Algae

Fears of widespread coastal flooding from a combination of high tides and the snowstorm's high winds did not materialize, though Ocean City officials are expected to examine the town's beaches today. Concerns about flooding along the state's coastline were raised Saturday, as officials worried that high winds from the east would push the already high tide ashore, leading to floods and significant erosion. In Ocean City, where beach and dune replenishment has been taking place, engineers are expected to check the shoreline for erosion.

If you want beach hair, but you can't spare the time to drive to the shore, Nolita has the answer. The hair-care line inspired by the area of New York City just north of Little Italy includes Grit Gel, a hair gel with a sandy feel that gives you a bit of that windblown look you get after a day at the beach. Plus, it has great hold to boot, and it doesn't make your hair feel dirty (we gave it a test-drive). Other products in the line include a moisturizing shampoo and conditioner designed to counteract pollutants' effects on the hair, molding clay for "extreme texture and hold" and firm-hold aerosol hairspray.

CAMBRIDGE -- It looked like just another beautiful day on the water as Bill Dennison and his crew of biologists pushed off from their pier at the Horn Point Laboratory and sailed toward the mouth of the Choptank River. The sun glistened on the waves. In the distance, craggy, tree-lined peninsulas carved the river into jagged coves that have long been home to crabs and rockfish. But there were hardly any fishing boats. In fact, hardly anyone was on the river at all. It soon became clear why. The researchers passed large patches of brownish-white foam - so-called "mahogany tides" where the water is so thick with algae that no light can get through.

SPOILER ALERT: This story reveals features of the plot. Baltimore-born film director Barry Levinson has said his new eco-horror movie, "The Bay," about a Chesapeake Bay turned deadly by environmental abuse, is "80 percent factual. " Bay scientists and one activist who've seen it say the film, which opened Friday, does touch on some very real issues affecting the bay. But they say the artistic license taken with the facts and the gore that makes it a horror movie may overwhelm any back story about what's wrong with the Chesapeake.

Impatience for spring is growing, but impatiens are not. The nation's top-selling annual flower - favored for its last-frost-to-first-frost profusion of colorful blooms - has been struck by a killer mildew that can be carried by the wind and lingers in the soil. "Impatiens have been a sure thing for years and years," said Cornell plant pathologist Margery Daughtrey. "Now they are risky. " Found in just about every state east of the Mississippi and with no cure, impatiens downy mildew, which hides on the underside of the plant's leaves, has put growers and retailers in a tough spot: Take the vulnerable plant and big-time seller off the shelves to protect the unsuspecting customer from a disappointing garden experience?

There has been much hue and cry in recent days about the General Assembly approving a "rain tax" this year that is punitive, anti-commerce and unnecessary. What's truly remarkable about these protestations is how none of the underlying claims are true. Rather, this may be a lesson in the perils of approving a policy at the state level but leaving the business of carrying it out to local government. It's far easier for county elected leaders to point a finger at Annapolis than to actually educate themselves on an issue - let alone try to explain why a tax is so clearly in their constituents' self-interest.

State officials cautioned Friday against swimming, water skiing or other activities in a portion of the Potomac River and one of its tributary because of a harmful algae bloom there. Elevated levels of mycrocystis, a blue-green algae, have been reported in the Potomac south of Mattawoman Creek and in the mouth of the creek itself, according to state health and natural resources officials. Blue-green algae, which often turn the water bright green, produce a toxin that can irritate the skin on contact or cause nausea and other ill health effects if swallowed.

Record-high water temperatures and a March sewage leak are contributing to a large algae bloom in the Baltimore harbor, bringing what is known as a "mahogany tide" of reddish-brown algae to the Middle Branch of the Patapsco River. The bloom is somewhat earlier and more severe than usual, scientists say, despite the fact that a developing drought has limited runoff pollution from feeding algae growth. Water testing conducted by the Maryland Department of Natural Resources shows skyrocketing levels of chlorophyll, the molecule plants use to turn sunlight into energy, and plummeting levels of oxygen in waters near Brooklyn and Cherry Hill.

Evil-smelling effluent bubbling from a factory into a bay. Is that what you see when you think of water pollution?Twenty years ago, that picture would have been pretty accurate. But factories and municipalities have largely cleaned up their act -- and their effluent, the technical term for waste water.Now when it comes to polluting surface waters, the biggest villains are us. You, me, Mr. Perennially Tinkering Under Cars next door, Ms. Weed and Feed the Lawn Every Month Whether It Needs It or Not on the corner, and the folks across the street who paved their yard so they wouldn't have to mow it.The problem is runoff.

The fish kills that have plagued Baltimore's Inner Harbor and nearby creeks over the past two weeks may have eased with the dip in temperatures, but scientists caution that's not the last we've seen of potentially toxic and even deadly algae blooms in area waters. As summer heats up again, potentially dangerous microorganisms could bloom in the wake of algae blamed for suffocating fish from Dundalk to Annapolis. Officials are keeping tabs on the growth of algae around the Chesapeake Bay that have poisoned tens of thousands of fish — including one type found blooming in a Cecil County river that has in the past killed two dogs and can also be fatal to humans.