concerned about how the additional costs of pollution controls will affect her business.

Experiences such as these have become more commonplace throughout our area, while we struggle to reduce pollution in our local  waterways. Some signs of that pollution have been dramatic: fish kills, massive blooms of algae, the Pfiesteria scare. Just as troubling,  but perhaps less visible to the average resident or vacationer, are such problems as loss of habitat for aquatic life, oxygen-deficient water and high levels of nitrogen and phosphorus in the bays.

For those thinking ahead, these problems point to bigger issues -- the loss of species, a less diverse ecosystem, the decline of the  tourism economy and reduced property values. It's not hard to find evidence of ecological problems that trouble the Inland Bays:

  * In 1997, Pfiesteria, a sometimes-toxic microorganism that can cause lesions on fish and may cause sickness in humans, was found in Indian River Bay. Although it appeared in one of its non-lethal forms, the discovery was troubling, as it reminded citizens and officials of the 1987 Pfiesteria outbreak that caused the death of 250,000 fish. 

The discovery of Pfiesteria (and other harmful algal blooms) in the Inland Bays sent a chill up the spine of tourism officials who  worried about the effect that a lethal appearance of the organism would have on the $342 million tourist industry in Sussex County. A later study by the University of Delaware confirmed that tourism officials had reason to worry -- it showed that many visitors  would indeed change their plans to vacation at Delaware's resorts if there were a serious water-pollution problem such as an outbreak  of Pfiesteria. Recent scientific findings show a clear link between Pfiesteria and excess nutrients in the water.

* Every summer since 1997, prevailing winds have blown huge floating rafts of dead aquatic vegetation (commonly called  "seaweed") onto the shores of Dewey Beach. The result of excess nitrogen and phosphorus in the water, the vegetation ends up  rotting along the bayfront. The awful smell is an obvious annoyance to property owners and bayfront visitors -- in some cases, rental agents have been forced to relocate renters to other locations because the odor is so bad.

In addition, removal of the sea lettuce is no small challenge. The state Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control  had to purchase two special floating machines, at $38,000 each, to dispose of tons of the debris.

* In the summer of 1998, excess nitrogen and phosphorus in the Inland Bays caused massive algae blooms. The effect, called  "mahogany tide" or "red tide" depending on the organism, led to a decrease in the level of dissolved oxygen in the water, a loss of  desirable submerged aquatic vegetation, and a degradation of finfish and shellfish habitat.

* Also in 1998, thousands of clams died as a result of oxygen deficiencies caused by the accumulation and decomposition of "sea  lettuce" in Indian River Bay. The average observer may be aware of these problems, but he or she may not realize that they are not just isolated events -- they are  part of the much larger, much more complex problem of water pollution throughout the Inland Bays watershed.

One reason the issue is so complex is that the land area that drains into the Inland Bays -- called the "watershed" -- is 10 times as  large as the water area itself. The waters are ultimately affected by the multitude of activities that take place on land, even miles from  the bays -- activities such as farming, lawn fertilizing, septic system use, poultry raising. Even the everyday act of driving is part of the complex problem of water pollution, because the air pollution it causes affects our waters.

Because the problem is complex, the Center for the Inland Bays and the Delaware Department of Natural Resources and  Environmental Control asked teams of citizens throughout the bay area to develop strategies for controlling pollution. Called  "Tributary Action Teams," they consist of a wide range of average citizens who are grappling with this big challenge -- and they  need your help.

Some state officials are already at work trying to protect the bays -- and they are developing solutions in which citizens have less of a voice than they do in this Tributary Team Process. For example:

* A state House of Representatives committee is working on legislation (HR 32) that could impose new restrictions on density and  sewage disposal, and new requirements for open space and environmental assessments, among other regulations designed to protect  water quality.

* The Nutrient Management Commission is working on a licensing program for property owners who use fertilizers, as well as a regulatory system that includes permits, and fines of up to $1,000 a day for non-compliance.

* The State Planning Office has enacted a policy directing where state funds can be used to support development.

* A team of scientists, planners, engineers and others, called the Inland Bays/Atlantic Ocean Whole Basin Team, has proposed various strategies that would more strictly regulate septic systems, holding tanks and fertilizer application.

The Tributary Team process gives YOU, the citizen, a chance to voice your opinions on these topics and hopes to tie all of these  efforts together. In order to develop strategies that will have wide public support, the Tributary Teams are asking their fellow citizens to discuss a variety of approaches to the water-pollution problem. Those approaches are outlined in the following pages.

The approaches, though different, are not mutually exclusive. You will probably find some elements of each approach that you like,  and some that bother you -- that's part of the process of discovering the many difficult choices we will have to make while  developing water-pollution controls.

Although each approach is presented theoretically, the strategies they include are based on real ideas that have been under discussion -- in some cases, for years.

Each approach is based on a strongly stated set of values, and those values are the driving force behind the strategies each approach  advocates.

The three approaches we will discuss are based on these beliefs:

Approach 1 -- We have a moral obligation to take immediate action to address the obvious degradation of the Inland Bays.

Approach 2 -- We should base water-pollution control strategies on solid scientific evidence, and on careful analysis of costs vs. benefits.

Approach 3 -- We should make existing anti-pollution laws and programs work before developing a whole new set of regulations.

You are not expected to choose one approach over another -- in fact, we would be surprised if you found any one approach to be  without fault. We hope that by discussing these various approaches, and the values on which they are based, we will begin to see the  challenge before us.

Remember, the focus of this discussion process is not to quickly come up with a checklist of actions. It is to sort out what is important to us, what the costs and benefits of actions may be, and to come to a better understanding of the complexity of the problem. Only  then can the Tributary Teams develop effective pollution-control strategies that have broad public support.

Please prepare to discuss your opinions, and to hear the concerns of your neighbors, by carefully reading through the following  approaches. Keep in mind that they are not intended to be mutually exclusive "choices," but rather topics that will help us discover  the many issues that make up the water-pollution problem.