The Chesapeake Bay is in pitiful condition despite restoration efforts, according to two reports released Wednesday by the University of Maryland and a federal-state partnership charged with bay cleanup.

The university’s Center for Environmental Science gave the bay an overall grade of D for 2006, with a tributary closest to Baltimore getting an F for such problems as low dissolved oxygen and cloudy water.

An analysis by the Chesapeake Bay Program, also released Wednesday, showed distress in every health indicator tracked.

The report card did have a couple of bright spots, albeit small ones. The authors noted that fish passages have increased, which could give fish greater habitat, and that bay grasses are rebounding in parts of the northern bay.

However, even the predictions of future success were muted by warnings that population growth expected in the region could turn back progress. The report concluded that “actions taken to date have not yet been sufficient to restore the health of the bay.”

Read (AP via WTOP)