Back River

Robert H. Christopher, a prominent community activist and conservationist in Eastern Baltimore County who worked to preserve the environment, died Saturday at his home from cancer. He was 58.Mr. Christopher, a resident of Back River Neck for 34 years, was instrumental in efforts to preserve the Lower Back River Neck Peninsula. Two years ago, he helped persuade the county to impose limits on development along the rural peninsula, bordered by Middle River on the east and Back River on the west.

In a deal city officials say will solve Baltimore's sludge problems for years, the Board of Estimates has agreed to pay two firms about $320 million to convert wet, smelly sewage sludge into neat little pellets.The agreement, approved yesterday, gives city officials an answer to a malodorous sludge problem that has hung over the city-owned Back River Wastewater Treatment Plant in Baltimore County for years.The answer city officials are touting is to superheat the sludge and convert it into pellets that can be sold as fuel, fertilizer or even material for road construction.

On November 29, 2004, JOY E.; beloved wife of the late Carl D. Snell Sr.; devoted mother of Terry and his wife Kathy, Carl Jr., and the late Lee and Gary Snell; cherished grandmother of Eva, Bryan, Daniel, Gregory, Andrew and Jeannette. Also survived by her sister, Barbara Griffin and her husband Gerald, and nephew Michael Ried. Friends may call at the family owned Bruzdzinski Funeral Home, 1407 Old Eastern Avenue, Essex, at route 702 (beltway exit 36) on Wednesday from 3 to 5 and 7 to 9 P.M. Funeral Services from Back River United Methodist Church, 544 Back River Neck Road on Thursday at 11 A.M. Interment Gardens of Faith Cemetery.

After more than four years of work, Lower Back River Neck Peninsula residents are praising the Baltimore County Council's approval of a plan they say will protect and preserve their community.At Monday night's meeting, the council approved a plan residents and the county Office of Planning and Zoning created to preserve the peninsula's marshes and woodlands and restore its coastal creeks.The plan, which the county Planning Board has approved, calls for limiting development, reducing zoning density and rigorously enforcing environmental regulations.

Baltimore has approved a $7.3 million contract to Bio Gro Systems Inc. of Annapolis to remove an estimated 170,000 tons of sludge from the Back River Waste Water Treatment Plant in the next two years.The contract, approved yesterday by the Board of Estimates, involves a new process that would dispose of sludge through a more efficient, economical and odor-free method, said George G. Balog, the city public works director.Balog said the city is negotiating with potential contractors to build two facilities at the city's Back River plant in eastern Baltimore County.

Employing some of the last federal construction money available under the Clean Water Act, Baltimore County plans to install a $2.4 million sewer system to replace failing septic tanks at Cedar Beach on the Back River Peninsula.County Director of Public Works Gene L. Neff said a 70 percent failure rate for individual septic tanks makes the area "the worst in the lower Back River Peninsula."There are 190 homes in Cedar Beach, a community near the intersection of Holly Neck and Back River Neck roads and extending to the waterfront at Sue Creek and Middle River.

The sun glistens on the Back River, and motor boaters zip over the water. But there's trouble in paradise.Byron Livingston, who has lived in Bowleys Quarters for more than 40 years, has watched the decline of the area -- the demise of the aquatic grass, the diminishing number of fish and crabs. Sewage from failing septic tanks seeps above ground and leaks into the water. "My wife said if I caught a fish and brought it into the house, she'd throw it in the trash," Livingston said.For decades, Baltimore County has known that the waterfront communities in Bowleys Quarters and the Back River Neck Peninsula were in trouble from failing septic tanks.

Samuel J. Weaver Sr. is an old salt who can fill an afternoon spinning colorful tales. Some of them might even be true. "I'm old enough that some of my stories can't be checked," said Weaver, winking at his wife, Josephine. Weaver, 85, is a living scrapbook. He owns Weaver's Marine Service on Back River in Essex, reports to work every day armed with his carpenter's pencil and folding ruler, and is one of the oldest active marina operators in Maryland. "He's one of a kind," said Jeff Zahner, 39, the marina's business manager who started working for Weaver cutting his lawn when he was a kid. "He's taught me a lot, but right at the top is that there is no replacement for hard work."

Residents in the Back River Peninsula have prevented th sale, possibly to a developer, of a 17-acre tract once considered as a site for an elementary school.Yesterday, County Executive Roger B. Hayden said he took the site off a list of surplus government-owned land that the county is considering selling.The county had wanted to sell the land, located at Baurnschmidt and Turkey Point roads near Chesapeake High School, and put it back on the tax rolls.But Mr. Hayden said local community associations and environmental groups persuaded him to change his mind.

Baltimore made a deal yesterday to get two wastewater treatment plants built that will turn wet sludge into dry pellets -- and might lessen the stink that sometimes emanates from the Back River sewerage complex in eastern Baltimore County.Through the Board of Estimates' unanimous decision, the city will lease land to Bio Gro/Clay Joint Venture and Enviro-Gro Technologies.Both companies have to find financing for the projects, which must be fully operational within three years. The plants are estimated to cost $33 million each.